| Oleg Deripaska | |
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| Born | Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska 2 January 1968 Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russian SFSR |
| Residence | Moscow, Russia |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University, Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics |
| Occupation | Chairman of Supervisory Board of Basic Element Company |
| Net worth |  US$5.4 billion (February 2017) |
| Spouse(s) | Polina Deripaska (née Yumasheva) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
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| Website | Basic Element, Oleg Deripaska |
Order of Alexander Nevsky
Order of FriendshipOleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (Russian: Оле́г Влади́мирович Дерипа́ска; born 2 January 1968) is founder and owner of one of the largest Russian industrial groups Basic Element company, President of En+ Group and United Company RUSAL, the second largest aluminium company in the world.
He is now considered to be among the richest men in Russia, with an estimated net worth of US$5.4 billion as of April 2017.
This is thanks to his stakes in several companies and industries such as, energy, machinery, financial services and agribusiness.
Education and early career
Deripaska was born in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and grew up in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
Deripaska was raised on the family’s small farm, where from the age of 5 or 6 his grandparents instructed him to learn everything about the land to survive. Deripaska credits his grandparents for teaching him the discipline of hard work.
“They taught [him] the details of farming, including when and how to plant, grow and harvest”.
Both his grandfathers fought in the Second World War, one was killed in battle and buried in a mass grave in Austria, the other returned to Russia after the war ended. Deripaska’s first job was at the Ust-Labinsk plant where his mother worked. At age 11, he became an electrician’s apprentice doing maintenance on electrical motors. Deripaska acquired a passion for reading; his favorite authors were Mayne Reid and Jack London. Today, Basic Element’s headquarters contain walls of books, reflecting Deripaska’s lifelong love of reading. His talent for math allowed him to enroll at the physics faculty of Moscow State University in 1985. One year into his studies, he was conscripted into the armed forces and served in the Soviet army’s Strategic Missile Forces in the Trans-Baikal area, Siberia, from 1986–1989.
In 1993, Deripaska graduated with honors in physics from Moscow State University. After graduation from Moscow State University, the collapse of the Soviet Union eliminated academic funding and made it impossible for Deripaska continue to his studies as a theoretical physicist. There were no stipends or grants for students either. “We had no money. It was an urgent and practical question every day. How do I earn money to buy food and keep studying?” he recalls.
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