1. Serhiy Oleksiyovych Taruta is a Ukrainian politician and current member of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukrainian businessman, sometimes called an oligarch, founder of Industrial Union of Donbas, former President of FC Metalurh Donetsk, and the former governor of Donetsk Oblast.
Serhiy Taruta was born in Mariupol in 1955 and was a successful cyclist in his youth; he later claimed that he rode an average of 120 kilometres a day.
Serhiy Taruta studied at Pryazovskyi State Technical University before going on to work at the large Ukrainian metal plant, Azovstal.
In 1995, Serhiy Taruta left Azovstal for "Azovintex", a foreign trade company he co-founded.
Between 2001 and 2014, Taruta served as the Chairman of the Board of ISD Corporation.
In 1998 and 2002 Serhiy Taruta was elected a member of the Donetsk Regional City Council for Telmanovsky electoral district, Donetsk Region.
Serhiy Taruta leads the Group for Inter-parliamentary Ties between Ukraine and Germany.
Serhiy Taruta is the Head of the Sub-Committee for Protection of Historic and Cultural Heritage of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Spiritual Affairs.
Serhiy Taruta is the co-chair of the Parliamentary Platform for the Future of Donbass, a body that aims to develop new legislative initiatives to help solve problems related to the reintegration of occupied territories of the region.
Serhiy Taruta is the author of the Three Pillars peace plan for Donbass, and proposed the creation of the Vienna Format for Donbass peace talks.
Serhiy Taruta led the group of developers of Sustainable Development Doctrine Ukraine 2030.
Serhiy Taruta is a founder of the political party "Osnova".
Serhiy Taruta was conferred the Order for the Service to Homeland of III and II degrees, as well as the Order of St Ann, II degree.