23 Facts About Vagit Alekperov

Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov is a Russian businessman of Azerbaijani origin and an oligarch.

Vagit Alekperov was the President of the oil company Lukoil from 1993 until 2022.

Vagit Alekperov was born on 1 September 1950, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, one of the earliest centers of the international petroleum industry.

Vagit Alekperov's father, who died when Vagit was a boy, worked in the oilfields all his life and inspired Alekperov to follow in his footsteps.

Vagit Alekperov's father was an Azerbaijani Muslim and his mother, Russian Orthodox.

Vagit Alekperov is religious, but does not define himself as either Muslim or Orthodox.

In 1974, Vagit Alekperov graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute with a Master of Science in Engineering.

Vagit Alekperov moved to Western Siberia in 1979 and worked at Surgutneftegaz between 1979 and 1985, earning his reputation as an industry expert.

Vagit Alekperov was ascending positions and by 1985 became first deputy general director of Bashneft production company.

In 1990, Vagit Alekperov was appointed deputy minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Soviet Union and became the youngest deputy energy minister in Soviet history.

At that time, Vagit Alekperov promoted the establishment of vertically integrated state-owned energy companies, which would bring together the wide range of organizations in the energy sector that were, at the time, reporting to different Soviet bureaucratic institutions.

Rondo Fehlberg, an executive at BP, told NY Times that Vagit Alekperov took control of the agenda during that 1990 trip, sternly asking the BP executives to explain how a modern oil company should be set up.

In 2000, Vagit Alekperov resigned as head of the board of directors of Lukoil, but retained his position as president of the company.

In May 2006 Vagit Alekperov was one of the two main owners of IFD Kapital Group.

In 2018, Vagit Alekperov first said in an interview that he was looking for a successor to his position, a staff reshuffle, he said, could take place at the company in 2023.

Vagit Alekperov is on the 2017 list of Russian "oligarchs" named in the CAATSA unclassified report to the US Congress.

In 2007 Vagit Alekperov founded The Foundation "Our Future" to promote social entrepreneurship in Russia.

Vagit Alekperov has repeatedly stated publicly and has confirmed that, according to his will, his stake in Lukoil will be transferred to a specially created charitable foundation.

Vagit Alekperov donated RUB 50 million of personal finances to fight coronavirus in the Republic of Komi.

Vagit Alekperov was the first Russian citizen who received the Woodrow Wilson Award.

Vagit Alekperov was honored in 2005 for achievements in corporate citizenship.

On 4 May 2022, Vagit Alekperov received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" of the first degree for "great contribution to the development of the fuel and energy complex and many years of diligent work".

Vagit Alekperov is a full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.