39 Facts About Yuri Milner

Yuri Borisovich Milner is a Soviet-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture capitalist and physicist.

Yuri Milner is a cofounder and former chairperson of internet company Mail.

Yuri Milner's older sister, eight years his senior, is an architect.

Yuri Milner has stated he has not been to Russia since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.

Yuri Milner studied theoretical physics at Moscow State University, graduating in 1985.

Yuri Milner went on to work at Lebedev Physical Institute, one of the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 1990, Yuri Milner became the first non-emigre from the Soviet Union to travel to the United States to receive a Master of Business Administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Yuri Milner started his business career selling gray market DOS computers in the Soviet Union, which displeased his father.

Yuri Milner has described his time at the World Bank as his "lost years", due to watching from afar the privatization of government holdings during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.

In December 1996, Yuri Milner worked as vice president and Head of Investment Management of Menatep Bank.

In February 1997 Yuri Milner was appointed the deputy chairperson and the head of the investment division of Menatep Bank but left this position in early 1998.

In 1999, after reading a review by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker on the prospects for online businesses, Yuri Milner decided to create an Internet company.

Yuri Milner sought funding from his friend from Menatep days Gregory Finger, who at the time led the Russian branch of the US investment fund New Century Holding.

In 2000, Yuri Milner became the president of Netbridge Services Ltd.

From January 2003 to December 2004, Yuri Milner was the CEO of "Neftyanoi", owned by Igor Linshits.

In 2005, NCH shifted its focus from Russian Internet projects and Yuri Milner founded the investment fund Digital Sky Technologies, becoming its chairperson in 2006.

In March 2012, Yuri Milner stepped down from the role of chairperson of Mail.

From May 2009 to January 2012 Yuri Milner was a member of the Commission on Modernization established by Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President from 2008 to 2012.

In January 2009, while in Palo Alto, Yuri Milner became acquainted with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Yuri Milner became the CEO of DST Global and the chairperson of the board of directors of Mail.

In March 2012, Yuri Milner stepped down from the role of chairperson of Mail.

On 5 November 2017, The New York Times reported that Yuri Milner had strong Kremlin backing for his investments in Facebook and Twitter.

Yuri Milner's companies sold these holdings two years before that report was made public however.

Yuri Milner denied this allegation in his open letter published in ReCode.

Yuri Milner has recruited prominent scientists such as Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Steve Horvath, and Shinya Yamanaka.

On 29 January 2018, Yuri Milner's name was included in the United States Treasury Department's "Report to Congress Pursuant to Section 241 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 Regarding Senior Foreign Political Figures and Oligarchs in the Russian Federation and Russian Parastatal Entities", a list of 96 individuals of Russian heritage who "have an estimated net worth of $1 billion or more".

In July 2015, Yuri Milner launched Breakthrough Initiatives, a scientific program to investigate the question of life in the Universe.

Yuri Milner announced the initiatives at the Royal Society in London, alongside Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Frank Drake, Geoff Marcy and Ann Druyan.

Yuri Milner had not visited Russia since the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea, and renounced his Russian citizenship in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yuri Milner has donated millions of dollars on several occasions in support of Ukraine.

Yuri Milner is married to former high fashion model and contemporary artist Julia Yuri Milner.

Yuri Milner is interested in photography: during the 52nd Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art she produced a contribution entitled Click I Hope.

Yuri Milner envisages that the advent of the Internet of things and ever increasing use of social media will increase humans' collective intelligence.

Yuri Milner published some of his ideas on humanity's place in the Universe in a book, Eureka Manifesto: the Mission for Our Civilization.

Yuri Milner is among a list of people named in the Paradise Papers.

On 24 March 2020, Yuri Milner published a fact sheet setting out his and DST Global's relations with Russia.

Yuri Milner was named one of the World's Greatest Leaders by Fortune magazine in March 2017, was listed in the "Titans" category of Time magazine's 2016 Time 100.

Yuri Milner was included in Bloomberg Markets' 2012 50 Most Influential list.

In Fortunes 2010 list of the world's fifty most prominent businessmen, Yuri Milner was ranked 46th.