Childhood
German Oskarovich Gref was born in the village of Panfilovo near Pavlodar in 1964. The boy's parents were ethnic Germans exiled from Donbass to Kazakhstan because of their nationality. Herman is the youngest child in the family. The father of the future banker, Oscar Fedorovich, worked as an engineer. And my mother, Emilia Filipovna, worked as an economist in the village council.
When Herman was barely a year and a half old, grief happened in the Gref family - Oscar Fedorovich died. Emilia Filipovna was left alone with three children. Their grandmother provided invaluable assistance in their upbringing. She instilled in her grandchildren neatness, modesty and restraint.
Institute and work
Then German Gref, whose biography, whose personal life will soon be the subject of discussion in many media, entered MGIMO. A year later, the young man was expelled without explanation. Immediately after this, Herman was drafted into the army. The future banker repaid his debt to his homeland in the ranks of the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The army made him a real man. After demobilization, Gref entered Omsk Law University (faculty of Jurisprudence). During his studies, the young man was actively involved in social activities and worked as a Komsomol organizer. This aroused his political interest. Herman graduated from the university with honors and remained there to work as a teacher.
In 1990, the hero of this article entered graduate school. Gref's scientific supervisor was Anatoly Sobchak (former head of St. Petersburg). Later he would become Herman's "godfather" in his political career. Thanks to Sobchak’s recommendation, the future banker got a job in the St. Petersburg city administration. It was there that he met Medvedev, Putin and other famous politicians from Anatoly Alexandrovich’s team.
First steps in career
In many ways, the Leningrad career, which German Gref began to pursue already in 1991, started due to the support of Anatoly Sobchak. The first and only mayor of St. Petersburg himself later said that even as a student Gref demonstrated excellent managerial qualities, which is why he received the position of legal adviser of the first category in the administration of the Petrodvortsovsky district of the city.
Afterwards, rapid career growth began: first, Gref became the head of the City Property Management Committee of the Petrodvortsovsky District, and then - deputy head of the administration. It was during the first periods of work in Leningrad that Gref met future important colleagues from the Government (Gref would be in it already in 2000) - the future chairman of the Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin, political figure Dmitry Kozak and even two future presidents of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.
Secret of success
Gref's main advantage lies in his ability to work, perseverance in acquiring knowledge and achieving his goals. I don’t think it was easy to enter one of the best universities in the country, given that you yourself were born in a deep Kazakh province. But also, analyzing the activities of German Oskarovich in his youth, we can highlight some other factors that made him a successful person and a progressive manager in the field of finance:
- Ability to establish contacts with important people. Sobchak, Medvedev, Putin, Kozak, Kudrin and other Leningrad acquaintances largely contributed to his career advancement;
- Excellent strategic skills. Gref knows how to plan his actions many steps ahead, which makes him an excellent head of Sberbank in the present and made him a successful member of the Government in the past;
- Ability to prioritize. Gref could have devoted himself entirely to his studies after entering graduate school, but he wisely gave preference to working on his future political career;
- Discipline from childhood. The stories about German concentration are largely true, so the traditional upbringing of this people can be called the final secret of German Gref’s success.
Government
The career of the hero of this article began during the years of Perestroika. To formulate the concept of state development of Russia, a special committee was created. Gref headed it. In this position, German Oskarovich distinguished himself by giving promising and accurate economic forecasts. Moreover, he expressed his thoughts without using abstruse terms, which earned him the sympathy of his comrades.
Gref worked as an economic strategist for almost seven years. After this, German Oskarovich’s career began to move toward ascending to the highest political arena of the Russian Federation. In 1998, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Ministry of State Property. After 12 months, the hero of this article was already heading the “Center for Strategic Research”. After Putin's victory in the 2000 presidential elections, he was invited to the post of Minister of Trade and Economy of the Russian Federation.
German Gref
German Oskarovich has held the post of president and chairman of the board of Sberbank of Russia since the fall of 2007, former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and is one of the most famous and highly paid top managers in Russia.
Childhood and school years
Born on February 8, 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Pavlodar region in Kazakhstan, where his family was deported during the war. His father, Oscar Fedorovich, worked as a simple engineer, and his mother, Emilia Filipovna, worked as an economist in the village council. There were three children in the family (Herman is the youngest son), so the parents worked tirelessly. At the age of one and a half years, the boy lost his father, then his grandmother came to the aid of his mother - it was she who instilled in her grandchildren such qualities as restraint and modesty.
He studied well and was distinguished by exemplary behavior. He didn’t particularly like exact sciences, but he enjoyed playing sports and was even captain of the school basketball team.
Education and army years
In 1982, he was drafted into the army, where he served for two years.
After demobilization, he entered the Faculty of Law at Omsk State University. Having received a diploma in jurisprudence in 1990, he entered graduate school at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University.
In 2011, already as the head of Sberbank, he defended his dissertation at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation.
Labor activity
In 1991-1998, he worked at the mayor's office of St. Petersburg, where he worked his way up from legal adviser of the committee for economic development and property of the Petrodvorets administration to vice-governor, chairman of the city property management committee of the city administration.
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Later he met the future Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Center for Strategic Research (CSR), under his leadership, prepared Putin's economic program when he ran for his first presidential term in 2000.
While heading the Center for Social Development, in 1998-2000 he also served as Deputy Minister of State Property.
After Putin's victory in the first presidential elections, he was invited to head the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. In the first half of the 2000s, it was one of the most influential ministries in the government.
In the fall of 2007, he became president and chairman of the board of Sberbank, and Elvira Nabiullina, the current chairman of the Bank of Russia, was appointed to his post at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
Having headed Sberbank, he announced a radical reform aimed at making the bank a modern client-oriented credit organization. He outlined this goal as follows: “We must prove that elephants can dance!”
Hobbies
He enjoys running. Before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he took part in the final leg of the Olympic torch relay.
After joining Sberbank, he obliged top management to visit the corporate gym and swimming pool on Saturdays before meetings and resumed the company’s fading tradition of holding corporate sports and athletics competitions - Sberbankiads.
Family
Currently married for the second time, his wife, Yana, is the founder of the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium, which includes a kindergarten and an elementary school. She is a designer by training.
The couple was remembered for a very beautiful and magnificent wedding ceremony in April 2004, for which the Grand Palace was rented in Peterhof.
He has three children. The eldest son from his first marriage.
Biographies of family members
Yana Vladimirovna (wife)
Born August 5, 1975. Maiden name - Golovina, after her first husband - Glumova. According to Yana herself, she received an economics education and worked in her specialty for some time.
Oleg Germanovich (son)
Born March 20, 1982. In 1999-2002 he studied law at St. Petersburg State University. In 2004, he completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Department of Civil Law.
Evgeny Oskarovich (brother)
Born on September 8, 1952 at the Panfilovsky state farm, Kazakhstan. In 1967, he graduated from an eight-year school and entered the Omsk Motor Transport College, from which he graduated in 1971. Upon returning from the army, he continued his studies and received a higher education at the Siberian Automobile and Highway Institute.
Achievements
Gref worked in this position until 2007. During this time, five prime ministers changed, and German Oskarovich managed to retain his powers. His main achievements were reforming taxation, the electric power industry, as well as lobbying for the program for Russia’s accession to the WTO. Thanks to this, Russia increased its investment rating, receiving the status of a state with a market economy.
In addition to government work, Gref held key positions in several large holdings. He also served on the Board of Directors of Rosneft, Aeroflot and Gazprom.
Sberbank
In 2007, after the resignation of the government, German Gref (the biography and nationality of the statesman is known to almost all economists) completed his ministerial activities. His post was taken by Elvira Nabiullina. And the hero of this article was elected by the Supervisory Board of Sberbank to the position of Chairman of the Board. He occupies it to this day.
At his new place of work, German Gref (biography, nationality of the head of Sberbank is known to many key politicians of the Russian Federation) achieved significant success - the client base expanded globally, the level of service increased. This led to an increase in the organization's net profit by 74%. German Oskarovich also rebranded and introduced technologically advanced, convenient systems for remote service channels, which made the financial institution a leader in Central and Eastern Europe.
Work at Sberbank
to the post of head of the largest bank in Russia in 2007 . His predecessor, Andrey Kazmin, was sent to work at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Post. The ex-minister took over the affairs of the former leader, and on the same day Alla Aleshkina, the first deputy chairman of the board, resigned. After this, the new head began cleaning up personnel. Information appeared in the press that Gref raised the salaries of leading employees in order to motivate them to stay. There was a risk that top managers would leave their posts, as Aleshkina did. In subsequent years, Gref occupied the top positions in the ranking of the highest paid managers according to Forbes.
While holding the post of head of Sberbank, Gref thought about how to improve the level of service. In 2020, under the guise of a disabled person, he visited one of the bank branches and tried to apply for a loan. Special vestments for this event were provided by Gert. The results of the experiment showed that a lot of work needs to be done on the quality of service for people with disabilities.
Many Russians were skeptical about Gref's disguise. In their opinion, it was possible to improve services for people with disabilities without purchasing an expensive suit. Nevertheless, Gref still heads the largest bank in Russia, although the question of the need for his resignation has already been raised in the State Duma.
Personal life
Gref was married twice. He met his first wife at school. Elena Velikanova was the most beautiful girl there. Almost all the boys looked after her. But in the fifth grade, Elena chose Herman. He married Velikanova immediately after graduating from school. A year later, the couple had a son, Oleg.
In fact, early marriages are rarely strong. This is what happened this time too. The relationship between the couple went wrong, and Elena never became the “minister’s wife.” Velikanova still does not share with journalists details about the years spent in marriage.
German Oskarovich did not remain single for long. The banker's next marriage dates back to 2004. Yana Golovina is the second wife of German Gref, her biography is worthy of a separate article. The girl worked as a designer, and she also had an unsuccessful marriage behind her. The wedding ceremony took place in Peterhof (a unique nature reserve). The rental price for the throne room reaches several million rubles.
In 2006, the couple had a daughter, and two years later another one. Today Yana is working on a new project. She is no longer interested in design. The wife of the head of Sberbank threw herself into education. With the help of her husband, she opened a private school, which admits only a select few. Parents and children must come to the interview in tracksuits. A month of education at a private school costs 51 thousand rubles.
Circumstances of personal life
Herman first got married before serving in the Armed Forces. His wife was Elena Velikanova, who studied at the same school as the future government official. When Gref was 18 years old, his first son, Oleg, was born. In 2004, the young man graduated from Moscow State University, then worked at NEO-Center, where he managed a consulting group. Gref’s wife Elena Velikanova can be seen very rarely in photographs - she is a non-public figure.
German Oskarovich married for the second time shortly after his divorce from Elena, which the former spouses formalized in 2004. This time, the happy chosen one of the businessman was Yana Glumova (maiden name - Golovina), who had already been married. The magnificent wedding took place in Peterhof, and this event outraged some deputies. Member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Svetlana Savitskaya appealed to the State Duma Committee on Culture with a demand to find out who gave permission to hold the celebration in the throne room of the reserve.
According to the official, the luxurious wedding ceremony shocked voters, because the minister has a rather modest salary. However, attempts to figure it out were more like a storm in a teacup and ended in nothing.
At the time of the wedding, G. Gref was 40 years old, and his bride, who was raising a 5-year-old son from her first marriage, celebrated her 30th anniversary. It is known that she received an economic education, and at the time she married German Oskarovich, she worked as a designer. In 2006, a girl was born into the family, and 2 years later another one was born. Now both of them study at a non-state school called “Khoroshkola”, located in Khoroshevka. The founder and founder of the educational institution is Yana. There is a kindergarten at Gref’s school, which was attended by the granddaughter of the head of Sberbank of Russia, the daughter of his son from his first marriage.
At various times, information appeared in the news that German Gref was on friendly terms with Vladislav Reznik, the recognized leader of the “blue coalition” in the State Duma. There were also rumors about the orientation of the head of Sberbank himself, but they were not confirmed.
German Oskarovich’s older sister and brother are far from politics. It is known about Elena that after graduating from the pedagogical institute she married sailor Sergei Peredriy, who a few years later became vice-governor of the Primorsky Territory. In 2006, a scandal broke out in the housing and communal services sector of Primorye, after which Sergei Andreevich was forced to resign. Now he holds the post of General Director of Nakhodka BAMR. Shops and shopping centers owned by Sergei Peredriy:
- "Technosophy";
- "Siberia-ceramics";
- "Letur";
- "Geomart".
Evgeniy Oskarovich Gref is a co-owner of shopping centers and chain stores and lives in Omsk. Since January 2007, he has been the head of Technopark LLC, and since May of the same year, he has been the general director of Household Equipment LLC. Herman Gref's son Oleg is the managing partner of Brayne.
Relatives
Oleg is Gref’s son from his first marriage. In 2004 he graduated from Moscow State University. Currently he is vice president of a consulting company (accredited by Sberbank).
Elena Peredriy is the older sister of the hero of this article. After graduating from the Pedagogical Institute, she got married and moved to Nakhodka. She owns a large stake in Primorye Bank. Elena’s daughter, Olga Tyshchenko, is Sberbank’s chief HR specialist.
Evgeniy is Gref's older brother. He does business in Omsk. He is a co-owner of the shopping malls, Geomart, and the Sibir-Ceramics and Technosofia chain stores. In 2008, he received a loan of 500 million rubles from Sberbank. Evgenia's daughter works at.
Tatyana Golovina is the mother of Gref’s wife. Since 2008, he has headed the Rus sanatorium (Gelendzhik), owned by Transneft. All accounts of the medical institution were transferred to Sberbank.
Currently
Now the main credit organization of the country is still headed by Gref German Oskarovich. The banker's biography, parents and a number of other topics relating to his life are regularly discussed in both the Russian and Western press. In 2020, at a meeting of shareholders, his powers were extended for four years.
In June 2020, German Gref (biography, nationality of the former minister is known to all Sberbank employees) took part in the international economic forum. Answering questions from participants, he criticized the government's work. Gref said that the economic crisis is a consequence of poor management. That is, the Cabinet of Ministers is not only incapable of making quick decisions, but also cannot promptly respond to changes in the market situation.
In the same year, 2020, German Gref demonstrated the presence of human qualities. The biography, nationality and activities of the banker are often discussed in economic publications. He came out of the situation connected with the open letter of the writer Samuel Lurie with dignity. The essence of the complaint was that the critic was being treated for cancer in the USA, and in St. Petersburg his daughter was not given his pension by proxy. Gref personally responded to Samuil Aronovich. The banker reassured the writer by informing him that the money had been issued. Also, despite some harshness in the message, German Oskarovich apologized to Lurie. By this act the hero of this article earned universal respect.
Recent activities
In 2020, Gref’s scandalous speech appeared on the Internet. It was made at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Everything that happened on stage was broadcast on the Russia-24 channel. However, Gref apparently forgot about this, saying that he did not consider it necessary to give the general public access to legal information. In his opinion, thinking people pose a danger and even a threat to government circles, which become more difficult to resort to methods of manipulation.
At the moment, the economist intends to optimize the field of mortgage lending, and he is also working on returning to pre-crisis indicators in his work in the lending department.
Scandal 2020
The Gaidar Forum is the place where German Gref distinguished himself with his critical speech. The biography, family and personal life of the financier are constantly discussed in the press. His speech at the famous economic forum was no exception. The head of Sberbank called the Russian Federation a “downshifter country”, located in the abyss and technologically enslaved by other advanced countries of the world. There was a sharp reaction from State Duma deputies. They considered Gref's statements derogatory, unpatriotic, and insulting and called on him to voluntarily resign as head of the largest bank in the Russian Federation.
Success in your new position
It is worth noting that in this position Gref achieved noticeable and tangible results. What is most important is that his credit institution has become customer-oriented, significantly expanding the base of its potential depositors and users. In absolute terms, this made it possible to increase profits by 74%. Gref also carried out a large-scale rebranding of his organization; it was after his appointment as the head of Sberbank that technologically advanced and convenient systems of remote service channels appeared. All this has made the financial institution one of the most influential not only in Russia, but also in Central and Eastern Europe.
Certain efforts were made by his team to develop and shape the internal corporate culture of employees. For example, since then, every year Gref has published a list of books that he recommends as mandatory reading for all managers of his organization without exception.
