Biography of Arkady Volozh
Arkady Yuryevich Volozh - co-founder and head of the Internet giant Yandex, founder of CompTek and head. Department of Data Analysis at the Faculty of Innovation and High Technologies at MIPT, dollar billionaire. In 2020, his fortune was estimated at $1.1 billion, which placed him 85th in the ranking of the richest entrepreneurs in Russia.
In the photo: Arkady Volozh
Childhood
Arkady Volozh was born on February 11, 1964 in the unofficial oil capital of Kazakhstan - the city of Guryev. His mother, Sofya Lvovna, worked at the local music school named after. D. Nurpeisova, instilling in students a love of musical theoretical disciplines. Her brother, the famous violinist Wolf Lvovich Usminsky, also devoted his life to music.
Guryev - Arkady's hometown
Arkady's dad, Yuri Abramovich, after graduating from the Kazakh University named after. S. Kirov was an engineer, petroleum geologist, and subsequently received a doctorate. He was lucky enough to become one of the discoverers of a large oil and gas field in the west of the republic.
When my son was one year old, the family moved to Belarus for some time. In 1968 they returned to Kazakhstan again. Upon his return, Arkady’s father got a job as the head of the seismic exploration field team of the Republican Geophysical Trust, and then went to work at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. Mom began teaching at the Alma-Ata Conservatory.
Arkady Volozh (left) in his school years. In the photo with Ilya Segalovich (in the center)
As a child, Arkady could always stand up for himself, he was a lively, stubborn and persistent child with a very tenacious and pragmatic mind. The father quickly noticed his son's analytical mind and in 1977, after the 7th grade, he enrolled Arkady in the Physics and Mathematics Boarding School named after. O. Zhautykova. Together with the boy, the son of his father’s friend Ilya Segalovich, Volozh’s future business partner, also moved to this educational institution for gifted children.
Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich became friends in childhood
After graduating from school in 1981 with a gold medal, the young man, in the company of Ilya, with whom they became friends during 4 years of study, went to enroll in Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University. But based on the results of the entrance exams, not one of them got into this university - there is a version that the guys were not accepted based on their nationality.
Be that as it may, in the end Arkady became a student at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas. I. Gubkin, where medalists were admitted at preferential rates, without exams.
Education
At the age of seven, Arkady Volozh became a student at a special school in Alma-Ata, the main focus of which was an in-depth study of physical and mathematical sciences. Within its walls he met Ilya Segalovich. Their friendship continues to this day and has largely contributed to the subsequent development of Yandex.
In 1981, the hero of the article went to Moscow to get a higher education. His dream was to enter Moscow State University, but his attempt to become a student at such a prestigious university failed. As a result, Volozh began his studies at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas, which he successfully graduated after five years. Having received his diploma in hand, Arkady Yuryevich, as a young and promising specialist, was sent to study issues of processing large volumes of information at the Institute of Management Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the same time, the young man became a graduate student and continued his scientific detail. But at this time, market processes began to actively take place in the country, and cooperatives began to emerge. It was these organizations that played a key role in the future life of the Russian.
Carier start
In 1986, the young specialist graduated from the institute with honors and was assigned to the capital's Research Institute for Pipeline Construction.
Later he worked at the academic Institute of Management Problems. V. Trapeznikov on technologies for working with data arrays. In the late 1980s, Arkady began to take his first steps in the nascent business in the USSR and became the general director of the Magister computer cooperative, which was engaged in sending seeds to Austria in exchange for PCs and software and later grew into the CompTek enterprise.
In the late 1980s, Arkady began to take his first steps in the emerging business in the USSR
An aspiring businessman, who had recently supported his family on an engineer’s salary of 115 rubles, then managed to buy himself two PCs, sell them and immediately buy an apartment with the proceeds.
At the same time, Volozh was engaged in programming and, together with a specialist in computer linguistics Arkady Borovsky, discovered what led to the creation of Yandex in 1997.
Arkady Volozh: “When you run for a long time, you want to take a break”
On the way to success
In 1988, Arkady Yuryevich Volozh was at the origins of the creation of cooperatives, after his research institute received the corresponding order. And just a year later, the man began working in a company that supplied seeds to Austria on the basis of barter exchange: Europeans sent personal computers in return. Arkady's area of responsibility included technical support for the reorganization of these computers, namely, the formation of the resulting PCs into automation systems at industrial enterprises. Instead of writing a dissertation, Volozh immersed himself in studying English, without knowledge of which it was simply impossible to communicate with Western commercial partners.
By the way, during his work at the cooperative, Volozh earned himself two computers. A little later, he sold them and used the proceeds to buy an apartment in Moscow.
Creation of Yandex
It all started with the cooperation of Arcadia with the Research Institute of Patent Information, which ordered a search program using a classifier of copyright certificates for inventions. At the same time, Arkady accidentally met his childhood friend Ilya Segalovich, who became involved in the development of information retrieval tasks. With the spread of the Internet in Russia, resourceful programmers began developing a search engine. Volozh and Segalovich were joined by Mikhail Maslov, Leonid Brovkin, and the famous professor Yuri Apresyan provided linguistic assistance.
The first Yandex team to work on search algorithms
Search using indexing in the system they created was organized according to a completely new principle, with morphology, and after the creation of the next software product, the phrase “yet another indexer” or its short version “yandex” was used. This is where the name of the main Runet search engine, which became a brand, arose. At Volozh’s suggestion, they replaced the initial English letters with our “I”, receiving the exclusive “Yandex”. Within 2 years, the search site was among the Top 7 popular domestic resources.
At Volozh’s suggestion, they replaced the initial English letters with our “I”, receiving the exclusive “Yandex”
During the same period, the already eminent IT specialist was the head of the Committee of Wireless Networks for Access to Information Resources, where he dealt with the implementation of IP telephone communications in the Russian Federation. In 2000, Volozh became the CEO of Yandex. Under his leadership, in addition to the search service, many Internet portals, popular services and services appeared in the resource, including such as “Money”, “News”, “Goods”, “Poster”, “Market” and “Mail”. Arkady Volozh about startups In 2007, the head of Yandex received the position of head. Department of Data Analysis at the famous Moscow Physics and Technology Institute. In 2010, Kommersant magazine named Volozh the leader in the ranking of the country's executives in the Media Business category.
In 2014, the innovator, who successfully promoted both his project and domestic IT science as a whole, left his post as head of the Russian Yandex, while remaining one of the leaders of the global company.
In 2020, Arkady Volozh and his family received Maltese citizenship
In 2015, he became an investor in the quick delivery service Getir (Turkey) and a startup creating technologies for analyzing brain biocurrents Neurosteer (Israel). In 2020, under the Citizenship in Exchange for Investment program, Arkady Volozh acquired a Maltese passport for himself, his parents and children, investing about €900 thousand in the economy of this island state.
Arkady Volozh appointed a “successor” to manage Yandex
Tigran Khudaverdyan, who previously headed Yandex.Taxi, became managing director of the IT company. The position was opened specifically for him
Arkady Volozh. Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Updated at 14:10
Tigran Khudaverdyan, who previously headed the Yandex.Taxi service, has been appointed managing director of the group. This is stated on the corporation's website.
The position of managing director was created specifically for him: now Khudaverdyan is the only direct subordinate of Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh and the head of the heads of all divisions of the group calls Khudaverdyan “Volozh’s successor,” citing the opinion of the publication’s unnamed interlocutors. Is it possible to interpret the permutations this way? Group analyst Leonid Delitsyn discusses this:
Leonid Delitsyn, group analyst “If we look at Google’s experience, there was a situation when the company’s founders went away to deal with a strategic issue, putting a manager in their place. It can be assumed that in Yandex the situation is somewhat similar: the founder of the company wants to unload and focus more on some other things, other functions, maybe on his other projects. In addition, less significant participation of the founder in the management of the company is generally considered good form. This negatively affects the market value of these companies, because investors think about what will happen to the company, for example, in the event of an illness or divorce of the executive. This is how Jeff Bezos divorced his wife, she received 3% of Amazon, that is, she became one of the major shareholders. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, successful managers need career growth, otherwise they may want to get the first position in some other company. After all, headhunting is constantly going on, these heads are being hunted. Since a figure like Tigran Khudaverdyan became famous thanks to the rapid and rapid development of Yandex.Taxi, who knows, maybe they wanted to invite him to lead some transnational corporation. Therefore, in order for energetic, passionate managers to remain in companies, they need to be promoted.”
Information about Khudaverdyan's appointment was published last night, after trading closed. Yandex shares lost about a percent of their value, although a correction began by midday. Can this be considered a market reaction to the personality of Volozh’s supposed “successor”? President, HSE professor Evgeniy Kogan commented on the news :
— The market reaction is due to the fact that due to the escalation of the conflict between China and the United States, Yandex and all the others are sagging. I think it has very little to do with meaning. It only matters where Mr. Volozh is and what is happening with Yandex globally, but these small movements within global markets, I think, are not so significant.
— As a rule, the market reacts to any movement of the owners of many foreign IT companies. Is this not the case with Yandex?
— For everyone, Yandex is Volozh. Everything else is probably secondary. Maybe I don’t understand something, but I personally think so. And then you realize, there are some iconic figures. In Yandex, as I say again, the iconic figure is Volozh.
Khudaverdyan has been working at Yandex since 2006, under his leadership there were such services as Yandex.Browser and Yandex.Navigator. Arkady Volozh himself, according to Vedomosti, “will concentrate on broader strategic objectives.”
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Personal life of Arkady Volozh
The head of Yandex is married. He started a family while still at the institute, where, together with his wife Irina, he learned the basics of his future profession. Later she received a second education as a family psychologist.
The head of Yandex is married and has three children
Once in an interview, Arkady noted that there were three most pleasant moments in his life - the birth of his children. The first-born Leo was born in 1988. After graduating from the eminent National Research University Higher School of Economics, he worked at Investment Bank, but soon moved to his father’s company, where he was involved in the development of the Yandex.Taxi project and the launch of the Yandex.Master service. Then he decided on his own, outside of Yandex, to develop an express delivery service for fresh products.
Lev - the eldest son of Arkady Volozh
Volozh's youngest children - Anna-Esther, born in 1991, and Timofey, born in 1995 - also chose the path of economists. In addition, the girl, who was one of the best students in her course at HSE, showed a strong desire for creativity. In 2012, she became the winner of the interuniversity competition “ArtHyshka” in the “Video and Animation” category.
Arkady Volozh now
According to Arkady, he is pleased with the results of his Internet company at the end of 2020 - their consolidated revenue increased by 24% compared to the previous period and reached more than 94 billion rubles.
The US Department of the Treasury included Arkady Yuryevich in the so-called “Kremlin list” of persons.
In the same year, the US Department of the Treasury included Arkady Yuryevich in the so-called “Kremlin list” of persons against whom restrictive sanctions may subsequently be imposed. It is worth noting that the list includes all billionaires from the top hundred of Russian Forbes, regardless of their proximity to the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin and Arkady Volozh in Yandex
Creation of Titan
In 1995, after connecting to the World Wide Web - the Internet - Russia needed new technologies, and Arkady Volozh began creating search engines. It was then that his childhood friend Ilya Segalovich joined him, together with whom they founded Yandex. The children met the outstanding academician Yuri Derenikovich Apresyan and received a linguistic dictionary from his hands.
In the new team, Ilya was responsible for writing the search part; Maslov, Teiblyum, Ilyinsky and Brovkin quickly joined his friends.
In 1997, Volozh took another confident step towards success - he purchased three servers, the total capacity of which was 1 GB. All indexed Runet data of that period was placed on them. And in the same year, a technology exhibition dedicated to IP telephony was held, at which the Yandex search engine was officially presented to the public.
In 2000, full-fledged work of the search engine began, and search parameters were expanded. And soon Yandex became a social search engine. Such progress forced Volozh to engage in commercial promotion of his brainchild, and for this he needed sponsors. And even despite the fact that at that time there were only about 2.2 million users in Russia, foreign investors were not afraid to contribute their money to the development of the new market. Arkady Volozh, unlike his colleagues, did not dare to sell his company completely and kept the bulk of the shares in his own hands and the hands of the other founders.
