Evgeny Markovich Shvidler (russian: Евгений Маркович Швидлер; born 23 March 1964), also known as Eugene Shvidler, is a Soviet-born billionaire oil businessman. He made his fortune during the privatization of Russian industry. As of October 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$1.9 billion. Shvidler was sanctioned by the British government in March 2022 in the wake of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Early life

Shvidler was born in

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, Soviet Union (now Russia), into a Jewish family. His father is Soviet geologist Mark Iosifovich Shvidler. He received a degree in mathematics from the Gubkin Institute of Petrochemicals and Natural Gas and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Fordham University.

Career

Early in his career he worked for

Deloitte & Touche Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

in New York and became a U.S. citizen. He later returned to Russia, where he teamed up with

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (, ; he, רומן ארקדיביץ' אברמוביץ'; born 24 October 1966) is a Russian oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the ...

to start the oil trading outfit Runicom S.A. In 1995, the men partnered to gain control of oil giant

Sibneft Gazprom Neft (russian: Газпром Нефть; formerly Sibneft, russian: Сибнефть, link=no), is the third largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about ...

"in an auction that some experts," according to the ''Irish Independent'', "suspect of having been rigged";Kennedy, Dominic
Chelsea owner admits billions in bribes
, ''Irish Independent'', 5 July 2008, accessed 27 December 2013. Shvidler joined Sibneft initially as senior Vice President and served as company president from 1998 until October 2005, when Russian state energy company Gazprom acquired Sibneft. For most of his tenure, Sibneft was Russia's fastest growing oil company in terms of production, and its most profitable in terms of earnings per barrel. Shvidler is chairman of

Millhouse LLC Millhouse Capital is a British registered company. It was created in 2001 to manage assets owned by the Russian businessman Roman Abramovich and his partners. Overview The chairman of the company is Russian-American businessman Eugene Shvid ...

, the investment and asset management company he shares with Abramovich and their partners.

Personal life

Shvidler is married to Zara Shvidler and they have five children. He owns the Château Thénac vineyard in France, a £22 million ($37m) house in

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...

, London, a $14.5 million home in

Snowmass Village, Colorado Snowmass Village is a home rule municipality in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,826 at the 2010 census. A popular winter resort location for skiing and snowboarding, the town is well known as the location of the ...

, and the yacht ''

Le Grand Bleu ''The Big Blue'' (released in some countries under the French title ''Le Grand Bleu'') is a 1988 film in the French ''Cinéma du look'' visual style, made by French director Luc Besson. It is a heavily fictionalized and dramatized story of the ...

''. Shvidler and Abramovich are known to be closely connected and several media reported Shvidler to be a “longstanding business partner” of Abramovich. In 2008, Shvidler and Abramovich purchased three houses in

totaling over $62 million in real estate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shvidler, Eugene 1964 births Living people Russian billionaires American billionaires Russian oligarchs 20th-century American Jews American people of Russian-Jewish descent Gabelli School of Business alumni Russian businesspeople in the oil industry Russian Jews Soviet emigrants to the United States People with acquired American citizenship Russian businesspeople in the United Kingdom Russian businesspeople in the United States 21st-century American Jews