Hares Youssef (born 1964) is a businessman,

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, writer and technology investor. He was one of former Ukrainian President

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. As an informal leader of th ...

's Middle East envoys during Yushchenko's 2005-2010 presidency.

Biography

Youssef was born in

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, in 1964. At the age of 18, he was sent to

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

as a military cadet, fulfilling part of the exchange treaty obligations of military cooperation which at that point were in effect between Syria and the Soviet Union. In 1994 he graduated from the Kyiv State University of Economics and started a business, which eventually spread to various sectors of the economy, in particular, real estate, metallurgy, industrial engineering, and energy. In 1995, most of its industrial and commercial assets were united into a single holding - Hares Group Holding, registered in Austria. In 2004 the company's turnover reached 420 million dollars. In 1999 Hares defended his PhD thesis at the Institute of World Economy and Foreign Affairs of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 2007 President Yushchenko appointed him his envoy and policy adviser for the Middle East. In 2007 Hares entered the top 200 list of the most influential Ukrainians according to the Ukrainian weekly Focus. In 2009, at the age of 45, Hares left most of his business assets in Ukraine and moved to Europe. There he founded two charity foundations
The 40 Foundation
an
Gaiia Foundation
In 2020 Hares published his first boo
Gaiia
The philosophical, futurological novel, which was translated into four languages.

Business

Hares Youssef has numerous links with the Lviv IT industry. He is currently working on the final stages of releasing the ‘Golden Hearts’

virtual currency Virtual currency, or virtual money, is a digital currency that is largely unregulated and issued and usually controlled by its developers and used and accepted electronically among the members of a specific virtual community. In 2014, the Europ ...

Philanthropy

Hares Youssef is a patron of many charities in Ukraine. He is a prominent collector of ancient Near Eastern art and antiquities. His private collection of

Levantine Levantine may refer to: * Anything pertaining to the Levant, the region centered around modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, including any person from the Levant ** Syria (region), corresponding to the modern countries of the Lev ...

antiquities is considered to be one of the most extensive held in private hands. A close friend of the Syrian poet

Adunis Ali Ahmad Said Esber (, North Levantine: ; born 1 January 1930), also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis ( ar, أدونيس ), is a Syrian people, Syrian poet, essayist and translator. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the ...

, he was the publisher of his magazine 'Another' between 2011 and 2013. Over years, Mr. Youssef has been an active supporter of education initiatives under the auspices of the Foundation UNESCO Education for Children in Need. A variety of projects have been established with the support of Hares Youssef, such as the Hares Youssef Boy school http://docdro.id/JK3FV5i and Hares Youssef Girls School. http://docdro.id/auI6MyY His 40 Foundation focuses on supporting science advocacy.

Gaiia Foundation

Gaiia Foundation
is a multi-faceted project, with the final goal of creating a planetary digital platform for ensuring the vital activity of future economic, social, and financial systems. The project’s first phase is the platform for philanthropists, ecological activists and charities to raise funds by creating targeted coins as NFTs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Youssef, Hares Ukrainian businesspeople 1964 births Living people Syrian emigrants People from Latakia