Michel Litvak (born August 1951) is a Belgian businessman who made his fortune in commodity logistics. He is the founder and chairman of

Bold Films Bold Films is an American independent film, television and live stage development, production and finance company. Bold was founded in 2004. Bold's first three films were ''Slingshot'', ''Come Early Morning'' and ''Mini's First Time''. In 2006 t ...

. The Russian actress Svetlana Metkina is his life partner.

Early life

Litvak was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1951. Both of Litvak's parents were

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

. His mother survived the siege of the city during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, while his father was one of the few in his large family to survive the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. The Litvak family left the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

via

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, settling in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in 1962.

Career

Businessman

While in Belgium in 1974, Litvak managed secured financing to start his first business venture - a chain of medical laboratories. In parallel, he became a

commodity trader A trader is a person, firm, or entity in finance who buys and sells financial instruments, such as forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives, and mutual funds in the capacity of agent, hedger, arbitrageur, or speculator. ...

. In 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Michel Litvak moved back to Russia and settled in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Litvak began by building up consumer goods trading activity between

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and his became the largest business of its kind for several years. He later pioneered a new private industry in Russia, being the first to offer Russian energy companies transportation and logistics outsourcing services. His company, OTEKO Group, became the leader in this field, and, over time, owned the largest fleet of rail tankers.

OTЭKO

In 2000 Litvak began acquiring vast plots of land suitable for a deep sea harbor by the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. In 2004, OTEKO started building its harbor in Taman. It was a hugely complex engineering program, which today is one of Russia’s largest private investment projects. The project, from its inception, never received public funding in any form whatsoever. Following its massive private investment, in 2012 OTEKO opened its energy terminal; in 2019 it opened its dry bulk terminal, and plans to open a grain and dry bulk cargo terminal are in progress. On July 4, 2019, The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya honored Litvak for his contributions to society.

Bold films

Litvak established

, a Hollywood film production company that has produced several notable movies over the years such as ''

Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a constabl ...

'', ''

Drive Drive or The Drive may refer to: Motoring * Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle * Road trip, a journey on roads Roadways Roadways called "drives" may include: * Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive" ...

'', '' Nightcrawler'', and ''

Whiplash Whiplash may refer to: * The long flexible part of a whip * Whiplash (medicine), a neck injury ** Whiplash Injury Protection System (WHIPS), in automobiles Film and television * ''Whiplash'' (1948 film), a US film noir about a boxer * ''Whiplas ...

'', which was nominated for five Academy Awards and won three (see below).

Notable feature films

*''Bobby'' (2006) *''Legion'' (2010) *''Drive'' (2011) *''Whiplash'' (2014)

Whiplash (2014 film) ''Whiplash'' is a 2014 American independent psychological drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, and starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Paul Reiser and Melissa Benoist. The film follows the ambitious music student and jazz drum ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Litvak, Michel 1951 births Living people Belgian film producers Belgian businesspeople Belgian Jews Russian businesspeople Russian Jews American independent film production company founders American Jews Businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople in transport