Subscribe today and get a full year of Mother Jones for just $12. He is best known these day as the owner of the Warner Music Group. Blavatnik also has interests in UC Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer, where he sits on the board. Initially, he moved into Russian investments, just after the fall of communism. Blavatnik has consistently denied any political affiliation with Russia. [33] In 2018, Harvard Medical School announced a $200 million donation from Blavatnik's foundation to sponsor research, investments in data science, and the creation of subsidized lab space for biotech startups. Inexpensive, too! Backing incumbents and the parties in control of both chambers of Congress, Blavatnik seems to be supporting the status quo in Washington. And he has never been charged with a crime. Leonard is married to Emily Appelson, who is an American citizen. Blavatnik, who came to the United States in the late 1970s and now lives mostly in London, is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Business School. He was among the victors in Russia’s so-called “aluminum wars,” the sometimes murderous competition for control of Russian aluminum assets in the early 1990s.
Blavatnik’s businesses have been faulted for questionable practices. There is little evidence that Blavatnik, through his donations, is purposefully advancing Russian interests. In 2010, it was announced that Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation would donate £75 million to the University of Oxford to establish a new school of government. [37] He also donated $1 million to the committee for the inauguration of Donald Trump. As of 2019, Len Blavatnik was ranked 27th in the Forbes 400 list. [51], Blavatnik is a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [39], In 2017, after two senior Trump administration officials went on record as being lobbyists for Blavatnik's Access Industries,[40] Blavatnik was mentioned in investigations led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian donations to the administration. They were very poor at the time. The resulting company, LyondellBasell Industries then became the world's eighth largest chemical company based on net sales. As part of its exit financing, LyondellBasell raised $3.25 billion of first priority debt as well as $2.8 billion through the rights offering jointly underwritten by Access Industries, Apollo Management, and Ares Management. Apart from being a business tycoon, Blavatnik strongly believes in giving back to the needy. Blavatnik, who owns Warner Media, attending the 2018 Grammys with his wife, Emily Appelson. ABC News reported last year that former special counsel Robert Mueller had investigated Blavatnik’s inaugural contributions, along with donations by Vekselberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater, the head of an American venture capital fund that long counted Vekselberg as its chief investor. Together they have four children — two boys and two girls. In addition, he has interests in Tory Burchâs fashion house. Access has long-term holdings in Europe and North and South America. AAR gained a controlling stake in Russian oil company TNK through privatization auctions, then in 2003 sold a 50% stake to British Petroleum to form TNK-BP, one of Russia's largest oil companies, where Blavatnik served on the board of directors. Blavatnik became a U.S. citizen in 1984. [14] On July 20, 2011, an Access affiliate acquired Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion. [13] LyondellBasell stock has increased 103% in value since April 2010. Copyright © 2020 Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. It is also a means by which Blavatnik exports Russian kleptocratic practices to the West.”.
[23] He was an early investor in Rocket Internet and Beats Music, helped finance fashion designer Tory Burch, and in 2013 paid $115 million for wireless spectrum in Norway.
[44], In the Sunday Times Rich List 2015, Blavatnik was listed as the UK's richest person,[45] with a fortune of £16.9 billion. Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. Hence, very little is known about them. He joined Access Industries in 1996 in order to handle the organizationâs activities in Russia. [11] On January 6, 2009, the U.S. operations of LyondellBasell Industries filed for bankruptcy.[12]. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Other signatories include Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant for defense with responsibility for Russia and Ukraine, David Kramer, former assistant secretary of state for democracy, Daria Kaleniuk, a prominent anti-corruption activist in Ukraine, and Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and Russian opposition activist. The familyâs efforts into philanthropy are very recognized all over America. All Rights Reserved. As of May 2020, Blavatnik was the 4th wealthiest man in the United Kingdom. Leonard Blavatnik has two daughters and two sons.
He is also the Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of Access Industries, along with being a director of WMG Acquisition Corp.
Since 2007, the Blavatnik Family Foundation together with the New York Academy of Sciences has supported the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Blavatnik, who came to the United States in the late 1970s and now lives mostly in London, is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Business School. The dispute makes the think tank the latest institution to face criticism for taking money from Blavatnik, a British and American citizen whose fortune stems from privatization of Russian aluminum and other natural resources in the 1990s—now notorious as a corrupt giveaway. He is known as Len Blavatnik in America. Over the next decade, he flourished in his new home: earning a masters in computer science at Columbia and an MBA at Harvard Business School, falling in love with and marrying ", "Music boss Len Blavatnik named as Britain's richest man", "Filipino housekeeper claims Leonard Blavatnik won't hire her because of her ethnicity - Virginia Lim files discrimination suit in U.S.", "Inside Paris's 25th Annual le Bal des Débutantes", "Elizabeth Starling Louis, Julia McCaw et Laila Blavatnik", " Rich List 2015: Kensington property owner Len Blavatnik top with £13.17 BILLION fortune ", "The Meteoric Rise of Billionaire Len Blavatnik", Kremlin-linked Billionaire, Netanyahu Friend Donated to Trump's Private Legal Fund, The New York Academy of Sciences' Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, Economic history of the Russian Federation, The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Len_Blavatnik&oldid=984920161, American businesspeople in the coal industry, American businesspeople in the oil industry, American chemical industry businesspeople, American entertainment industry businesspeople, American people of Russian-Jewish descent, American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, British businesspeople in the coal industry, British businesspeople in the oil industry, British entertainment industry businesspeople, British people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni, Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom, People with acquired American citizenship, Ukrainian emigrants to the United Kingdom, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Articles containing Ukrainian-language text, Articles containing Russian-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2015, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 22 October 2020, at 21:51.