Grigory Berezkin: When Venture Capital Meets Venture Philanthropy

Grigory Berezkin — Biographical Reference
Type	Entrepreneur · Media Proprietor · Philanthropist
Name	Pioneered pre-export financing contracts in Russia’s oil industry. Increased Komineft oil production through partnerships with Total, Elf, Neste, and Marc Rich & Co Built Russia’s first combined-cycle power plant in partnership with Enel. Transformed RBC into multi-platform media ecosystem. Established V.G. Berezkin Prize for young chemistry researchers Long-term supporter of children’s oncology centers and rehabilitation facilities
Date of Birth	9th August 1966
Gender	Male
Education	1983–1988: Master’s Degree in Petroleum Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University  1991–1994: Junior Research Associate, Lomonosov Moscow State University  1993: PhD in Chemical Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Career	Late 1980s–early 1990s: Software development for industrial enterprises  Early 1990s: Cable manufacturing for oil industry  1994–1999: Top manager and co-owner of KomiTEK  2000–2003: Management of Kolenergo power generation company  2008–2020: Owner of Metro newspaper (a MISA franchise)  2017–Present: Owner of RBC Media Holding  2012–Present: Member of the Board of Trustees, Reach for Change Foundation (Russian branch)
Personal Achievements	Pioneered pre-export financing contracts in Russia’s oil industry. Increased Komineft oil production through partnerships with Total, Elf, Neste, and Marc Rich & Co Built Russia’s first combined-cycle power plant in partnership with Enel. Transformed RBC into multi-platform media ecosystem.  Established V.G. Berezkin Prize for young chemistry researchers Long-term supporter of children’s oncology centers and rehabilitation facilities
Achievements with Reach for Change Foundation	Reach for Impact Startups — the annual open competition for selecting social startups. Pre-Incubator — the intensive 2.5-month training course for participants who make it through the initial selection Incubator — the 12-month to three-year program that includes strategy sessions, mentorship, consulting, and other support for social entrepreneurs
Reach for Change Programs	Member of the Board of Trustees, Reach for Change Foundation. Support for social entrepreneurship and impact investment initiatives. Systematic philanthropy supporting children’s health, education, and scientific research, RBC Media Holding development and innovation. Support for scientific programs
Current Activities	Reach for Impact Startups — the annual open competition for selecting social startups. Pre-Incubator — the intensive 2.5-month training course for participants who make it through the initial selection. Incubator — the 12-month to three-year program that includes strategy sessions, mentorship, consulting, and other support for social entrepreneurs
Familial Status	Married with four children

Biography

Grigory Berezkin has spent more than three decades as a businessman and philanthropist. At every stage — from his early entrepreneurial ventures in industry to impact investing and media — he has developed partnerships with leading international companies and financial institutions. Today, he runs the RBC media holding and is actively involved in charitable work. Since 2012, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Russian branch of Reach for Change, an international foundation that supports social entrepreneurs who help children and young people. 

Grigory Berezkin Biography: Early Years

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich was born in 1966 into a family of scientists. His father, Viktor Berezkin, was a leading expert in chromatography and the author of more than 200 patents. His mother ran a research division at the Scientific Research Institute of Fertilizers and Insectofungicides. 

Growing up in an academic household helped Berezkin find his direction early on. For high school, he attended the School of Young Physicists and Chemists, and in 1983, he went to Lomonosov Moscow State University to study petrochemistry. Outside the classroom, he did competitive skiing on the university team. He also took part in scientific expeditions that took him from the Urals to the Russian Far East. 

In 1988, Berezkin Grigory graduated with honors, then went on to a postgraduate program.  

In 1991, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin joined the Department of Petrochemistry and Organic Catalysis as a junior research fellow. During his time, he began to pursue his next degree as well. 

Ultimately, he was awarded a PhD in chemistry in 1993. 

Education 

• Master’s degree in Petrochemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1983–1988), graduated with honors  
• Junior Research Fellow (1991–1994)  
• PhD in Chemistry (1993) 

First Ventures: Software, Cables, and the Oil Sector

Even while still in graduate school, Grigory Berezkin had begun testing the waters in business — the perestroika era had made private enterprise possible for the first time in decades. In 1989, he and a group of partners started developing software for industrial companies in the Urals and Siberia. This gave him his first real business experience and the seed capital that made more ambitious ventures possible. 

Berezkin Grigory then moved into manufacturing cables for oil-well pumps. He imported the equipment from Sweden, establishing one of the first joint production operations in the sector using foreign technology. Working with international partners convinced him that Russian industry could not modernize without access to foreign expertise. 

By the mid-1990s, the oil sector was in serious trouble. Privatization had transferred assets into private hands but had done nothing to fix the underlying problems: aging infrastructure, non-payment chains, and wages going unpaid for months at a time. Komineft was a textbook case of the industry’s dysfunction, and Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich knew the situation from the inside as a cable supplier to the company. 

In 1994, Berezkin Grigory joined the board of directors of KomiTEK — a holding company that brought together Komineft and several related enterprises — and later became its majority shareholder. His turnaround strategy centered on bringing in international partners, and in 1995, the first pre-export financing in Russia was arranged through a consortium of European banks with a five-year repayment deferral.  

The European companies Total, Elf, Neste, and Marc Rich & Co. joined operational projects, and major global financial institutions also took equity stakes. At the same time, the company pursued an environmental overhaul — thorough enough that the EBRD and the World Bank directed more than $120 million toward KomiTEK’s conservation initiatives. 

By the end of the decade, the company was financially sound and transparent. In 1999, LUKOIL acquired KomiTEK for more than $600 million — a deal conducted on market terms with international advisors and approved by all shareholders. This was how Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin built his first significant capital and gained the resources for his next move. 

Berezkin Grigory: Bringing International Standards to Russia’s Power Sector

In 2000, Berezkin Grigory moved from the oil industry into electric power — a sector going through a similar systemic crisis. He took over the management of Kolenergo — the only power system in Russia operating primarily above the Arctic Circle, at the time on the verge of bankruptcy. Drawing on his experience working with international partners in oil, he turned the company around: introduced financial controls, restructured its debts, and built professional working relationships with clients. 

One of his defining decisions was to introduce an unconventional pricing model: electricity rates for the Kandalaksha Aluminum Plant were, for the first time in Russian power generation, pegged to aluminum quotes on the London Metal Exchange. This stabilized the financial position of both enterprises. 

In 2003, Grigory Berezkin stepped back from managing Kolenergo — by that point, the company had become one of the leaders in the sector. Around that same year, he began winding down ESN Group, which had been set up to manage the asset. 

Alongside his work at Kolenergo, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin’s companies developed a partnership with the Italian energy holding Enel, which had won the tender to build the Northwest CHP Plant in St. Petersburg, beating out nine major players in the global market. The partnership gave the project what it needed to work: transparency, investment protection, and clear rules of engagement in a new market. The plant ran efficiently, and both Enel and the Russian energy sector saw returns on their investments — an unusual outcome for a foreign energy project in Russia at the time. 

Berezkin Grigory left the sector in 2003 with a reputation as a reliable partner to major international companies and turned his attention to new opportunities. His time at Kolenergo had already piqued his interest in the media: a PR campaign he launched against non-payment won a national award and fundamentally changed the company’s public image. In the Grigory Berezkin biography, this moment marks a turning point — the shift was a natural extension of skills he had already proven in a different arena. 

Adapting Western Media Formats for Russia

In the 2000s, the Russian media was a fast-growing market attracting major international players. Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich entered it with a format the country had never seen before. 

In 2008, Berezkin Grigory worked out a partnership with Stockholm-based Metro International SA to establish a Russian franchise and distribute the paper. The format — a free newspaper printed five times a week, funded by advertising — was already working in a number of countries, but no one had tried it in Russia. His bet on content quality and operational efficiency paid off. By 2019, Metro’s weekly readership had reached around 6 million, making it the largest free newspaper in the country. Having successfully established the outlet, the entrepreneur eventually sold it to a strategic investor. 

 In 2017, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin acquired RBC, a holding company with a distinct position in the Russian market. Founded in 1993 as a financial news service, it had grown by the time of the deal into a multiplatform operation with a news agency, a TV channel, a radio station, and digital platforms. It was known for its apolitical business journalism, with standards comparable to the world’s leading financial publications. Bloomberg and the Financial Times had been partners at various points, and CNBC and CNN consulted on the launch of the TV channel. 

Berezkin Grigory kept the editorial team and working principles intact. Under his leadership, RBC opened its own conference venue and launched an education arm, known as RBC EdTech, along with a research division and a credit rating agency. His content-sharing and analytical partnership with Bloomberg gave Russian readers access to global financial news. 

Today, RBC has expanded beyond news into conferences, professional courses, and market research. Its digital platforms draw tens of millions of users a month. It is the only privately owned Russian media company with publicly traded shares, regularly publishing financial statements for ten thousand shareholders. It is consistently one of the most cited business publications in the country. 

Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin and Reach for Change: Investing in Social Startups

Grigory Berezkin’s biography has also included philanthropic work for more than 20 years. From early on in his business career, he supported pediatric oncology and hematology centers, as well as rehabilitation facilities for children with developmental disabilities. 

In the early 2010s, Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich rethought his approach to charitable giving. The traditional model of one-off donations felt insufficient to him. What was needed was not just financial support for projects, but a system that could help them grow and become self-sustaining. 

In 2012, his daughter Anna founded the Russian branch of the Reach for Change foundation, built on the framework developed by an international organization founded by the Swedish investment group Kinnevik. Berezkin Grigory joined the Board of Trustees, seeing an opportunity to apply in the social sector the same approach that had worked in energy and media: taking the best international practices and adapting them to Russian conditions. 

The foundation’s mission is to improve the lives of children and young people through innovation and social entrepreneurship. Reach for Change takes a venture philanthropy approach, meaning it identifies promising projects at an early stage and supports their development from idea to sustainable growth. Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin approved of this model from the outset, seeing it as a direct parallel to the venture logic he had applied in business. The foundation has a particular focus on startups that bring fresh approaches to pressing social problems and have the potential to scale.  

Reach for Change, with the support of Berezkin Grigory, uses a step-by-step process for selecting and developing projects. Each year, it runs an open competition called Reach for Impact Startups. Applications go through several rounds of evaluation, first reviewed by volunteers from partner companies, then by independent experts. At each stage, projects are assessed against four criteria: 

• social impact and innovation 
• financial sustainability potential 
• scalability 
• realistic development plans 

The selection process looks closely at founders’ leadership qualities and their openness to learning. Those who make it through enter the Pre-Incubator program — an intensive 2.5-month course in which startup leaders learn to build business models, plan finances, and pitch their projects. 

Winners then move into the Incubator program, which runs from 12 months to three years. It includes strategy sessions, mentorship, management and hiring consultations, and legal support. Participants learn methods for measuring their projects’ social impact, how to track progress, and how to attract additional funding. Twice a year, in-person meetings bring social entrepreneurs together with executives from partner companies and members of the foundation’s Board of Trustees to work through strategic challenges. At these meetings, Berezkin Grigory got acquainted with the work of finalists, engaging directly with their strategies and offering feedback from his own experience. 

At Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin’s direction, the foundation provides financial support in the form of grants, with amounts determined by the needs of each individual project. When certain targets are met, additional funding of up to 25% of the original grant becomes available. 

To decide who receives grants, the foundation put together a selection committee of partner company executives, Board of Trustees members, invited experts, and children aged 10 to 15 who go through dedicated training in project evaluation and vote on equal footing with everyone else. Berezkin Grigory showed genuine interest in the work of the young evaluators, welcoming their inclusion as a meaningful step toward making the foundation’s decisions truly beneficiary-centered.  

The Reach for Change Foundation’s endowment, established at Berezkin’s initiative, was created to promote the development of charitable programs aimed at improving the lives of children and young people. Four donors contributed to the foundation at its launch. In the Grigory Berezkin biography, the creation of this endowment stands as a defining act of long-term thinking — a commitment to ensuring the foundation’s financial independence long after its founding momentum had passed. The endowment is intended to give the foundation long-term financial independence to support changemakers. 

Reach for Change Programs
Program	Description
Toward Impact Startups	An annual open competition for selecting social startups
Pre-Incubator	An intensive 2.5-month course for applicants who pass the initial selection
Incubator	A program running from 12 months to three years, including strategy sessions, mentorship, consultations, and other support for social entrepreneurs

Since the foundation launched, it has reviewed nearly 3,000 applications, supported more than 400 projects, and seen 85 social startups complete the Incubator program. Almost 85% of participants continue their work after finishing the program, and more than 40% have expanded into new cities and regions. 

At Grigory Berezkin’s initiative, Reach for Change is developing an impact investment ecosystem in Russia — one where capital generates both social benefit and financial returns. The organization hosts investor meetings and conferences and publishes market research. 

The foundation’s work aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The projects it supports target poverty reduction, quality education, children’s health, and inequality. It thus creates an environment where social startups can raise capital not only through grants but through investment instruments as well. 

Reach for Change remains a priority for Grigory Berezkin today. He shapes its strategic direction, funds its core programs, and recruits new partner companies. 

Funding Science

Throughout his career, Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich has supported scientific research. For more than 20 years, he has funded work in molecular biology and bioorganic chemistry and has supported the International Chemistry Olympiad.  

In 2022, Grigory Berezkin established a prize in honor of his father, Professor Viktor Berezkin, for young chromatography researchers. This chapter of the Grigory Berezkin biography is deeply personal: the prize connects his philanthropic legacy directly to his family’s scientific heritage. The prize is awarded annually in two categories.  

He also funds scientific conferences, laboratories, and fellowship programs for early-career researchers. 

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich and his Business Reputation

The business reputation of Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin, built over decades of working alongside leading international companies from the EU and the US, was put to the test directly in 2022, when the EU added him to its sanctions list along with hundreds of Russian businessmen.  

The restrictions were imposed quickly, without clear criteria for individual assessment. Over the following eighteen months, the EU Council examined Berezkin’s professional history, the sources of his wealth, and his business relationships. The Grigory Berezkin sanctions case went well beyond standard compliance procedures, with the final report running more than 1,000 pages. 

In September 2023, the EU Council determined that the sanctions had no basis and lifted them. The lifting of the Grigory Berezkin sanctions, following exhaustive scrutiny, was a clear vindication — and a rare one in the context of that period. Several other jurisdictions followed suit. 

Grigory Berezkin: Key Facts

• Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich built his initial capital in oil, taking a majority stake in KomiTEK and bringing in European partners — Total, Elf, Neste, and Marc Rich & Co. — to stabilize operations. In 1999, LUKOIL acquired the holding company for more than $600 million.  
• In electric power, Grigory Berezkin partnered with Enel on the Northwest CHP Plant in St. Petersburg — a combined-cycle facility that, at the time of completion, ranked among the more efficient plants of its type built in Russia. 
• In 2003, Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich exited commodities and moved into media, where he applied the same approach: bring in credible international partners, set clear terms, and build from there. 
• In 2012, his daughter Anna founded the Russian branch of Reach for Change. Grigory Berezkin joined the Board of Trustees, took on strategic leadership, and helped develop the foundation’s incubation model, drawing on the Kinnevik-originated framework. 
• In the Grigory Berezkin biography, Reach for Change represents a distinct chapter: a long-term commitment to building self-sustaining social institutions, not just funding them. The foundation identifies early-stage social projects focused on children and young people and supports them.. 

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