Leonid Borisovich Boguslavsky is the largest Russian investor. Actively invests in IT companies and the Internet. Head of the international company ru-Net. In 2012, Boguslavsky was recognized as the Forbes investor of the year. And in 2014, the same magazine put him on the 162nd place of the annual rating of the richest businessmen of the Russian Federation. This article will describe a brief biography of the entrepreneur.
early years
Leonid Borisovich Boguslavsky was born in Moscow in 1951. The boy’s father was a scientist engineer Boris Kagan, and his mother was the famous writer Zoya Boguslavskaya. Later, Leonid became the stepson of the poet Andrei Voznesensky.
In 1973, the young man graduated from the Institute of Transport Engineers. The next seventeen years, Boguslavsky was engaged in scientific research at the University of Management Problems. He wrote 3 scientific books, a little over 100 articles, and also became the author of several inventions.
LogoVAZ
In 1989, Boguslavsky Leonid, together with Boris Berezovsky, began to engage in a number of business projects in the LogoVAZ joint venture. The Italian company LogoSystem acted as a partner on the Italian side. And from Sovetskaya - the University of Control Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences and AvtoVAZ. Boguslavsky became a shareholder and deputy general director. First, Leonid Borisovich built a computer business in LogoVAZ, and then he took up a number of other commercial projects. For example, he helped the company LogoSystem to implement technological management systems at AvtoVAZ.
Gazprom"
At the end of 1997, Leonid Boguslavsky (as a representative of PwC) negotiated with this company about system integration and implementation of SAP. The amount of the contract was $ 140 million. In mid-1998, an agreement was reached, and Ram Vyakhirev (Gazprom chairman) signed an agreement with Boguslavsky.
Internet projects
In 1998, interest in the World Wide Web grew significantly. And since Boguslavsky already had good experience in the field of computer networks, PwC added him a leadership function in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. After some time, Leonid Borisovich began to independently invest in various Internet projects. At the end of 1999, the hero of this article met Charlie Ryan (UFG), David Mixer (Rex Capital) and Mike Calvey (Baring Vostok). At that time, these three were planning to create a company that would specialize in investing on the Internet.
Holding ru-net
Boguslavsky Leonid founded it in 2000 with the participation of two funds - UFG and Baring Vostok. ru-Net was the first holding company to invest in Yandex (35% of shares for $ 5.27 million) and Ozon.ru ($ 3 million for a controlling stake). In 2006, all assets (except for the share in the search engine) were transferred to ru-Net investors. At the moment, Boguslavsky owns 20% of Ozon.ru.
In 2007, Leonid Borisovich created the ru-Net II fund. The company has become an investor in such projects as “iConText” (contextual advertising), “MobileDirect” (mobile advertising), “Aimobilko” (selling digital content) and “Digital Access” (streaming video from ivi.ru). The hero of this article is also among the shareholders of the Biglion coupon service and has a small stake in the Mail.ru Group.
Own company
In 2006, Leonid Boguslavsky, whose family is described below, founded his company under the name ru-Net Limited. Immediately after that, negotiations began with startups Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki. But no agreements were reached. But Leonid Borisovich invested in HeadHunter and iConText.
In 2007, the entrepreneur met Alisher Usmanov. The latter asked Boguslavsky to develop an investment strategy for him. A year later, Leonid Borisovich introduced Usmanov to Yuri Milner.
Leaving Yandex
In 2008, Boguslavsky left the Board of Directors of this company. This happened because the businessman began to invest in companies that could potentially create a conflict of interest with the search engine. The entrepreneur also bought the Digital Akcess company from Leonard Blavatnik, creating on its basis, together with Oleg Tumanov, the largest online movie theater ivi.ru in Russia.
international market
In 2011, Boguslavsky Leonid significantly expanded the scope of his activities. He began to actively invest in international markets. For these purposes, the businessman created a subsidiary of ru-Net in the USA.
Family and hobbies
Leonid Boguslavsky, whose biography is presented above, is married. The investor has three children. In his free time, the entrepreneur enjoys extreme travel, kite surfing and skiing. Leonid is also involved in charity work and actively supports our poets.
In 2013, Boguslavsky was seriously carried away by the triathlon and took part in the Ironman competitions. In just six months of training, Leonid Borisovich has gone from a beginner to a prize podium. Well, after another 1.5 years, the investor qualified for the World Cup, which was held in Hawaii. In early 2016, Boguslavsky founded the Angry Boys Sport commercial club. The main focus of his activity was the preparation of Russian amateur athletes for standard triathlon and other long-distance competitions (cyclic).