Alexei Mordashov — businessman with roots in the USSR
Alexei Mordashov is a Russian billionaire who built Severstal — one of the world's most efficient integrated steel companies — and was for years the largest shareholder of TUI Group, one of the world's biggest travel and tourism companies. Currently Russia's wealthiest individual on many lists with a fortune of $25+ billion.
Tracing the roots — Cherepovets (Russia)
Born in Cherepovets in 1965 — a Vologda Oblast steel city — Mordashov worked his way up from the Cherepovets metallurgical plant's finance department to full ownership. His TUI shareholding — connecting Russian steel money to European mass tourism — was one of the most tangible examples of Russian oligarch capital embedded in European consumer industry before 2022.
Cherepovets (Russia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.