Grigory Berezkin: The Businessman Who Chose Social Impact

Type	Entrepreneur · Media Proprietor · Scientist · Philanthropist
First Name	Grigory · Grigorij · Gregory · Григорий · Григорій · 格里戈里 · グリゴリ
Patronymic	Viktorovich · Viktorovič · Викторович · Вікторович
Last Name	Berezkin · Березкин · Берёзкин · Березкін · 别列兹金 · ベレズキン
Date of Birth	8/9/1966
Education	Master’s Degree in Petroleum Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1983-1988) · Junior Research Associate, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1991-1994) · PhD in Chemical Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1993)
Career	Software development for industrial enterprises (late 1980s-early 1990s) · Cable manufacturing for oil industry (1991-1993) · Top manager and co-owner of KomiTEK (1994-1999) · Management of Kolenergo power generation company (2000-2003) · Owner of media assets, including Metro newspaper (2008-2020) and RBC Media Holding (2017-Present)  · Member of the Board of Trustees, Reach for Change Foundation (2012-Present)
Reach for Change Foundation Achievements	Helped foundation become leader in supporting social entrepreneurship for children and youth in Russia · Programs supported tens of thousands of children through full development cycle from idea to scaling · Foundation member of European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) · 84% of graduates continue their projects and 41% scaled to new regions
Current Activities	Member of 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 · Support for scientific programs · RBC Media Holding development and innovation
Marital Status	Married
Children	4 children: 3 daughters, 1 son
Hobbies	Alpine skiing · Water sports and waterskiing · Rally racing

Biography of Grigory Berezkin

Grigory Berezkin has dedicated the past thirteen years primarily to social entrepreneurship through the Reach for Change Foundation, which supports innovative projects addressing children’s welfare across Russia. This focus on social impact follows two decades of building businesses by applying international management standards to underperforming but promising assets — first in oil, then in electric power, then in media, where he remains the driving force behind one of Russia’s most respected independent business outlets.

Names

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich · Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin · Grigory Berezkin · Berezkin Grigory · Beryozkin Grigory Viktorovich · Berjoskin Grigori Wiktorowitsch · Berezkine Grigori Viktorovitch · Berezkin G.V. · G. Berezkin · Березкин Григорий Викторович · Григорий Викторович Березкин · Березкин Григорий · Григорий Березкин · БЕРЕЗКИН Григорий Викторович · Березкин Г.В. · Г.В. Березкин · Grigoriy Berezkin · Grigorij Berezkin · Grigori Berezkin · Berezkin Grigoriy · Berezkin Grigori · Berezkin Grigorij · Gregory Berezkin · Beriozkin Grigory · Beryezkin Grigory · Березкін Григорій Вікторович · Hryhorii Berezkin · Berezkin Hryhorii Viktorovych

Berezkin Grigory: Education, Science, and the Turn to Business

Grigory Berezkin was born on August 9, 1966. Both his parents built their careers in academic science. His father, Viktor, was a chemist whose research on chromatography was cited internationally. Grigory’s mother, Lyudmila, headed a research division at the Research Institute for Fertilizers and Insectofungicides, one of Russia’s leading centers for agricultural chemistry.

In 1983, he entered the Faculty of Chemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University, specializing in petrochemistry. The future of the Grigory Berezkin biography began here, in the university’s chemistry department, where field expeditions to the Urals, Kamchatka, and the Far East took him through some of the most resource-intensive industrial regions in the country alongside formal study.

In 1988, Berezkin Grigory graduated with honors and earned his PhD in petrochemistry in 1993. His academic and business careers began at almost the same time. While he was still working on his thesis, perestroika was dismantling the Soviet command economy.

In 1989, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin co-founded a software company building automation systems for oil refineries across the Urals and Siberia. The work took him deep inside these facilities, and what he found there was a problem more urgent than the lack of automation: refineries could not source the specialized cables their pump systems required. He imported production equipment from Sweden, arranged a manufacturing partnership with a factory in Tomsk, and set up Russia’s first plant for producing and recycling oil pump cables.

KomiTEK: Turnaround Through Global Partnerships

In 1994, Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich joined the senior management of KomiTEK PJSC — consolidating Komineft, the Ukhta Oil Refinery, and two sales organizations — and eventually acquired a majority stake. Komineft was Russia’s eighth-largest oil producer, but months of unpaid wages, unsettled invoices, and falling output told the real story.

The turnaround came down to one idea: the expertise needed did not exist in Russia, so it had to come from outside. France’s Total and Elf introduced hydrocarbon exploration methods that Russian companies had not been using; Finland’s Neste and Switzerland’s Marc Rich & Co. (subsequently Glencore) entered joint ventures to develop both new fields and those previously written off. As the operational picture improved, investors followed: Credit Suisse First Boston and Brunswick Securities came in as shareholders, with Swiss Bank Corporation taking the second-largest stake.

In 1995, Berezkin Grigory structured Russia’s first pre-export financing deal with a European banking consortium — a loan secured against future oil deliveries, with a five-year grace period before repayments began. That same year, the EBRD and the World Bank committed more than $120 million to KomiTEK’s environmental modernization.

In 1999, Lukoil acquired KomiTEK for over $600 million at full market value. It was Grigory Berezkin’s first major capital event, earned through the management model he had built from scratch.

The proceeds gave him the freedom to look further afield — the Grigory Berezkin biography in this period is defined by an expanding range of interests.

Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin: Applying Market Principles to Arctic Power

In 2000, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin took on the management of Kolenergo — Russia’s only power system running almost entirely above the Arctic Circle. Few utilities presented a harder starting point: customers were not paying their bills, and the infrastructure had been starved of investment for years. That same year, the ESN Group management company was established to oversee the project.

Berezkin Grigory moved electricity pricing to a market basis, introduced financial controls, and restructured the company’s debt. A contract with the Kandalaksha aluminum plant tied its electricity tariffs directly to aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange — the first such mechanism in the post-Soviet power sector. A public campaign, Bring Light and Heat to Your Home, reframed bill payment as a civic cause. Collection rates improved, and the campaign won a national media award. A new transmission line connected Kolenergo to Finland and Norway, and for the first time, Russian electricity was traded on Nord Pool, Europe’s largest power exchange.

In parallel, the holding of Berezkin Grigory formed a joint venture with the Italian company Enel — one of Europe’s largest utilities. Their flagship project was Russia’s first combined-cycle power plant at the Northwest Power Plant in St. Petersburg. Using Siemens gas turbines, the facility converted approximately 60% of fuel into electricity against 40% for conventional plants, giving it a fuel efficiency that few European plants matched at the time.

In 2003, Grigory Berezkin concluded his energy sector work. The process of winding down ESN Group began, and the company was gradually dissolved over the years that followed. In the Grigory Berezkin biography, this moment marks a turning point — the shift from energy to to other business areas.

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich also developed relations with Italy in the cultural sphere. He sponsored Russia’s first dedicated Titian exhibition, bringing Renaissance masterpieces from nine Italian cities to Moscow, many of which had never previously left Italy. The Italian Republic recognized his contribution with two state honors: Commander of the Order of Merit in 2013, and Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy in 2020.

Metro and RBC: Building Russia’s Independent Business Media

Media was new ground for Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin, but his approach followed a familiar logic: identify a fast-growing market, find an international model worth importing, and move into a niche no one had yet claimed. His communications work during his energy years had shown him firsthand what the media business could do.

In 2008, Berezkin Grigory secured distribution rights to the Russian version of the Swedish Metro International network, which was published five times a week, and signed a franchise agreement with MISA. The paper was relaunched in Moscow as part of the global brand. By 2019, weekly circulation had reached approximately six million — the highest of any free newspaper in Russia by that measure. With the business established, Grigory Berezkin sold it to a strategic investor.

RBC presented a different set of challenges. Founded in 1993, it had grown from a financial news wire into a multi-platform holding with a news agency and television channel, with digital products added over time. Its journalism covered markets, companies, and economic policy without political alignment. Financial press observers drew comparisons to Bloomberg and the Financial Times. RBC was also the only privately owned Russian media company with publicly traded shares, publishing financial statements that gave its thousands of shareholders a clear view of the business.

After acquiring a controlling stake, Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich kept out of the newsroom and let the existing team continue its work. Over time, the events division expanded and gained a dedicated venue; RBC EdTech was launched to serve professional education in business and technology; the group also developed research and credit rating products. RBC had moved well beyond news.

Reach for Change: A Venture Model for Social Impact

Berezkin Grigory came to social entrepreneurship through years of supporting children’s health organizations and a growing conviction that one-off grants, however large, rarely changed anything structurally. This chapter of the Grigory Berezkin biography began in 2012, when his daughter Anna founded the Russian branch of Reach for Change, an international foundation set up by Sweden’s Kinnevik Group, and Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin joined its Board of Trustees. His logic was the same as in business: back the talented people, give them what they need, and measure what happens.

The Reach for Change Foundation’s endowment, established at Grigory Berezkin’s initiative, was created to promote the development of charitable programs aimed at improving the lives of children and young people. The endowment is intended to give the foundation long-term financial independence to support changemakers.

The foundation selects social entrepreneurs through a six-month process. Semifinalists begin with a two-month Pre-Incubator covering business model development, financial planning, and investor presentation skills. Those who advance enter the Incubator — a one-to-three-year program tailored to each project’s stage, with regular mentoring, structured planning, and impact tracking.

Major events in the history of the foundation include:

• In 2015, the Russian branch became fully independent. At the initiative of Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich, the foundation built an endowment — seeded by four founding donors — as a base that does not fluctuate with annual fundraising.
• In 2019, Reach for Change joined the European Venture Philanthropy Association, which brings together more than 300 organizations across 30 countries.
• In 2020, it partnered with Collaborate for Impact on social investment development across Eastern Europe and received Gold Standard recognition for its UN SDG reporting.

That same year the foundation launched Reach for Impact Investments — six months, six mentorship modules, focused on getting entrepreneurs ready to close deals with investors. One in five participants has gone on to secure impact investment.

The 2025 competition drew 297 applications from 63 regions. Winners included a platform for parents of children with complex needs, a youth career service, joystick equipment for children with limited hand mobility, early intervention centers, and an inclusive theatre project. All twelve then entered the acceleration program.

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

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich: Supporting Children’s Health and Scientific Research

Beyond Reach for Change, Grigory Berezkin has built up a wider set of philanthropic commitments over the course of more than two decades. In children’s healthcare, he has supported the Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Centre of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology for over 20 years, and the Speransky Hospital Fund supporting Russia’s largest burn center, which treats approximately 2,500 severely injured children annually.

For more than 15 years, Berezkin Grigory has backed Heal Together for children with serious blood diseases. He also supports the Lighthouse Hospice, the Centre for Curative Pedagogics, Joy of Old Age (since 2012), Open Heart, and the Everyone is Special program for people with autism and developmental disabilities.

Charitable Activities 

• Member of Board of Trustees, Reach for Change Foundation supporting social entrepreneurship for children and youth 
• Long-term supporter of children’s medical institutions including a children’s oncology center, House with a Lighthouse children’s hospice, Children’s Hospital Fund (pediatric burn center), We Treat Together Fund (blood diseases), and Science for Children Fund (hematology, oncology, immunology research) 
• Supports rehabilitation and care organizations including Center for Curative Pedagogy, Everyone is Special Foundation (autism and mental disabilities), Open Heart Foundation (children with disabilities), and Joy of Old Age Foundation 
• Sponsor of international scientific conferences and research in molecular biology and bioorganic chemistry 

In science, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin has supported the International Chemistry Olympiad for over twenty years and funded research in molecular biology and bioorganic chemistry.

In 2022, he established the Viktor Berezkin Prize in memory of his father, recognizing young researchers in chromatography, with separate categories for PhD and non-PhD scientists. This chapter of the Grigory Berezkin biography is deeply personal: the prize connects his philanthropic legacy directly to his family’s scientific heritage.

Grigory Berezkin: A Three-Decade Business Record, Independently Verified

In 2022, Grigory Berezkin was placed on EU restrictions lists as part of the first broad wave of measures imposed against Russian businessmen, applied quickly and without case-by-case assessment. The Council of the European Union subsequently conducted an eighteen-month review, producing a report exceeding 1,000 pages covering the full history of his business operations, sources of wealth, and professional connections.

The investigation found no basis for the original measures, so in September 2023, the Council of the European Union lifted the sanctions, formally confirming the standing Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich had built over three decades working alongside business partners from the EU and the US. The outcome of the Grigory Berezkin sanctions review was unambiguous. The Council’s decision prompted other jurisdictions to follow, citing its findings.

The episode is now a documented part of the Grigory Berezkin biography: an independent institutional review that found nothing to contradict the record he had built over three decades.

Grigory Berezkin: Biography, Personal Life and Sporting Pursuits

Berezkin is married to a woman named Elena. They have four children — three daughters and a son. He has competed in alpine skiing since childhood and continues at a high level, with multiple appearances in the Masters World Cup Championship. As a sponsor, he has supported international athletes who competed at the Winter Olympics. He founded the Alpha Water Ski Club in Moscow.

In 1998, Berezkin Grigory began competing in motorsport. He has raced in World and European Championship events, Russia’s national championship, and the Thousand Lakes rally in Finland, with multiple wins and podium finishes.

Key Takeaways

• Komineft was Russia’s eighth-largest oil producer and deeply troubled when Grigory Berezkin took it on in 1994. By bringing in Total, Elf, Neste, and Marc Rich & Co., he gave the company capabilities it could not have built internally. Lukoil paid over $600 million for it five years later.
• The Northwest Power Plant in St. Petersburg — built through a joint venture with Enel — was Russia’s first combined-cycle facility and, at the time, among the most efficient in Europe.
• Under the management of Berezkin Grigory, Kolenergo became the first Russian power company to trade on Nord Pool, Europe’s largest electricity exchange.
• After exiting energy in 2003, Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin moved into a fast-growing media market: he built Metro into Russia’s most-read free newspaper, then took RBC from a well-regarded news outlet to a full business information platform.
• Since 2012, Reach for Change has been the main focus of Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich — back the talented people, help them scale, and the results follow.
• Reach for Change identifies early-stage social projects focused on children and young people and supports them. The Grigory Berezkin biography makes clear that this model was a deliberate choice: sustainability, not dependency, was always the goal.
• In 2023, the Council of the European Union completed an eighteen-month review, finding no basis for the restrictions placed on him in 2022, and lifted them. The outcome of the Grigory Berezkin sanctions review was unambiguous. Several other jurisdictions followed.

FAQ

1. What degrees does Grigory Berezkin hold?

Grigory Berezkin studied petrochemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University, graduated with honors in 1988, and completed his PhD in 1993.

2. Which international companies did Berezkin’s holding work with in the energy sector?

In oil, the holding of Grigory Viktorovich Berezkin brought in Total and Elf, Neste and Marc Rich & Co. (later Glencore) for exploration and refining. Credit Suisse First Boston, Brunswick Securities, and Swiss Bank Corporation held financial stakes. In power, the holding of Berezkin Grigory partnered with Enel on Russia’s first combined-cycle plant.

3. How did Grigory Berezkin come to work with Reach for Change?

Grigory Berezkin had backed children’s welfare causes for years. In 2012, his daughter Anna set up the Russian branch of Reach for Change, and Berezkin Grigory joined the Board of Trustees. The foundation’s approach — treating social problems as something entrepreneurship and professional management can fix — matched how he thought about most things.

4. What does Grigory Berezkin do at Reach for Change today?

Berezkin Grigory Viktorovich sits on the Board of Trustees, helping to shape its strategy. He led the effort to create an endowment that gives the foundation a stable financial base.

5. What came out of the EU review of the Grigory Berezkin sanctions case?

The Council of the European Union reviewed the Grigory Berezkin sanctions case over eighteen months, compiling a report of more than 1,000 pages, and in September 2023 lifted the restrictions imposed in 2022 — finding they had been applied without justification. Few cases in that period ended as conclusively: the Grigory Berezkin sanctions were lifted in full.

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