Maxim Barsky
RussiaBiography of Maxim Barsky
Maxim Gennadievich Barsky was born on March 1, 1974, in Leningrad, where his parents, Gennady Natanovich and Alla, were studying at the time. When Maxim was four months old, his father was called to serve in the army, and after completing his service, the family returned to their hometown of Zhytomyr, where Gennady worked as the chief accountant of the local book trading administration. The Barsky family moved to Nefteyugansk in 1989-1990 (possibly in 1985). It is known that in 1993, Maxim's father became the head of the Moscow branch of Yuganskneftebank, and later became one of the leaders of Grand Invest Bank. Maxim later mentioned that he stopped living with his parents around the same time, saying, "It's difficult when there is already a leader in the family. But in my case, they gave me complete freedom. At the age of 15, I left home." He also acknowledged that he owes his life successes primarily to his parents. According to some reports, after graduating from Zhytomyr secondary school, Barsky initially entered Leningrad State University, and then went to the United States and studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Some biographies noted that he graduated from the American university in 1995 and the Russian one only in 1997.
During his studies in the United States, Barsky became interested in the capital market and investment activities, and after his first year of study, he opened the brokerage company Sinex Securities. It was noted that Barsky was the first Russian to obtain a license to open a brokerage firm in the United States. Sinex Securities LLC, the American company, was a subsidiary of the Russian company Sinex-Broker, established in Moscow in 1994. In 1997, Sinex Securities LLC became a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers. According to some information, Barsky experienced a betrayal during his time in the US when a close associate deceived him for a large sum of money. In 1997, anticipating the crisis in the Russian stock market, Barsky left the brokerage business and returned to his homeland. In October 1999, the FBI began investigating Sinex Securities as part of the case of money laundering through Bank of New York from 1996 to 1999. It was also revealed that the brokerage firm had no clients for two years, despite continuing to hire employees. Barsky stated that in 1998, he joined Troika Dialog investment company as a derivatives trader. He then moved to the investment banking department of the company and in May 2000, he was already mentioned as the vice president of the investment banking department.
In August 2000, Barsky left Troika Dialog and started his own internet business. After Troika refused to allocate $10 million to the internet provider Sitilain for business development in the regions, Barsky joined the company and became the director of corporate development. He managed to raise the required amount by purchasing a stake in Sitilain together with partners. Barsky left this position in May of the following year. In early April 2001, it was announced that Golden Telecom had acquired 100% of Sitilain's shares for $29 million (according to other data, for $27 million). It is known that thanks to this deal, Barsky earned his first million dollars. From 2001 to 2003, Barsky served as the managing director of the investment fund Salford Continental Inc., and from March to October 2003, he was the senior investment director of Finartis LLC. In 2004, he became the head of corporate finance at Gazpromenergo LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom. In addition, it was mentioned that in 2002, Barsky became a partner in Biotek Limited, and from 2004 to 2007, he held the position of chief specialist at BMG Finance LLC (in addition, it is known that he has been a partner of BMG Finance since 1997).
In March 2004, Barsky was elected to the board of directors of the Swedish oil company Vostok Oil Ltd. as a representative of Alltech Investment Ltd. In June 2004, Vostok Oil changed its name to West Siberian Resources Ltd. (WSR) after Barsky proposed replacing two of the five previous members of the board of directors, including the chairman. Frank Hayes, who opposed the proposed aggressive development strategy, resigned. In July 2004, Barsky was elected CEO of WSR at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, with Alltech Investment and other funds supporting him by displacing three of the five board members. It was also announced that WSR became the owner of 100% of Vostok Transnational Company's shares. In 2005, WSR acquired Pechoranefteft, and Barsky joined the company's board of directors. In 2007, the Spanish oil company Repsol bought 10% of WSR for $90 million. In April 2008, WSR merged with NK Alliance, becoming a unified independent vertically integrated oil company (since June 2009, the merged company has been called Alliance Oil Company Ltd). Barsky became a member of the board of directors of NK Alliance in April 2008. It is known that in the same year, he served as the CEO of VSR Invest LLC, a subsidiary of WSR. In October 2008, Barsky left his position as CEO of WSR but remained a member of the board of directors. It was noted that during Barsky's tenure, the market capitalization of West Siberian Resources Ltd. increased from $60 million to $3 billion.
In 2009, Barsky was appointed the director of the Russian representation of Alltech Investments Ltd. (according to other data, he took the position of director of the investment department of the Russian representation in 2008). In May 2009, Barsky joined the top management of TNK-BP as an independent director. In the same month, he was appointed Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development of the company. Barsky was later mentioned in the press as one of the possible candidates for the position of the new CEO of the company. In November 2009, TNK-BP shareholders approved Barsky's appointment as CEO. He was supposed to take office on January 1, 2011, but in late December 2010, it was announced that his appointment had been postponed indefinitely due to "unfinished technical procedures." The media reported that in the interim, Friedmann took on the role of acting CEO until January 2011.
In May 2010, Barsky returned from an internship at BP and in June of the same year, he took on the newly created position of Deputy CEO (Chairman of the Board) of TNK-BP. Like his father, Maxim Barsky is a Russian citizen. According to some information, the Barsky family did not forget their Ukrainian roots and supported the school Maxim attended, the cultural and educational institution where his mother worked, and the Jewish cemetery where their ancestors are buried. In 2009, it was reported that Barsky had acquired a fruit farm in Crimea.
Barsky practices yoga and deep-water diving without scuba gear.
Barsky is married to Alena, a native of Crimea, and they have a daughter named Olga and a son named Maxim.
