Biography of Victor Pinchuk

Victor Pinchuk is a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist.

Born in Kyiv in 1960, he graduated with honors from the Dnipropetrovs’k Metallurgical Institute in 1983. He became a research engineer in pipe production and earned a PhD degree in 1987. In 1990, he founded Interpipe Company on the basis of his patented innovations in pipe design, engineering and production, which were successfully adopted by leading metallurgical factories in the former USSR. In 2007, he founded EastOne Ltd., an international investment advisory company whose portfolio comprises more than 20 businesses and large-scale projects, including Interpipe and assets in Ukraine and internationally in media, oil and gas, ferroalloys and others. In 2012, he opened an IT business incubator in Kyiv, Eastlabs, and the first newly built metallurgical plant in Ukraine for 45 years, a state of the art steel mill that also includes large scale installations of world renowned artist Olafur Eliasson.

Mr. Pinchuk served two terms as an elected Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, from 1998 to 2006. He retired from politics to focus on his business and philanthropic activities.

For over 12 years Mr. Pinchuk has developed philanthropic projects in Ukraine and internationally. In 2006, he consolidated these activities under the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which became the largest private Ukrainian philanthropic foundation. Its mission is "Empowering future generations to become the change makers of tomorrow." It focuses on education, healthcare, providing access to the inspiration of contemporary art, and fostering Ukraine's international integration.

The projects of the foundation include the largest private scholarship program in Ukraine Zavtra.UA, the international scholarship program for Ukrainian students WorldWideStudies, public lectures with international leaders for Ukrainian students and the creation of the Kyiv School of Economics; a network of modern neonatal centres throughout Ukraine; the largest and most dynamic contemporary art centre in Central and Eastern Europe PinchukArtCentre – free of admission and with over 3 million visitors as of today – with the biannual global prize Future Generation Art Prize for artists up to the age of 35 and biannual PinchukArtCentre Prize for young Ukrainian artists; the Davos Philanthropic Roundtable and the Davos Ukrainian Lunch organized annually at the occasion of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos.

Mr. Pinchuk has long promoted closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. In 2004, he created the Yalta European Strategy - YES - an international independent organization that is promoting Ukraine's European and global integration. Its annual meeting has become the main high-level platform in the region to discuss strategies for Wider Europe.

Other projects of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation have included the free open air “Independence Concert” by Paul McCartney in Kyiv attended by 350.000 people and watched on TV by 13 million Ukrainians, the production of a film with Steven Spielberg on the Holocaust in Ukraine, human rights projects with George Soros and support of local Jewish communities.

The Victor Pinchuk Foundation supports the Clinton Global Initiative; the educational programs of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and of the Peres Center for Peace; it cooperates with the AntiAIDS Foundation of Mr. Pinchuk's wife Elena Pinchuk that implements projects to fight HIV/AIDS, among others in cooperation programs with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Mr. Pinchuk serves on the Board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the International Advisory Council of Brookings Institution, the board of trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council. He is a member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, chaired by Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Michael Chertoff, along with Joe Biden, Nick Clegg, Eileen Donahoe, Toomas Hendrik Ilves and others.

Mr. Pinchuk was on the "2010 Time 100 - The World's Most Influential People" ("thinkers" section, along with Steve Jobs, Lee Kuan Yew, Zaha Hadid and others); he was honored along with Elena Pinchuk at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s «An Enduring Vision» ceremony in 2010 for contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS; he has been included for five consecutive years in the “ARTnews 200 Top Collectors” and the "ArtReview Power 100" (#38 in 2013) and was presented with the Trebbia European Award for support of the arts and culture (2011). He is an Honorary Citizen of Kiev (2009). In 2013 Victor Pinchuk has received from Aurélie Filippetti, French Minister of Culture and Communication, the insignia of Knight in the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. November 18, 2014 in Kyiv, Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk was presented with the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Award – 2014 for his work in fostering Ukrainian-Jewish relations and advancing his homeland’s European aspirations. July 13, 2015 in Florence, Italy, Victor Pinchuk, is honored with "Palazzo Strozzi Renaissance Man of the Year Award 2014.”

On February 19, 2013 Mr Pinchuk committted to give half or more of his fortune during his lifetime and beyond to philanthropic causes, joining the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative founded in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.