Gref Yana, wife of the head of Sberbank of Russia German Oskarovich Gref: biography, personal life. President and Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia German Gref

“Here we have a pool for synchronized swimming, here children raise animals, here is theater, chess, here is 3D physical education” - German Gref’s pregnant wife Yana takes me around the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium. Yana is not a tabloid heroine, but an excellent student. Eleven years ago, the scandal surrounding his wedding with Gref in the throne room of the Grand Palace of Peterhof, which once so excited the guards from among the State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, today seems like an absurd incident.

Yana takes me around the exemplary school. It is clear that it was organized by people who know how to write business plans. How else could it be if it was started in the family of the president of Sberbank? Even the gymnasium building looks either like a colored Lego box or a premium business center: security, good cars at the entrance, a cafe, not a school canteen. In order to enter the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium, it is not enough to pass an interview - children are tested in the gym. And together with the parents. The school’s website says: “A parent and a child, dressed lightly and sportily, come at the appointed time to the gym with a physical education complex. The introduction session is led by a trainer.” Both daughters of the Grefs study here, and Gref’s granddaughter, the daughter of his eldest son Oleg, goes to kindergarten here. This idea comes from the wife, who seems to be too pretty to be a school manager. Until recently, in all biographies she was listed as a designer, and in the press it was vaguely mentioned that, together with other high-ranking wives, she tried to sell accessories in the LLP Gift Studio, and later became interested in art objects.

Why do you need your own school?

Ya. G. Firstly, I have a son who has not been in school for a long time, he is a student, he is 20, and, of course, the first experience I had with Russian education was thanks to him. And I made all the mistakes that could have been made, and learned all the lessons. For example, we preferred a more modest kindergarten, but with wonderful teachers, to a first-class equipped kindergarten. And our problems, including those with health, ended. When the girls, who are now 8.5 and 7 years old, began to appear, I analyzed the path I had traveled and realized that we had to look for alternatives to public education. There are quite a lot of them. But still, one way or another, I was faced with the fact that here I could have done better, but here I could have done more.

Coincidentally, I met an excellent teacher - Sergei Plakhotnikov, he worked according to the system of Evgeniy Shuleshko. In general, when my daughters grew up and it was time to look for a kindergarten again, I decided to open my own.

That is, they went from the opposite? Apparently, your Soviet school experience was not very successful either.

Ya. G. The Soviet school had both good and not so good. The problem was probably that the human relationships between the children were at some point emasculated. An atmosphere of competition was created that pitted them against each other and, perhaps, suppressed some of the children. In fact, there was no childhood in schools.

Many of us did not like going to school and studied only because we had to.

Although the level of academic education was very high. It is important for me that children go to school with joy and do not want to leave, that the colors are bright, there is a lot of light, that the food at school is tasty and healthy. I hope it worked out - my kids sometimes tell me at dinner that the fish tastes better at school.

How did your husband, a down-to-earth man by profession, react to this seemingly utopian idea?

Ya. G. My husband is a business man. For him, profit issues are, of course, very important. But when we sat down with him and calculated the budget, we realized for ourselves that this would be philanthropy, charity. And I managed to change his attitude towards this project. It's such a big deal for him now. It is important for him that it be progressive and in demand. Both he and I understand that this is a non-profit project, that the funds we invested will never be returned, but the children will leave school and be qualitatively different people. They will be ready for dialogue, will be able to ask questions, respect others, because they have been respected themselves since childhood.

In general, he realized that he had to come to terms with these expenses.

Ya. G. Not putting up with it is not buying a trinket, it’s an investment in the future of the country. We grew up in Russia, and it would be right to invest in the development of domestic education. After all, this is our future too.

These are investments that children will later return to us - with their work and the right attitude towards life.

Everyone in our circle wants to raise their children to be leaders, successful, in demand in the market, but few people think that it is necessary to preserve the humanity in the child.

Sound patriotic. You now have a kindergarten and an elementary school, but your children will grow up and they will need a full-cycle secondary school, and then a university. Will you open it all up gradually so that your children remain in a comfortable environment?

Ya. G. It is important, of course, what my children need, but our project already has its own history. Parents began to ask, what next, what will happen to our children after primary school? Where to go? That is, they want to stay in this environment. So now we are working on developing the basic school project.

Let's be honest, do you see your children finishing school in Russia or abroad? In general, in my opinion, you are a hostage to the situation, because if the family of German Gref gives up hope for a happy future for the country, then everything is very bad. Your family is a forced symbol of stability.

Ya. G. My children will study here as long as the quality of education suits us. And for this we will make every effort. I want our children to love what Herman and I love. Close interaction between parents and children is important.

Does your family have this? Your husband probably works 24 hours a day. What kind of close interaction can we talk about?

Ya. G. You are right, this is our biggest problem.

But those rare hours when Herman is at home, he devotes to the children and me.

The ratio of quantity and quality is very important to us. We have family rituals, we have breakfast together, and the whole family always gathers once a week for lunch or dinner (usually on Sunday), during which we share news for the week. There are family traditions - for example, we celebrate Christmas with the whole family and give each other handmade gifts. We always spend our holidays with our children. And these are precious days in which we feel the unity of the family.

At your school you have morning exercises with parents. Do you go to them?

Ya. G. Yes, of course, I love them very much, and so do my children, although this is a test. Get up at 6 in the morning, leave the house at 7, so that by 8 you will be on exercises - actively running and jumping. But here I have to set the pace for the others. But morning play with a child sets the mood for the whole day. We have been practicing for several years now and have learned to come up with games together. In general, “exercises” are an amazing workshop when parents learn to negotiate with their children. We parents often rely on our authority. And during the exercises, I learned to be a calmer, more understanding mother.

Who are the children who study at your school?

Ya. G. Just kids. Curious, friendly, able to live in a team, capable of empathy. The school is paid - 51,000 rubles per month. We take children after the interview. This is a “dating game” that takes place in a sports complex. There, psychologists and speech therapists meet families. We do not test knowledge; intelligence is just a facet of personality. Children may have other talents. But the main problem is already visible at the interview: parents’ opinions about children and their expectations do not always coincide with reality. And disappointment often sets in. Then sometimes what is stated by the parent, for example, unpretentiousness in everyday life, and this is important to us, is not found in the child.

You don’t expect such criteria from your ultra-comfortable school.

Ya. G. When a child gets to school, he is forced to adapt to the team, and children now take a long time to adapt. Because their conditions at home are completely different. They are constantly served by nannies, governesses, and household staff. And independence in life is a basic skill, it must be developed through joint efforts, and it is important that our parents support us in this.

Do your friends' children study at your school?

Ya. G. I am very grateful to my friends who brought their children to us. There are friends who, due to their professional activities, began to help us in financial and administrative matters.

Did your last name play a role as a guarantee of the reliability of your school?

Ya. G. There were people who went to the family name expecting to see luxury - literally palaces and carpets. Let me tell you right away, this is not the case at school. But there are good teachers - they are really informally interested in what they do. The surname, of course, arouses interest in the project, which is important in any business. But my task is to develop this interest and provide a quality product.

What did you do before? It seems you were a designer?

Ya. G. Design is my previous hobby. Before that, I received an economics education. I worked in my specialty for some time. But I began to understand that I go to work just to earn money. I was very tired both mentally and physically.

I understood that something was going wrong in life. A lot of energy was wasted.

At this time I became interested in houses and interiors and began to study design. Slowly I began to build houses for myself and friends, I studied with great enthusiasm, but there was no flow of orders, and I cooled down. Building a school combined my previous interests and now I'm really passionate about it.

What do you think about education reform? Do you feel its echoes?

Ya. G. School education has long needed reforms. But this should be approached with caution. The Soviet school was built on coercion and obedience; we grew up in this system not thanks to, but in spite of. Reforms must break this, that is, develop children's initiative. But what is written in the documents does not always correspond to practice. I heard that due to the merger of schools, traditions are disappearing and teams are collapsing. Partly, being a non-state school, we benefit from this; we have the opportunity to invite professionals to join us. But it’s sad that it will take a long time to create new traditions.

But aren't you afraid to invest in the future now that the country is in such a difficult situation? How much does this have to do with the fact that your family is forced to live in Russia and be a kind of calling card as the family of a high government official?

Ya. G. I agree with you, there are a lot of fears. On the other hand, we understand that in any crisis it is necessary to develop. For example, we started working on the project for a high school a year ago; we had already drawn it up with architects, but after the summer it became clear that the project should become more realistic, less grandiose. No matter what happens in the world, in the country, with the ruble-dollar exchange rate, life does not stop, children continue to be born, they grow. If we all lock our houses and leave, this will not solve the problem.

[Ruspres: Below is an investigation into shadow business published by the website Slon.rus with the editorial title “What are German Gref’s relatives doing?” After a short time, the information was erased by order of the owners of the publication - Natalia Sindeeva and Alexander Vinokurova . At the same time, Gref’s employees organized a large-scale cleanup of the network, achieving the complete removal of text from the Runet. Ruspres news agency is restoring the material that caused such an active reaction from Sberbank. There are some gaps in the article that the editors will fill in during the upcoming update headings ]

Studying the biographies of relatives of the president of Sberbank German Gref , you can’t help but wonder how closely the destinies of family members of German exiles from a remote Kazakh village can be intertwined with representatives of the current elite of Russia.

Jan's wife runs a joint business with ex-wife Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Kozak and a top manager of the AFK Sistema corporation, her own sister is a business partner of the richest family of Russian officials - Governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergei Darkin. The elder brother is one of the largest retailers in Omsk, actively taking loans from Sberbank. The niece organizes corporate events for Sberbank, and even the mother-in-law managed to get into a work conflict with the daughter of the Saratov governor Pavel Ipatov.

The other day, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that German Gref’s son Oleg is a co-owner of the consulting company NEO Center, accredited by Sberbank as a partner appraiser. Slon figured out what other businesses are owned by the relatives of the head of Sberbank.

Wife - Yana Golovina

[...] Born in 1972 in the city of Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory, in a family of workers of Black Sea health resorts [Ruspres: in fact, she was born on August 5, 1975, and lived in the Krasnodar Territory with her first husband Alexei Glumov. At the same time, Estonia appears in a number of personal documents as the place of birth of Golovina-Glumova].

Yana's first marriage broke up a few years later. Yana left behind him a son born in 1997. At the end of the 1990s, she moved to Moscow, where she began working as an interior designer.

In May 2004 she married German Gref. The wedding took place in St. Petersburg, from the Wedding Palace located on the English Embankment, the newlyweds went on a journey along the canals of St. Petersburg. The boat was greeted on the Malaya Nevka embankment with cannon shots, from which golden tinsel fell from the sky onto the newlyweds. The throne room of the Grand Palace of Peterhof was rented especially for the celebration, which caused irritation among State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , who demanded to conduct an investigation and find out who allowed the rental of architectural monuments.

In May 2006, a daughter was born to German and Yana Gref in one of the Moscow maternity hospitals. In 2008, the couple had a second child, whom Yana Gref decided to give birth at home.

In 2004, Yana Golovina together with [the first] wife of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak Lyudmila and the wife of State Duma deputy Vladimir Pligin, Nina, founded Gift Studio LLP LLC (the main activity is retail trade in accessories). Probably, the business did not work out, because already in 2006 the company was liquidated.

In November 2005, Yana Golovina created her own company, CJSC Dar.ru, which engaged in “retail trade in works of art in art galleries.” The vice president for corporate property of OJSC Sitronics became a partner of German Gref’s wife in this business. Oleg Shcherbakov [Ruspres: works for Vladimir Yevtushenkov]

Brother - Evgeny Gref

Born on September 8, 1952 at the Panfilovsky state farm in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan.

In 1967 he graduated from eight-year school. From 1967 to 1971 he studied at the Omsk Motor Transport College, after which he was drafted into the army, into the armored forces. Served in Semipalatinsk.

From 1974 to 1991, he worked as a senior technician, then as a design engineer at the Omsk Machine-Building Design Bureau, while simultaneously studying and graduating from the Siberian Automobile and Highway Institute.

In the 1990s, he was elected as a people's deputy of the Omsk City Council and chairman of the council of the labor collective of the Omsk MashKB.

In 1991, he went into business and became the chief engineer of the small research and development enterprise Primer.

In 1994, he founded the Siberia Association, which engaged in the wholesale supply of household appliances. In the same year, Evgeny Gref opened the first store of the future Technosophia retail chain in the Chkalovsky public service center. By 2011, the Tekhnosofiya chain (revenue of about 140 million rubles) had 8 electronics stores in Omsk, and was one of the three largest chains in the region.

In addition, Evgeny Gref owns the Geomart hypermarket chain, which has 7 cash & carry stores in the Omsk and Kemerovo regions (revenue of about 2.5 billion rubles) and the Siberia-Ceramics chain of building materials stores, consisting of 5 wholesale and retail warehouses in Omsk and Novosibirsk (revenue about 300 million rubles).

Gref also owns the Letur shopping complex (about 3,000 sq. m) in the very center of Omsk, and the pasteurized egg production plant of Polimax-Agro CJSC. In the summer of 2008, Letur-invest LLC (50% owned by Evgeny Gref) built the Staraya Roshcha microdistrict in the center of Omsk for 300,000-400,000 sq. m. m of luxury housing and commercial real estate. The co-investor of the project is the St. Petersburg development company Setl City. The project is now frozen.

With the arrival of German Gref at Sberbank, his older brother’s companies intensified their relations with the state bank. In the summer of 2008, Evgeniy Gref’s retail companies announced a marketing campaign in which customers who paid for a purchase over 500 rubles with a Sberbank bank card could receive gift certificates worth up to 15 thousand rubles,

In the fall of 2008, at the height of the crisis, Sberbank opened a three-year credit line for Evgeny Gref by 500 million rubles. Later, German Gref explained that his brother Evgeniy “has been a bona fide client of Sberbank for 12 years and has concluded over 70 transactions with the bank. The transaction was public, the decision on it was made by the bank's supervisory board. This is a normal practice accepted throughout the civilized world. My brother and I have completely different interests. He lives his own life and does not depend on me, including financially.”

In 2010, the Geomart hypermarket chain, owned by Evgeniy Gref, acquired four stores of the bankrupt Mosmart chain in Kuzbass. The main creditor of Mosmart was Sberbank. The transaction amount was not disclosed.

In 2010, Evgeny Gref acted as the main sponsor of the election campaign of the candidate for the post of mayor of Omsk - General Director of OJSC Omskneftekhimproekt Igor Zuga, who is tipped to be a candidate for the post of governor of the Omsk region, after leaving Leonid Polezhaev .

He practices boxing, skiing, martial arts, and prefers tennis.

Married. Two children.

Daughter - Evgenia

[Ruspres: Probably we are talking about Evgeniy Valerievna Gref, born in 1987, registered in Omsk together with Evgeny Gref and Olga Alekseevna Gref]

Graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Omsk State University. Studied at a Western business school.

Since 2009, he has been working as a project manager at the Krasnov design company, owned by the famous designer and concert set designer Boris Krasnov. In 2010 alone, Krasnov design organized five corporate parties for Sberbank, including celebrations of the New Year, March 8, Valentine's Day on February 14, and the Sberbank of Talents concert.

Lives in Moscow.

[Ruspres: friend of Sberbank Boris Krasnov has been an acquaintance of thief in law Aslan Usoyan since the 1990s. Months ago the decorator was charged in a racket. The investigation found that in 2011, the employer of German Gref’s niece extorted property worth about 5 million rubles from the director of the Inconnect group of companies. Krasnov’s accomplices were employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Yuri Bogdanov and Sergei Shilov, lawyer of the Magma company Ivan Dunaev and deputy general director of the non-profit partnership Sports Information Agency Oleg Litoshenko. In September 2011 they were arrested. His patrons stood up for Krasnov - after their intervention, the court released the businessman on bail. Then the investigator discovered that the accused Krasnov fell ill, and the case against him was suspended]

Son - Oscar

Born July 22, 1994

He studied at Gymnasium No. 19 in Omsk.

Since 2008, he has continued his studies at the British private school Taunton School.

Sister - Elena Peredriy

Co-owner of Primorye Bank, which is controlled by the family of Primorsky Territory Governor Sergei Darkin

Graduated from Omsk Pedagogical Institute.

She married sailor Sergei Peredria and moved with him to Nakhodka.

Since the early 1990s, Sergei Peredriy worked in the fishing company Roliz, which was founded by the current governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergey Darkin . From 1992 to 2001, Peredriy made a successful career at Roliza, rising from the position of leading specialist in courts to a member of the board of directors and co-owner of the company [Ruspres: Elena Peredriy was registered as a shareholder of CJSC Roliz]

From April to June 2001 he was Sergei Darkin's confidant during the election campaign. After Darkin was elected governor of Primorye, Peredriy was appointed vice-governor in charge of housing, communal services and environmental management.

In the fall of 2006, Peredriy was forced to resign from the post of vice-governor due to the outbreak of a scandal in the housing and communal services sector of Primorye. It turned out that the state company Primteploenergo, which accumulated utility bills from the population, transferred 93 million rubles. to the accounts of Governor Darkin’s wife Larisa Belobrova, Vice-Governor Sergei Peredriy and his wife Elena Peredriy (Gref). The prosecutor's office became interested in this fact, but the results of the investigation were not reported.

[Vrez Ruspres: “People's Assembly”, 08/20/2008“The Assistant Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation […] reported: “On May 19, 2006, the Investigative Department at the Pervomaisky District Department of Internal Affairs of Vladivostok opened a criminal case under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) regarding the commission of fraudulent actions by the management of Christmas-Vostok LLC when supplying petroleum products for the needs of the housing and communal services of Primorye. This criminal case has been sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District for further investigation.” The question is: is the case being investigated? Judging by the fact that the main suspects in the theft of fuel are either abroad or simply at large and are not being summoned for any interrogations, there is no progress in this case. But only one amount of money from Primteploenergo, illegally transferred to the accounts of the wife of the governor L. BELOBROVA, vice-governor S. PEREDRIY and his wife E. PEREDRIY (who left for residence in Germany), is estimated at 93 million rubles […] Darkin's wife (now the founder of Roliza) - with this money acquired the Nakhodka active marine fishing base through cunning schemes . After which the magazine “Finance” named the governor’s wife Belobrova the richest woman in the Far East […] The gang, through controlled suppliers, inflated the price when purchasing fuel for the region by 1.5-2 times. The fat was sent to the companies Prefect-Alliance LLC (Moscow) and Apex CJSC (Vladivostok). The founders of Apex are Roliz and Christmas. Let us remember that the founders of “Roliz” are 2 individuals: the wife of Governor S. Darkin and the wife of S. Peredria. Criminal case No. 5301521 was opened against the small fry [the head of Christmas LLC] for fuel fraud, as mentioned above. A second criminal case, No. 761021, has also been initiated against this gentleman - on the basis of tax evasion on an especially large scale by distorting accounting data. Regarding larger criminal piranhas, the matter has not progressed beyond approvals from the Pinkertons”]

According to data for the third quarter of 2011, Elena Oskarovna Peredriy owns 6.21% of the shares of Primorye Bank. The wife of the governor of the Primorsky Territory, Larisa Belobrova, owns 52.5% of the bank’s shares.

Elena Peredriy also owns the construction company Megastroy and the professional cosmetology clinic D-Aesthetic LLC.

Married. Has a son and daughter.

[Vrez Ruspres: An open letter from Mark Deitch to Sergei Darkin, “MK”, 11/21/2005“According to an inspection by the [Accounts Chamber], in 2001-2003, illegal supplies of fishery products (including crab and sea urchin) to Japan annually ranged from 83 to 117 thousand tons […] I have copies of financial documents that irrefutably prove the presence accounts for many billions of dollars. And these accounts are in the banks of Japan, Singapore and Panama. The owners of these accounts are you, Mr. Darkin […] Mr. Peredriy (vice-governor of Primorye) […] The most piquant thing is the following: Receipt of money to your Mr. Darkin, the accounts, as well as the accounts of your associates, fall precisely on 2002-2003 - these are the years that are discussed in the report of the Accounts Chamber"]

Daughter - Olga Tyshchenko

Born in the city of Nakhodka, Primorsky Territory.

She graduated from high school in St. Petersburg.

In 2004 she received higher education at the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​of the Russian Pedagogical University. Herzen in St. Petersburg. In 2008, she received a second higher education at the Higher School of Economics with a degree in organizational management.

In 2006, she worked in the HR department in the Russian office of the oil company BP.

Since 2008, chief specialist of the HR department of Sberbank of Russia.

Son - Oleg Gref

Born in 1982, in Omsk.

In 1999-2002 he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.

In 2002-2003, he took a break from studying and worked at the London branch of Credit Suisse First Boston.

In 2004 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Department of Civil Law.

In 2003-2007 he worked in the London office of Deutsche Bank AG London.

From 2007 to 2009 - at Deutsche Bank in Russia. His former boss, head of Deutsche Bank in Russia and the CIS Igor Lozhevsky [compatriot of Gref Sr., native of Omsk] characterized Oleg Gref as “a young specialist in the debt obligations division. From time to time he participates in communications with Sberbank and VTB. His family relations do not give us any preferences.” It is curious that the immediate superior Oleg Gref was the son of the president of VTB Bank, Andrei Kostin Jr., who at that time served as co-head of the Russian division for debt obligations of Deutsche Bank in Russia and the CIS.

Since the spring of 2009, Oleg Gref has held the post of vice president and is a shareholder [appearing in Sberbank's operations to seize property ] consulting group "NEO Center", is responsible for strategic development, as well as promotion of the group in the Russian and international markets.

The main owner of the NEO Center, Artem Avetisyan, who since the summer of 2011 has held the position of director of the New Business direction at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, describes the role Oleg Gref in the company: “I needed an energetic person with knowledge and experience working in Western structures. If he had a different last name, I would still invite him to my place. It’s very difficult to be a relative of famous people - you are judged by your parents, although you yourself are a person.”

Mother-in-law - Tatyana Golovina

In 2004, shortly after the eldest daughter Yana married Gref, she took over the post general director sanatorium "Golubaya Dal" in the Black Sea village of Divnomorskoye.

In Soviet times, the Golubaya Dal sanatorium was a departmental health resort of the Ministry of Atomic Industry. In the mid-2000s, the shares of the sanatorium began to be bought by the structures of the governor of the Saratov region, Pavel Ipatov. In 2007, Ipatov’s daughter Anna took over the leadership of the board of directors of Blue Distances " One of Anna Ipatova’s first decisions was the dismissal of Tatyana Golovina from the post of general director of the sanatorium. This decision coincided with Gref’s resignation from the post of Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

Tatyana Golovina was not without work for a long time. Since the end of 2008, she has headed another sanatorium in Gelendzhik - “Rus”, owned by the Tyumen “daughter” of Transneft - the Sibnefteprovod company. Since 2008, the Rus sanatorium has transferred its accounts to Sberbank.

In 2011, Tatyana Golovina participated in the economic forum in Sochi.

Two daughters.

The eldest daughter Yana is married to German Gref.

The youngest daughter is Tatyana.

Born on March 20, 1991 in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory

In 2011 she graduated from the Russian International Academy of Tourism with a degree in hospitality management.

Tatyana admires her older sister’s husband, collects all his letters to employees, and even posted the Sberbank corporate anthem on her VKontakte page.

An outstanding figure of the Russian Federation, German Gref is a prominent government figure, president of Sberbank of the Russian Federation, and former minister of economic and trade development of the country. Today he is the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia, a member of the boards of many influential companies and organizations in Russia.

Gref went through the entire difficult path from an ordinary legal consultant in a small village to leading positions in the country. He is a successful businessman, politician, and statesman, included in the list of the most expensive TOP managers in the country.

Height, weight, age. How old is German Gref

Citizens want to know everything about outstanding figures of the country such as Gref German Oskarovich. Any details of life and any information are of great interest, even such as height, weight, age, how old is German Gref. The politician was born in what is now Kazakhstan in the village of Panfilovo, in 1964. German Gref’s nationality is German. His parents are ethnic Germans who were deported from Donbass to the Kazakh Republic at the very beginning of the war. On the Internet you can find many versions that German Gref is Jewish, but after studying his family ties you understand that this is not so.

Biography of German Gref, head of Sberbank

The famous and active man was born in the small village of Panfilovo, which is located in the Kazakh Republic. February 8, 1964. In this village he spent his childhood and youth. German Gref was an exemplary student, a well-mannered and neat child. He differed from his peers in his determination, perseverance and pedantry. After receiving secondary education, he worked as a lawyer in the agricultural department of the village of Panfilovo. Later he was drafted into the army, where he served in the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Having repaid his military debt to the state, German Gref entered the State Law University in Omsk. He proved himself to be a very responsible, intelligent and smart student. And upon graduation, I received an offer to teach at my native university. In parallel with his teaching work, he entered Leningrad University for graduate school. But he was never able to defend his dissertation. Later in 2011, German Gref will still receive a degree from this institute.

While studying at Leningrad University, he met Anatoly Sobchak, who was his mentor and also the mayor of St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad).

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 90s, the rapid and successful career rise of German Oskarovich began. Working in the northern capital of Russia, he held many high and important positions. The biography of German Gref includes facts of his work in the Property Relations Committee as head of the department, manager, lawyer, etc. Even then, he was personally acquainted with the Presidents of the Russian Federation V. Putin and D. Medvedev.

In 1998, German Oskarovich began working at the Ministry of State Property and served as deputy head of the Ministry. Young, successful and promising German Oskarovich received new promotions, recognition and respect every year. He headed high-ranking officials at Gazprom and the Securities Commission. And after Vladimir Vladimirovich won the presidential race, German Gref worked in government bodies in the Ministry of Economy and Trade of the Russian Federation.

Write a letter to German Gref at Sberbank

A new promotion and recognition awaited German Oskarovich in 2007. When he was appointed to the position of chairman of Sberbank. He was also the president of this institution. It was from this time that Sberbank began actively conquering the market. German Gref managed to choose the right strategy and tactics for the institution during the crisis in Russia. People began to use bank cards en masse and also mastered Internet banking.

The number of deposits, as well as the bank's lending operations, increased. Herman is open to new ideas and communication with people. Anyone can write a letter to German Gref. Sberbank of Russia is one of the largest and most successful financial institutions in the country. And German Oskarovich played not the least role in this.

Personal life of German Gref

While still at school in his native Panfilovo, German fell in love with his classmate Elena. The couple began a romantic relationship, and as soon as they received their education they immediately decided to tie the knot. This marriage produced a son, Oleg. But the couple was unable to maintain the relationship and soon broke up. German Gref's personal life improved in the 2000s. Already a well-known statesman, Herman re-ties the knot. His chosen one is the famous metropolitan designer Yana Golovina (maiden name). In his second marriage, German Oskarovich has two children. Herman is a lover of classical works, both literary and musical. Children are also taught to appreciate beauty from childhood.

Family of German Gref

German Gref's family is Catholic. The children were also raised according to all the canons of the Catholic Church. The family had three children - Elena, Evgeniy and the youngest German. From childhood, parents instilled in their children knowledge of two languages, Russian and German. Because it was the language of their ancestors. My father worked as an electrical engineer, worked in his native village and was responsible for supplying the entire village. Mother worked as an economist in the village council. When Herman was only 1.5 years old, his father died. The children of the Gref family were helped to raise by their own grandmother.

Children of German Gref

From his first marriage to his wife Elena, German Oskarovich had a son, Oleg. Happy parents doted on their son. But after being married for only a short time, they separated. Herman's second wife gave him two children. The children of German Gref were always surrounded by care, love and attention. German Oskarovich, even despite his enormous employment, put a lot of effort into raising his children. He followed their lives, education, successes and victories. He strives to give them the best and surround them with his love and care. He tries to see them as often as possible, even despite his busy work schedule.

The ex-wife of German Gref - Elena Velikanova

Very often, young people, without understanding their feelings, get married. Usually such marriages are not strong. This is exactly what happened in Herman’s youth. German Gref's ex-wife Elena Velikanova was his classmate in the village of Panfilovo. Herman was in love with her throughout his school years. The couple got married at a very young age. Soon their son Oleg was born. Problems in the relationship began almost immediately. The young people were not prepared for family life and all the problems that might arise. That is why their marriage fell apart very quickly.

German Gref's wife - Yana Gref

In 2004, the chairman of Sberbank of Russia marries Yana Vladimirovna. Their magnificent and chic wedding celebration was discussed on the Internet a year later. The event took place in Peterhof in the Great Hall. This is what gave rise to many rumors, negative reviews and gossip. Many were amazed how such valuable architectural monuments could be rented out. German Gref's wife, Yana Gref, was born on August 5, 1975. Yana is an economist by profession, but she didn’t work in her profession for long. Then I became interested in design and interior design. Today, Yana is the founder of an elite school in the capital.

Is German Gref gay and gay?

The life of German Oskarovich has always been shrouded in much gossip and speculation. At one time, articles appeared on the Internet that German Gref was gay. One can only guess what prompted the author to write such an article. A person occupying such high and important government positions is always interesting to the public. People begin to invent various gossip, stories and guesses in order to stir up interest in certain information resources. Such a “duck” on one of the sites was the information that German Gref is gay.

Instagram and Wikipedia German Gref

The President of the main credit institution of Russia, German Oskarovich Gref, is an outstanding strategist and analyst. He managed to set up and improve the work of many departments and organizations in which he worked. Despite his busy schedule, German is a good family man and a loving father. Instagram and Wikipedia of German Gref are filled with facts about his career ups, biographical data, as well as information about his personal life. The pages of the chairman of Sberbank on such networks as Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte are also actively being filled. A lot of useful information about the bank’s activities, politics, economics and personal interests can be found on Herman’s Twitter page.

Yana Gref is the head of the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium.

Maiden name - Golovina, after her first husband - Glumova.

Childhood

Information about Yana Golovina’s childhood and youth is quite contradictory. In some sources, Gelendzhik appears as the place of birth, where Yana’s parents worked in one of the boarding houses, in others - Estonia.

Career

According to Yana herself, she received an economics education and worked in her specialty for some time. But this did not bring her pleasure. Her next hobby was interior and home design: it was interesting to study, but there were few orders, and over time her enthusiasm faded.

At the moment, she is the ideologist and founder of the Khoroshevskaya Progymnasium (Khoroshkola) - a non-state elite educational institution.

For our family, Khoroshkola is a truly big deal. This is an investment in the future generation, in the future of Russian education and in the future of the country. We believe that in a few years a generation of qualitatively different children will emerge from the school walls, capable of freely communicating, self-education and development in a rapidly changing society and environment.

Now the daughters of Yana and German are studying at the gymnasium, and his granddaughter - the daughter of his son from his first marriage - goes to kindergarten at Khoroshkol.

Personal life

Little is known about her first marriage: it lasted only a few years; Yana’s eldest son, now a student, was born in the marriage.

In 2004, in May, she became the wife of the president and chairman of the board of Sberbank of Russia, German Gref. The wedding took place in St. Petersburg, and the official part took place in the Throne Hall of the Grand Palace of Peterhof. The latter fact almost led to a scandal: deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were indignant that architectural monuments were so easily rented out.

The first daughter was born in 2006 in Moscow, and two years later Yana became the mother of another daughter.

“Such large-scale changes cannot take place perfectly, but it’s good that the elephant (as Gref affectionately called Sberbank after his appointment. - Vedomosti) came to life,” says Ruben Vardanyan, the former owner of Troika Dialog, who sold the company to Sberbank, after which worked in it.

Gref for the people

Of course, the transformation of Sberbank would have been impossible without German Gref and the team he assembled, albeit not the first time, says Sergei Guriev, chief economist of the EBRD.

He is now probably one of the best financial CEOs in the world, because the return on capital that Sberbank shows is one of the highest, says Oleg Tinkov, co-owner of Tinkoff Bank.

Gref’s management style is far from all these principles of agile and turquoise corporations (complete freedom reigns, there are no clear job descriptions and strict KPIs. - Vedomosti) that he is so keen on - rather, it is a vertical structure, closed on the personality of Gref himself, there is no democracy , his subordinates are afraid to once again make any comments to him, one of the federal officials knows. At the lower levels, he undoubtedly managed to build a corporate culture, working mechanisms, he introduced a project approach - in this sense, Sberbank is far ahead of other banks, argues another official.

“Gref is very confident in his ideas, he defends them fanatically, but then he can admit that he was wrong and lose faith in them forever,” says an official who has known Gref for a long time. When he came to Sberbank, he was pestered by these lines of grandmothers, such disrespect for people, and he said from the very beginning how he would like to change this, he recalls.

“Gref once strongly scolded our team at a meeting, declaring our proposals fascist. And after a short period of time, he himself offered a job. Gref cuts from the shoulder, can say unpleasant things, and then changes his point of view, even if it may take time,” says the second official, an acquaintance of Gref.

“I feel comfortable working with Gref. We have a friendly relationship. We are probably quite similar in temperament: quite emotional, maybe even sometimes explosive,” says Kostin. If we take, for example, the situation with Mechel, he continues, then “as creditors we were definitely on the same side. It seems to me that in this situation we were able to achieve good results for both the company and the banks.”

The role of Gref’s personality is enormous; all changes began with him, Vardanyan notes: sometimes thanks to perseverance, sometimes through audacity and emotionality. Not everyone could receive such a credit of political trust, he points out, and, despite the fact that political weight plays an important role, Gref’s personal contribution to the history of changes at Sberbank is colossal.

“It was quite difficult to negotiate with him [Gref] [on the sale of Troika Dialog]; nevertheless, he is first and foremost a strategist and a visionary, and only secondarily a businessman. But if you come to an agreement, then there are no more problems,” says Vardanyan.

“In Russia, clients are divine”: this is what German Gref said

Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS

“We live in managerial chaos for very long periods of time. Then, when the problem is already upon us, we mobilize all conceivable and inconceivable resources and rush to solve the problem. In such a situation, no one counts either money or human lives - no resources. Everything is thrown into the furnace of the result, and in the end the problem is heroically solved” (interview with Forbes, 2016)

Dmitry Serebryakov / TASS

“We are all in the abstract for change. Let everything change around, let all the power change. But what if the changes affect you personally? For example, you will have to change your existing lifestyle and habits. Let’s say you’re used to getting up at 8.30 in the morning, “catch” something and go to work. And you will have to get up at 6.00 in the morning and start the morning with a 7 km cross-country race, and then go to work not by car, but by bicycle, for example. I'll see if you want these changes. Yes, you will say: leave me alone, you will agree to any changes, just not those that directly affect you" (Vedomosti, 2015)

Denis Grishkin / Vedomosti

“If you use the Russian management style from morning to evening in management, then it’s hard to demand satisfaction from employees and ask them to pass it on to clients” (interview

Denis Abramov / Vedomosti

“Even respected professors often say that my ideas about introducing regular management in public administration are not applicable in practice. I said at one meeting: don’t you think it looks funny when professors who have never worked a day in the civil service or in business sit and tell a person who spent 16 years in the civil service and eight in big business that Is this not applicable?! I worked in a municipality, worked in a large city, in a large state and was responsible for reforms in the country. And you tell me what applies and what doesn’t!” (Harvard Business Review interview, 2017)

Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

“I worked in the government for eight years. It turns out to be an eight-year cycle - now I have already gone into an extra cycle. You know, fatigue depends on interest. There is a result - there is interest. We are an amazing place to work” (Harvard Business Review interview, 2017)

The best version of yourself

The hardest thing then was to hire talented people for the team, recalls Sberbank CFO Alexander Morozov. In 2007, the state bank was associated with bureaucracy, confirms Moody’s Vice President Olga Ulyanova, who in 2007 herself preferred an international rating agency to the state bank.

The changes began with a complete change of the management team, improvement of business processes, rebranding, Ulyanova lists. The transformation took place using the tactics of “small steps”, which allowed Sberbank to maintain its historically established unique competitive advantages. The new team, in her opinion, skillfully used an extensive network, national recognition of the brand, the image of a calm haven where one can wait out the storm, especially since the Central Bank and financial authorities were and remain ready to support the bank.

“The new team realized in time that the state bank, with its huge and relatively cheap passive base and its normal established credit process, is a goose that lays golden eggs. The main thing is not to deviate from this course into risky segments and transactions,” says Danilov.

True, of the 10 managers who came to Sberbank to work for Gref, only two remain - financial director Morozov and co-head of Sberbank CIB Alexander Bazarov.

“When selecting candidates for the highest level 10 years ago, we used a negative filter - there is a super goal and mission, if you are in doubt, we go to the next one,” recalls Ward Howell President Sergei Vorobiev. Only a third of top managers could not withstand the pace of change and the rigid corporate culture, he believes, a third left with a promotion, and the rest are evolving. And this is a good result for such a rate of change in a huge organization, he believes.

At Sberbank, Gref quickly realized that you can’t just go from point A to point B, the latter always eludes, continues Vorobiev. Gref and his employees have to live in a constantly changing world, he explains, and if, surprising the market, they manage to change technologically quickly, then the corporate culture does not always keep up with the changes. But this is logical: it is more difficult to change people’s behavior and habits.

“Gref correctly creates for employees a feeling of burning earth under their feet, a sense of urgency of changes, to which the team must respond more quickly every year,” states Vorobiev. “It’s especially hard for those who are closer to him, the top management: they live at the highest speeds, at the mouth of a volcano.”

In the strategy until 2020, Sberbank will write that it will strive to move from bureaucracy and hierarchy to team play, promised the deputy chairman of the board of the state bank, Yulia Chupina, in November at the Winning The Hearts management forum. Feedback from employees showed that the corporate culture lacks humanity, respect, openness and cooperation, Chupina noted, and Sberbank is ready to help them become the best version of themselves.

“There is a feeling that Sberbank is becoming the reincarnation of Uralsib from the time of Nikolai Tsvetkov,” says one of the former top managers of Sberbank. – This is quite a strong intrusion into the lives of employees. And of course, not everyone likes it, but it’s almost impossible to convince Gref.”

The leader’s task is to set the direction and manage to maneuver between threats and opportunities, reliability and changes, which in itself is a big test that forces a change in style, Vorobiev points out: “The ability to play well with the team, achieving greater efficiency and speed, constantly raising the bar, but also supporting you at every next step requires both effort and patience from all participants.”

Monopoly and risks

Gref’s team inherited the rich monopolistic heritage of Sberbank, but its market share has been growing all these years in all areas: lending, deposits, investment business. With the arrival of new managers, Sberbank increasingly influenced deposit rates, says one of the former employees of the state bank, and made good money from it: “Just calculate how much you can earn if, having a deposit base of 20 trillion rubles, you reduce the rate by only 1 percentage point."

Ulyanova considers the main factor in Sberbank’s successful history to be a balanced approach to risk taking: “Among all state-owned banks, Sberbank has the most balanced and diversified loan portfolio.” Sberbank's twenty largest borrowers in total make up about 1.5 of its Tier 1 capital, while other large state-owned banks - VTB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank - have the same or a greater proportion of capital made up by their 10 largest borrowers. Diversification of credit risks allowed Sberbank to incur fewer credit losses during the crisis, Ulyanova is sure, to remain profitable and accumulate capital, which lays the foundation for technological transformations.

“It’s nice to talk about Sberbank; it’s a rare success story of this magnitude,” admits Ulyanova. Sberbank is a rare case: a large financial institution does not ask for money to replenish capital. In particular, unlike VTB and Rosselkhozbank, it did not participate in the additional capitalization program through OFZ.

The bank does a lot of project lending and, although loans issued for political reasons cannot be ruled out, they are insignificant from the point of view of the bank’s business, Ulyanova concludes.

The main challenge for a state-owned company is the ability to resist political temptations, for example, not to comply with proposals to issue loans to companies with political connections, Guriev is convinced: “As a member of the board of directors in 2008–2014, I can say that in the vast majority of cases Sberbank succeeded cope with".

“Success is determined, first of all, by the team, by the professionals who work in the bank, by the technologies that the bank uses,” says Kostin. – I would say this: relations with the shareholder, relations with the authorities, of course, are important, but they are not the determining and key factor of success. Because you can have great political resources and poor performance results.”

Europe, space, friendship and other failures

Expansion into Europe and Turkey began in 2012 - but ran into sanctions and negative rates from the European Central Bank and began to resemble traveling with a suitcase without a handle. Sberbank Europe AG (formerly Volksbank International) was bought by Sberbank for 505 million euros; it is represented in 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Sberbank paid 2.8 billion euros for Turkish DenizBank. In Europe, geopolitical tensions and the specifics of the market with low rates and profitability played a role, and in Turkey, where DenizBank has good performance, the environment is very difficult and competitive, Danilov points out.

Sberbank - primarily due to its scale - does not always show flexibility, Zadornov points out: the reform of the organizational structure there has not been completed, the tasks set in Sberbank's headcount reduction strategies are not regularly fulfilled. Only in 2017 did Sber carry out a noticeable optimization of its staff.

While Sberbank has been able to standardize its work with small businesses and the public, so far it has not done so well with the titans of Russian business. One of the largest borrowers - according to bankers, this is $5-7 billion in debt - are businesses owned by the family of Mikhail Gutseriev. This is an unprecedented amount of risk that Sberbank has taken on one group of clients. Among the twenty largest borrowers of Sberbank, Fitch notes two related to the oil and gas sector and real estate, which owe 500 billion rubles, which is a similar $7 billion. Danilov refused to talk about these borrowers. Several bankers explained this situation by the good relations between Gutseriev and Gref.

Gref did not stand on ceremony with another large borrower, the main owner of the Eurocement Group, Filaret Galchev. He was not present at the Sberbank credit committee, where the restructuring of the company’s debts was discussed. Galchev was preparing to go into space and studied at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Gref, Vedomosti wrote in 2015, contacted the leadership of Roscosmos and asked to leave Galchev on Earth - “he has a lot of problems here.” Representatives of the businessman do not comment on the situation, but point out that Galchev did not fly by decision of the management of Roscosmos: test cosmonaut from Kazakhstan Aidyn Aimbetov went to the ISS instead of Sarah Brighton.

To Sberbank’s credit, it must be said that it never delays in admitting losses, Danilov points out, citing as an example the restructuring of Mechel’s debts by more than 80 billion rubles. Sberbank was the only creditor who created a 100% reserve for them and threatened Mechel with bankruptcy. VTB and Gazprombank took a softer position towards the company and its owner Igor Zyuzin, while Gref repeatedly said that things were heading towards bankruptcy.

System support

Ten years ago, no one could imagine how far Sberbank could go, says Guriev: it has become a leading Russian company not only in capitalization, but also in the quality of service and focus on innovation at an international level. But Guriev considers his main achievement to be the proof of the “existence theorem” of meritocracy: “The team managed to show that in Russia – as in other countries – it is possible to build a successful service business based on human capital and innovation. This is critically important for the Russian economy.”

Sberbank, even in the worst years, was the main profit generator of the banking system, but if before its share was 40–50%, then after the crisis it was 60–70%, Ulyanova points out. The crisis contributed to the deepening of the gap between strong and weak players, which Sberbank was able to effectively take advantage of: it relied on an even greater attraction of retail deposits and by the end of 2015 - much earlier than other banks and the system as a whole - it replaced expensive Central Bank money with deposits .

Before the last crisis, the banking sector provided a seventh of the profits in the Russian economy, now it is about a tenth, so the role of Sberbank is very large, Zadornov admits. Sberbank, in addition, sets trends in the technology market, which is important both for competitors and for companies from other sectors of the market, he is sure. The former owner of B&N Bank, Mikail Shishkhanov, admitted to Vedomosti that he simply looked at Sberbank and repeated after him.

Foundations instead of oligarchs

“It is known how we had some additional issues [people’s IPOs] - they were bought by oligarchs on instructions,” said banking business guru and owner of Vozrozhdenie Bank Dmitry Orlov in 2010, clearly referring to Sberbank. Among the shareholders then was the owner of Nafta-Moscow Suleiman Kerimov, Galchev, the founder of Inteko and the wife of the then mayor of Moscow Elena Baturina. The previous team of managers actively lent to businessmen when they bought Sberbank shares, fortunately they could be pledged to the bank. Gref stopped this practice. Later, Western funds became interested in investing in the bank - in 2017, non-residents owned 45.4% of the shares of the state bank. Only the Central Bank has a large share.

Western investors are buying and holding its shares despite sanctions. Such shareholders make decisions based on profits and dividend payments, and these indicators at Sberbank are very strong and are based on fundamental, not opportunistic factors, Ulyanova notes.

The question of what will happen to the bank when Gref is not there is discussed by Tinkov: “In a sense, investors are hostages of this success - if he leaves, the bank’s capitalization will decrease. But Apple went through this with Steven Jobs, and Google.”

Even after Gref leaves, the bank will continue to move by inertia - this aircraft carrier is equally difficult to transform and to sink, Vardanyan is sure.

Tinkov believes that Gref’s personal managerial resource prevails over politics: “We compete with them [Sberbank], and their decisions are subordinated to commerce, not politics.”

Margarita Papchenkova and Elena Mukhametshina participated in the preparation of the article