Belyaeva Valentina Yakovlevna – head of complex technological flow No. 2 of the State Welding and Assembly Trust of the Ministry of Construction of Oil and Gas Industry Enterprises of the USSR.
Born on December 31, 1937 in the village of Alekseevka, Kamyzyaksky district, Astrakhan district, Stalingrad region, now Kamyzyaksky district, Astrakhan region. Russian.
She graduated from high school in 1953, entered the Astrakhan Oil College, from where she transferred to the Stalingrad Oil College and graduated in 1957. Since 1957 - installation operator, installation manager at the Novogorkovsky oil refinery in the city of Kstovo, Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) region.
Since 1962, throughout his life, he has been continuously working at the State Welding and Assembly Trust, which was then located in the city of Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Territory, and carried out the construction of the Zaterechny-Grozny oil pipeline and the Stavropol-Ukraine-Moscow-Leningrad gas pipeline. The first position in the trust is gasification foreman.
But already in 1963, the trust was transferred to the development of oil and gas fields in Western Siberia and was based in the city of Urai, Tyumen region, where it carried out tasks for the construction of the Druzhba oil pipeline. Together with the trust, V.Ya. arrived in Siberia. Belyaeva, worked as a construction site foreman, foreman, and head of the construction and installation site of construction and installation department No. 13. Since 1967 - head of the site of specialized department No. 4 of the trust in Perm, since 1970 - head of the site of specialized department No. 6 of the trust in Ukhta, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . Since 1980, as part of the trust, she carried out work on laying the main route of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline.
Since 1982 - head of complex technological flow No. 2 of the welding and installation trust, continuing work on the construction of the same gas pipeline. The stream-based method of organizing construction and team contracting that she proposed was introduced. This organization of work made it possible to achieve a rate of pipe laying in the main line of the gas pipeline of 21 kilometers per month, which was 2.5 times higher than the industry norm.
For outstanding services in the construction of oil and gas industry enterprises and in connection with the early commissioning of the main gas pipeline Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod at its installed capacity by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 6, 1983 Belyaeva Valentina Yakovlevna awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Continues to work in the industry at the same enterprise (since 1993 - joint-stock company). Since 1988 - head of specialized department No. 4 of the trust. Since February 2000, he has been the General Director of the joint-stock company Welding and Installation Trust, which is building gas and oil pipelines throughout the Russian Federation. Over the years of work in the industry, with her direct participation and under her leadership, the oil pipelines Shaim - Tyumen, Gorky - Ryazan, Gorky - Yaroslavl, Tengiz - Novorossiysk, gas pipelines Punga - Ukhta - Torzhok, Vyngapur - Chelyabinsk, Central Asia - Center, "Northern Lights" were built ", Nyuksenitsa - Plesetsk-Mirny, Yamal - Europe, SRTO - Torzhok, Gryazovets - Vyborg, Bovashinovo - Ukhta, Baltic pipeline system, North European gas pipeline, oil products distribution transshipment complex in the city of Vysotsk, the Yuzhno-Shapkinskoye oil and gas condensate field with a main oil products pipeline has been developed , a lot others. In 2013, the personal fortune of V.Ya. Belyaeva was valued at $65 million.
She was elected as a deputy of the Pochinkovsky District Council of People's Deputies (Gorky Region).
Lives in the hero city of Moscow.
Awarded the Order of Lenin (10/06/1983), the Red Banner of Labor (03/02/1981), the medal “For Labor Distinction” (07/01/1966), and other medals.
State Prize of the Republic of Mordovia (2000). “Honored Builder of the Russian Federation” (05/31/1998). “Honorary Oil and Gas Builder” (2002).
CEO
OJSC "Welding and installation trust"
Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Mordovia, Honored Worker of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Russia, General Director of OJSC Welding and Assembly Trust
After graduating from school, she entered the Astrakhan Oil College (department of “Transport and storage of oil and gas”). Valentina Belyaeva wrote her thesis on the topic: “Construction of main oil and gas pipelines.”
Having graduated from the Stalingrad Oil College in 1957 with a degree in mechanical engineering, V.Ya. Belyaeva received assignment to the city of Kstovo, for the construction of the Novogorkovsky oil refinery.
In 1982, by order of the Minister of Oil and Gas Construction of the USSR B.E. Shcherbiny V.Ya. Belyaeva is appointed head of the Integrated Process Flow No. 3 (KTP-3) for the construction of the transcontinental gas pipeline Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod from pipes with a diameter of 1420 mm.
Under her leadership were: a team of mechanized insulation and laying columns, crews of earth-moving equipment, a ceiling welding team, a team for the installation of technological overlaps, and an enlarged team was created for the routine maintenance and repair of all equipment that the flow had. This is how the production basis of the team was created, which included the best, proven specialists.
For the achieved results in 1983 V.Ya. Belyaeva was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
In 1988 V.Ya. Belyaeva headed Specialized Department No. 4. To preserve the enterprise during the difficult period of the formation of market relations and the winding down of large-scale oil and gas construction, she was able to reorient the team, while maintaining traditional activities, to laying utility networks in areas of mass construction in Moscow, significantly expanded the geography of work, becoming involved in gasification rural areas of the Republic of Mordovia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga, Oryol regions.
In April 2000, the meeting of shareholders elected Valentina Yakovlevna Belyaeva General Director of OJSC Welding and Installation Trust.
Valentina Yakovlevna Belyaeva was a direct participant in the implementation of the largest projects in recent years: a section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline and the North European gas pipeline, which are of exceptional importance for transporting oil to sea ports; 240 km of the Tengiz – Novorossiysk (CPC) pipeline with a diameter of 1016 mm in the Stavropol Territory; the Yaroslavl – Kirishi oil pipeline and the Pravdino and Palkino oil pumping stations, which are part of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS); oil pipeline to the Kambarskaya oil depot on the territory of the Republic of Udmurtia with a length of 33 km. A section of the Perm–Almetyevsk product pipeline with a length of 121 km was built in the Urals. ,construction of onshore pipelines of the international project Sakhalin-II and many other facilities.
Under the leadership of V.Ya. Belyaeva OJSC “Welding and Assembly Trust” carries out extensive charitable activities.
Hero of Socialist Labor V.Ya. Belyaeva was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, was awarded the title “Honored Worker of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Russia”, is a laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Mordovia - for high achievements in gasification of populated areas (2000), has the title “Honorary Oil and Gas Builder” (2002) in 2007 awarded Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, and many public awards.
According to the SPARK-Interfax database and lists of affiliated persons, 22.9% of SMT shares belong to the chairman of the board of directors Alexei Mikhailichenko, 20% to Valentina Belyaeva, and the same amount to her son Sergei, the executive director of the trust. Another 20% belongs to Deputy General Director for Economics Lyudmila Nevler, 11% belongs to the Head of the Production and Technical Department Lyudmila Kapralenko, 0.24% belongs to Deputy General Director for Supply Sergei Nazarov (the remaining 6% is controlled, according to Belyaeva, by almost 180 more shareholders ).
All current owners have worked for the trust most of their lives and have known each other for just as long. The average age of members of the SMT board of directors is 73.6 years, top managers are over 60 years old. The transformation of the state trust into a private company has changed almost nothing for them, Belyaeva admits: “We just continue to work as before. I never even think about the fact that we are some kind of separate shareholders.” More than 20 dynasties work at SMT, and the company’s main office does not at all look like a faceless administrative building - rather, it resembles an apartment where photographs from objects, gratitude and diplomas are hung on the walls. All issues in the trust are still resolved jointly: they train new personnel, help with housing, they even have a small pension fund of their own, says Belyaeva. “The old workers appreciate all this and don’t leave, but the young people don’t fit in very well: the conditions are difficult,” she adds bitterly.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of SMT Alexey Mikhailichenko led the trust for 20 years, but in 2000 he transferred management of the company to Valentina Belyaeva
Fight for survival
The welding and assembly trust was founded in 1947. During Soviet times, he built sections of almost all the country’s main gas and oil pipelines, participated in the development of 59 fields, and even built the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. “There were dozens of such trusts in the Ministry of Oil and Gas Construction, but only one has survived,” notes Mikhail Altmark, first vice-president of Stroygazconsulting, with regret.
In the early 1990s, large oil and gas construction projects came to a standstill and the SMT management for the first time had to think about business diversification. Alexey Mikhailichenko, who then headed the company, was familiar with the head of the Moscow Construction Complex, Vladimir Resin, and through him asked Yuri Luzhkov, who was then mayor of Moscow, to accept the trust as part of the city’s construction assets. Resin's representative did not respond to RBC's request.
Luzhkov accepted the offer, and SMT began to engage in laying communications in new areas of Moscow. “We built water pipelines, heating networks, and sewerage systems in Mitino, Lyubertsy and Maryino. Then they began to build the second phase of Zelenograd and for ten years laid all communications in this city. The trust did in a year what Moscow builders did in two years,” Mikhailichenko says proudly.
In 1993, corporatization took place. “They wanted to split us into departments of 350 people, but we didn’t allow this: at the general meeting we decided that we wanted to be incorporated as a single company,” recalls Mikhailichenko. At that time, 4.5 thousand people worked at SMT. Privatization took place in two stages: first, employees bought 50% plus one share of the company (the top management then had only 1%). Three to four months later, the owners of the remaining 49%, the State Property Committee and the Moscow government, announced new auctions for 25 and 24% of the trust, respectively. “In order to buy out the remaining shares, we, together with the State Property Committee, had to open points for accepting applications for participation in auctions in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ukhta (Komi),” says Mikhailichenko.
Until the end of the 1990s, the company continued to lay communications in Moscow and began to engage in gasification of the regions - Mordovia, Komi, and the Oryol region. “We survived lack of money and the collapse of the currency, they paid us with cement and vodka. We built everything that was offered, that’s why we survived: we didn’t refuse any work,” says Belyaeva.
“Before the default, we invested the money we earned in projects frozen by Gazprom - we slowly completed construction of the facilities using our own funds. It was clear that the concern would soon still need these facilities, adds Mikhailichenko. “As a result, the company received payment for the constructed gas pipelines at new, post-default prices.”
At the beginning of the 2000s, the Russian economy began to grow, and monopolies began building new pipelines. In 2000, SMT began work on large-diameter oil pipelines Tengiz - Novorossiysk (KTK) and the Baltic pipeline system, and later Gazprom began building new lines.
In 2000, the head of LUKOIL, Vagit Alekperov, invited Alexei Mikhailichenko to head LUKOIL-Neftegazstroy (now Globalstroy-Engineering). “Alekperov promised large-scale projects, I agreed, and handed the trust over to Valentina,” says Mikhailichenko, who retained his seat on the board of directors of the trust. He returned to SMT in 2008, is now responsible for production and occupies an office opposite Belyaeva. A LUKOIL representative did not respond to RBC's request.
“Constructions of the Century” and SMT
"Sakhalin-2"
More than 800 km of oil and gas pipelines running parallel and designed to transport gas from the north to the south of the island. SMT built 380 km of routes at Sakhalin-2
Gryazovets - Vyborg
The Russian part of Nord Stream is 917 km long, with a design capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. m per year. SMT built 190 km of the first line of the gas pipeline
Bovanenkovo - Ukhta and Ukhta - Torzhok
Gas pipelines with a length of about 1.1 thousand km, with a design capacity of 140 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year and 1.3 thousand km, with a capacity of 81.5 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year, respectively. SMT built 134.5 km of pipe on Bovanenkovo - Ukhta, 100 km on the Ukhta - Torzhok gas pipeline and two compressor stations - Chikshinskaya and Sosnogorskaya
After another crisis in 2008, construction of gas pipelines proceeded unevenly; in 2010 and 2013, SMT revenue fell by almost half compared to previous years. The trust was forced to look for other sources of income, for example, it built several compressor stations. The company came out of these projects with losses, but Belyaeva claims that she decided to build the stations for image reasons: once again it was necessary to prove to large general contractors that “SMT can do it.”
Customers and competitors
Workers of the Welding and Installation Trust welded the first joints of many of the largest gas pipelines in recent years. In archival photographs from the start of construction of the second line Gryazovets - Vyborg (through which export gas enters the Nord Stream) in 2005 and the first line Bovanenkovo - Ukhta (intended for transporting gas from the Yamal fields) in 2008, Belyaeva stands next to the head of " Gazprom" Alexey Miller.
Under her leadership, SMT over the past 15 years has built sections of the Yamal - Europe, Pochinki - Gryazovets, Ukhta - Torzhok gas pipelines, both Gryazovets - Vyborg lines, the Southern Corridor, the Sakhalin-2 gas pipeline and oil pipeline, sections of the Tengiz - Novorossiysk and Baltic oil pipelines pipeline system under contract from Transneft. “The company can make 400 km of large-diameter pipes per year, but on average we produce 200 km - then the economy is normal,” says Belyaeva.
In 1983, the current general director of SMT, Valentina Belyaeva, was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the introduction of an integrated method in the construction of main gas pipelines (Photo: Anton Berkasov for RBC)
The main customer of such pipelines is Gazprom, but SMT rarely works directly with it. “For the last 10-12 years, most of our contracts have been subcontracts, so collecting a portfolio of orders every year is a test,” admits Belyaeva. When asked who the trust’s main competitors are, he jokes: “Everyone!” Most often, SMT enters into contracts with companies with which it competes in tenders, but the cost of contracting under this scheme is reduced by 30% or more. A Gazprom representative did not respond to RBC's request.
The bulk of Gazprom's contracts are traditionally divided among three main general contractors: Arkady Rotenberg's Stroygazmontazh, Stroytransgaz CJSC, controlled by Gennady Timchenko, and Stroygazconsulting, which grew under Ziyad Manasir and is now owned by Gazprombank and the UCP fund managed Ilya Shcherbovich. How does SMT manage to survive surrounded by such giants?
“When choosing a subcontractor, we invite the Welding and Installation Trust first,” says Andrey Klepach, Deputy General Director of Stroytransgaz for onshore oil and gas construction. According to him, the trust has a reputation as a company that always delivers what it promises: SMT can work on complex sites and has never failed. “We work with everyone who offers orders, and we always try to fulfill them efficiently,” agrees Belyaeva. She negotiates with customers personally. “Valentina never allowed anyone to sit on her neck,” notes Mikhail Altmark. “Belyaeva stands her ground to the last and defends the interests of the trust,” agrees Alexey Polyakov, general director of Transneft North, another major customer of SMT.
The heads of Stroytransgaz, Stroygazconsulting and Transneft interviewed by RBC could only name SMT's direct competitor only the Armenian company Zakneftegazstroy - Prometheus, which is largely similar to it, although it has significantly reduced its presence on the Russian market in recent years. “There are practically no subcontractors who are capable of working on large-diameter pipes: some disappeared into large general contractors [like Lengazspetsstroy and Krasnodargazstroy at Stroygazmontazh], others simply went bankrupt,” says Klepach.
SMT’s position in the market is determined by how successfully the company cooperates with major players such as Stroytransgaz, Stroygazconsulting and Stroygazmontazh, summarizes Sergey Ter-Sarkisyants, advisor to the general director of Stroytransgaz.
Trust in yourself
“Valentina comes from the system of the Ministry of Oil and Gas Construction, she retained both the previous system and people in the trust,” says Mikhail Yakibchuk, first vice-president of Stroygazconsulting. “The most valuable thing for a contractor is people, and at SMT, every person for five, they have been working together for decades,” Altmark insists.
At noon, at a long table in Belyaeva’s office, secretary Galina serves lunch for the inhabitants of the second floor: earthenware, simple hearty food - salad, fish soup and main course. Lunch looks the same in the canteen at the Black Mud SMT base near Moscow. Here they repair equipment, prepare materials for shipment to sites, and retrain welders. The buildings of Black Mud, trailers and even a gazebo near a small pond with crucian carp are decorated with carved forged gratings - they are made here in one of the workshops. Belyaeva visits the base regularly, at least once every two months. She personally checks the variety of dishes in the canteen and the cleanliness of the workshops. “The general director will pluck my mustache for being dirty at work,” jokes one of the Black Dirt employees.
SMT in numbers
73.6 years— average age of members of the board of directors of SMT
53 years old General Director Valentina Belyaeva works at SMT
278%
amounted to the growth of the trust's revenue in 2014
72,5%
amounted to a drop in the trust's revenue in 2013
Women's novels with big business
Just don’t compare them with Vassa Zheleznova. Otherwise, the enlightened public will laugh for a long, long time, until they cry. The heroine of Gorky's play is by no means a model for modern businesswomen. Another century, a different pace and style of life, in some ways European, in some ways American. Although let’s be fair: some of our businesswomen still “do business too much in the Russian way,” demonstrating an irresistible will, exceptional determination and a stubborn reluctance to raise their hands when attacked by merciless competitors.
"Sickle and Hammer" of the trust's general director
Perhaps the most unusual, most striking character in the ranking of the fifty richest women in Russia, published in the autumn issue of the quarterly business publication Forbeswoman, can be considered the General Director of OJSC Welding and Assembly Trust (SMT), Valentina Belyaeva. Experts estimate her fortune - 19.9% of SMT shares - at $50 million. But who, tell me, will try to estimate how much this woman, who has been engaged in one thing for more than half a century - the construction of main pipelines in the country, has endured on her shoulders.
She is from the generation of “children of war”. Her native village of Alekseevka was not in the front line. But even there, not far from the Caspian Sea, the harsh breath of the great Battle of Stalingrad was felt. In the mid-fifties, young Valentina will come to the hero city. After graduating from an oil technical school in Stalingrad, she will go to her first construction site in Kstovo, where the Novogorkovsky Oil Refinery was being built. Then she will have a lot of them, construction projects - over a vast area from the Sakhalin to the Baltic shores.
Let's think for a minute: why did Boris Evdokimovich Shcherbina, who headed the Ministry of Construction of Oil and Gas Industry Enterprises of the USSR for more than ten years, appoint Valentina Belyaeva in 1982 as the head of Integrated Process Flow No. 3 for the construction of the transcontinental gas pipeline Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod? Is there really no experienced Siberian engineer in the industry to fill this position? It’s simple: the famous minister knew the builders very well. He knew that even the ace team leaders admitted: “Belyaeva is a specialist with God’s spark. Her decisions are always verified and accurate.”
In 1983, Valentina Belyaeva experienced her finest hour: a Decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR conferring on her the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Imagine how a professional accuser, playing the role of a left radical in front of his household, will perk up at these words, and how he will scream hysterically: our heroine has become bourgeois, has become a privatizer. Yes, Belyaeva and her closest employees privatized SMT. But any other options could be disastrous for the team. It is easy to guess what would have happened to the trust if it had been taken over by patented swindlers, “guild workers” with a criminal past, who sewed slippers and caps. There would be nothing left of it - it would have been resold and plundered many times.
SMT survived in the “wild nineties”. And its specialists, who went through the excellent Soviet school, did not remain idle. They have participated in the implementation of major projects in recent years. Such as the Yamal - Europe gas pipeline, the Baltic pipeline system and others.
Elena Baturina changed region
It was in the “roaring nineties” that the business career of Elena Baturina began, who, with a fortune of one billion dollars, is first on the list of the richest entrepreneurs in the Russian Federation. In an interview with Forbeswoman, she said, not without pride, that a study of her “worker-peasant ancestry right back to the 16th century” testified that in the Baturin family “there is no one but Russians.”
But it was not this “discovery” that influenced the transformation of the creator of a modest metropolitan cooperative into the owner of the large Inteko company. Other springs came into play here. It is clear that she is unlikely to ever agree that her “ascent to a billion” would have been impossible without the active use of the enormous administrative resource available to her husband, Yuri Luzhkov, who served as mayor of Moscow for 18 years. And yet, and yet...
After his resignation in 2010, she sold Inteko to Mikhail Shishkhanov, who is a close relative of the oligarchic Gutseriev clan. “So far I have completed the “business in Russia” project, that’s for sure. Probably, my, so to speak, insight and wisdom, “sung” in the media, do not allow me to step on the same rake,” it is said, not without humor. However, it does not prevent you from feeling: the wife of the ex-mayor knows her worth. And Yuri Luzhkov does not miss the opportunity to pay tribute to his wife’s talents: “I still admire my wife’s originality. She always, even in difficult cases, finds non-standard solutions.”
But in the case of “embassy lands” the word “always” is clearly inappropriate. Let's not think about how the Inteko company got the space that, according to Foreign Ministry officials, was intended for the construction of Moscow representative offices of foreign states. Let us only note that after Luzhkov’s resignation, this tidbit of capital space was seized by the Russian authorities. But, apparently, Baturina still hopes for a successful outcome: she wrote and still writes to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the illegal, from her point of view, seizure of “embassy lands” and is suing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There are many experts in “Moscow life” who know whose side the capital’s court would have taken seven or eight years ago. But let's not engage in frivolous historical reconstructions. It’s better to listen to how projects are being implemented in the West, in which the money received from the sale of Inteko was invested: “In principle, we now continue to do the same thing as in Russia - construction, development. We just changed the region, now we work in America and Europe." How easy and simple it turns out to be in the global world economy: just change the region...
And one more amazing statement: “By the way, I was pleasantly surprised: it seemed to me that the most profitable business could only be done here, in Russia.” According to Baturina, if projects in the West are selected correctly, then “the profitability can be comparable to what we received in Russia, even higher.”
But this is hard to believe. Nowhere on the planet, except our country, have senior officials been so eager to quickly cultivate dollar billionaires. No wonder, in post-Soviet Russia, successive governments invariably followed the main neoliberal slogan: “The less state in the economy, the better for the economy.” In order to raise the first hundred billionaires, it took gardeners from the Cabinet of Ministers not centuries, not decades, but a few years.
The parable of the fishing rod and the swamp with frogs
To get an idea of Baturina’s business interests, mentioning construction and development is not enough. Let’s not forget about the network of four hotels in Austria, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Russia, managed from its head office in London, about the alternative energy project that is supposed to be implemented in Italy, and, of course, about Luzhkov’s agribusiness in the Kaliningrad region. He “plans to feed the Russian fleet with buckwheat” and wants to recreate the Romanov breed of sheep. He takes special care of horses: after all, they awaken memories of the time when Elena Baturina was involved in equestrian sports.
The oligarchic world is bizarre and cruel. Its inhabitants live a life that in no way intersects with the original people. They often look surprised: why are there so many poor people in a “society of equal opportunities”? So, like them, in 1991 we received not a fish, but a fishing rod. But for some reason our bite is always excellent, but their float doesn’t even twitch. Well, let's answer the metaphor with a metaphor: the officials simply sat you down at a baited fishing spot, sending the poor people to the muddy shore of a mud-covered swamp, where only frogs are found. However, the business of the super-rich, convinced that they have managed to deceive everyone, is not as sustainable as it might seem. At the first whiff of the financial and economic crisis, they send an SOS signal to the government. This winter, it spent hundreds of billions of rubles to save private banks and enterprises.
And the Cabinet of Ministers has new expenses ahead. The August turmoil on the global stock market caused panic in the community of Russian oligarchs. When they came to their senses, they discovered that several entrepreneurs, whose assets had plummeted in value, had to leave the ranks of dollar billionaires. Among them was Alexander Lutsenko, who together with his wife Natalya owns 90% of the shares of the Sodrugestvo company, which began with the sale of compound feed. Then, having built oil extraction plants in the Kaliningrad Special Economic Zone, it became one of the largest producers of vegetable oils in the Russian Federation. The terminal in Kaliningrad, owned by Sodruzhestvo, has a similar specialization: it transships tropical vegetable oils.
In general, the business of the couple, whose combined fortune was estimated at $1.1 billion, was very profitable. And it is not surprising that in the Forbeswoman rating, Natalya Lutsenko followed Baturina at number two: after all, her capital “weighed” $550 million. But now this is a figure from yesterday. After calculating the losses suffered by the family tandem at the end of summer, it, according to experts, may decrease by a quarter.
Problems of revaluation of one's own assets have not escaped the deputy general director of the TAIF group, Guzelia Safina, who, with a fortune of $430 million, ranks third in the list of the richest entrepreneurs in our country. Now the company where she has been working for almost twenty years is going through hard times. Brothers Airat and Radik Shaimiev, sons of the first president of Tatarstan, who are among the co-owners of TAIF, recently lost their status as dollar billionaires. There is nothing to be done; the collapse of the world stock market is usually accompanied by the emptying of the pockets of unwary tycoons. But Kamilya, the granddaughter of Mintimer Shaimiev, who ruled the republic until March 2010, was right: in the summer of 2014, she sold her two percent stake in TAIF. Apparently, it was quite successful. According to a women's business publication, her current net worth is $190 million.
The ex-wife of the oligarch made the wrong address
Finding themselves at the helm of hydrocarbon, industrial, transport, construction, information technology and other companies of various profiles, our entrepreneurs diligently demonstrate that the ladies' aphorism: “Our strength is in weakness” is not about them. Often their management style is much tougher than that of men. As one businesswoman said, “In our country, any manifestation of sentimentality is vulgarity, and nothing more.”
Of course, we must keep in mind: even the complete transfer of capital into kindred female hands does not mean that yesterday’s owner of the business has retired forever. Sometimes this is just a cover operation, allowing, in particular, federal officials to avoid accusations of violating legal and ethical standards: they say, you have a conflict of interest; while doing business, you are using your official position. But as soon as the assets are transferred to the boss’s wife, he is clean and blameless.
For several years now, we have heard every now and then from the press service of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation: Igor Shuvalov is not involved in business and does not participate in the management of family capital. Here the first violin is played by his wife Olga - the main custodian of the common “little box” with 125 million dollars.
Well, now about one of Igor Shuvalov’s predecessors - Vladimir Potanin, who served as First Deputy Prime Minister in 1996 - 1997. The inventor of loans-for-shares auctions, he launched the next stage of the plunder of the Soviet industrial heritage: highly profitable industrial giants were sold to the “selected” for pennies. Naturally, Potanin and his companion Mikhail Prokhorov were not left without a prize; they got the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine.
By the standards of the business community, life is good: this spring Potanin, whose capital, according to Forbes magazine, grew to $15.4 billion, became the richest entrepreneur in the Russian Federation. But is the pedestal on which the oligarch was erected so strong? The fact is that he has a series of trials ahead with an unpredictable outcome. The ex-wife of super-rich man No. 1, who filed lawsuits in Russia, the United States and Cyprus, claims half of Potanin’s shares in Norilsk Nickel and Interros.
This story could be considered unworthy of public attention, if not for one circumstance. If she wins the case in court, Natalya Potanina “plans to transfer to the state management” of the Norilsk Nickel assets that become her property. She did not take into account one thing: the mission of our government comes down not to managing private capital - it is sacred and inviolable for officials - but to selling off state-owned companies. There is a lull at the privatization fair now. And the crisis will end, and its gates will open wide to the cries of barkers: “Fly in, gentlemen! State property is becoming cheaper right before our eyes!”
On the last day of the outgoing year, Valentina Yakovlevna Belyaeva, director of Welding and Installation Trust OJSC, celebrates her “round” birthday - a living legend among her colleagues and a symbol of the entire industry.
More than half a century in service
| Dear Valentina Yakovlevna! | |
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| On the day of your anniversary, we, your employees and students, recall with pleasure the years, some decades, of joint friendly work under your leadership in the difficult field of building oil and gas pipelines. It was a time of impressive labor achievements that the whole country was talking about. You have devoted your entire life to strengthening the economy of your Motherland, serving the people, writing new bright lines in the history of the country. You never strive to follow the beaten path, preferring your own path, which always leads you to success. And we are proud to be with you. Over the decades of your work, you have demonstrated the extraordinary qualities of a talented leader, a decisive reformer, a brilliant economist, the ability to grasp the whole picture, identify the most pressing problems in it, and propose unexpected solutions. You are always bursting with ideas, radiating irrepressible energy, demonstrating fantastic performance and an unwillingness to retreat and give up. How time is compressed, how tightly - link to link - the successes of the team of the Welding and Assembly Trust, which you successfully head, are welded into a single chain! Your multifaceted activities have once again confirmed the old truth: “His Majesty Success always accompanies those who persistently move towards Her Majesty Goal.” I wish you health and further work for the benefit of our Motherland! E.A. Serikov, Deputy General Director of OJSC "SMT", S.I. Kuznetsov, head of the AVP "Ipatovo" section and the entire team of the Welding and Assembly Trust. |
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What to do if you were born a fragile woman, but a leader by nature? And what if your position in life does not allow you to remain in the shadows? Valentina Yakovlevna simply solved this issue 50 years ago. She got a job at the Welding and Assembly Trust and stayed here forever. A brilliant, solid career, woven from numerous labor victories and successes on a national scale, was crowned in 2000 with the election to the position of general director of the oldest, one of the country's largest enterprises for laying main pipelines.
Pipeline construction is a complex and at the same time amazing industry, in which mathematical precision and creativity, a high technical level of knowledge and inspiration, technology and enormous human potential are magically intertwined. The creators of main pipelines are one of the most skillful units in the army of builders. Like no other structures, the lines of main transport systems have always been an indicator of the level of development of the national economy.
Valentina Yakovlevna has all the qualities of a leader of just such a team. Her character highlights the facets of her talent as an administrator and professional, a person with rare charm and adamant in achieving her goal. She managed to implant all her personal qualities into the fabric of her favorite work, to which she has devoted herself completely for more than half a century.
Always first!
Not everyone is given the opportunity to be first. You must have an indomitable, high-caliber character. Exactly the same as Valentina Yakovlevna Belyaeva’s. It is no coincidence that she entered the history of the development of the oil and gas complex as an active participant in several large projects that became milestones in the development of the economy of the country and its regions.
In the early 80s, Valentina Yakovlevna was appointed one of the leaders in the construction of the transcontinental gas pipeline Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod. This megaproject, grandiose in scale, was considered one of the most important even in the USSR, a country with a powerful economy. Belyaeva brilliantly coped with problems of any complexity, and there were many of them on the track. And she even managed to think through, justify and prove a fundamentally new construction method. Her proposals were innovative and broke stereotypes that had been established for decades, which seemed unshakable even among seasoned professionals.
Today, the flow-dissected method she proposed seems like a “classic of the genre,” but thirty years ago it became a major step forward in the practice of oil and gas construction, and thanks to its use in the industry, labor productivity significantly increased. Suffice it to say that gas builders began laying 1 kilometer of finished pipes every day (or 20 kilometers per month), significantly speeding up the pace of work. This fact is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. And the government awarded the famous innovator the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. And there are many such facts in her biography.
Bright leader
More than half a century of activity of Valentina Yakovlevna, from the first day to the last, is illuminated by the high meaning of serving her homeland and people. The daily circle of her worries is truly the circle of life. She draws the reserves of her own spirit from communicating with her colleagues, of any rank, who see in her a person always ready to help in word and deed. Her calmness and confidence create a zone of attraction that people always guess correctly. A leader always radiates powerful energy, which, in turn, generates energy in the people around him. Especially if this leader is a Woman.
Belyaeva is characterized by a large-scale vision of the problems of industry development, constant research and high professionalism in the implementation of practical tasks in preparation for the implementation of the next project. Oil and gas engineers are a nomadic profession. It is important not only to complete the next order within the stipulated time frame, but also to confirm the high level of the team’s image. And here we must say about one more character trait of the general director - her constant concern for people. Wherever the next construction begins, the work starts with the arrangement of everyday life and recreation, and the creation of community towns. Valentina Yakovlevna personally checks the readiness of these facilities. For example, she tastes food and helps young chefs with advice, and, if necessary, she stands at the stove herself, preparing food for several hundred hungry men.
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Chinese wisdom says: “Elegant words are untrue, true words are ungraceful.” Valentina Yakovlevna can always find the right words, understandable to everyone present. She knows how to talk with employees sincerely and confidentially; after the conversation, they seem to grow wings. By nature, constantly charged with energy, able to look at problems through a magnifying glass, with a rare ability to bring things to a victorious end, she is both wise and passionate at the same time in her favorite work. She never tries to look “white and fluffy” and does not give up her positions and principles. Always and consistently defends the letter and spirit of laws and state interests with everyone. The search for truth is more important to her than any conventional barriers. Therefore, she is called the first everywhere, no matter what she undertakes. The best leader and specialist, the best mother and grandmother, the best cook and the soul of the company, at the same time does not make concessions to himself or those around him. Because the most important thing in life for her is Business.
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Fate issued a long-distance ticket to Valentina Yakovlevna’s activities. And today the trust team performs important tasks, they are set by the key partner of the trust, Gazprom OJSC. The trust, headed by its illustrious leader, is a direct participant in the implementation of the largest oil and gas projects in recent years: Yamal-Europe, North European, Tengiz-Novorossiysk, Yaroslavl-Kirishi, Sakhalin-2 and many others. The projects are of critical national importance and are designed to strengthen the country's economy. This is the whole meaning of her life.