Andrey Kosogov was born on March 15, 1961 in the town of Sillamäe (Estonian SSR). In 1968 he moved with his parents to the city of Slavyansk in the Donbas, where he finished school, worked as a laboratory assistant and prepared to enter university. In 1979, at the age of 18, he was drafted into the army. After two years in the army he returned to work at the school.
In 1981, Andrey Kosogov enrolled in the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI), specializing in nuclear power plants. He was one of ten Lenin Scholars at MPEI, awarded for excellence in studies, and worked actively in the construction brigades. In 1985 he was awarded the Medal of Success for outstanding work at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. In 1986 he was awarded the Medal for Labor Valor by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Andrei Gromyko.
In 1987 he graduated magna cum laude.
After graduation, Kosogov was appointed to work at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, but due to the 1986 nuclear accident, the move did not take place. In the same year he was invited to graduate school, where he successfully enrolled.
In 1987, Andrei Kosogov became deputy secretary of the MPEI Komsomol Committee. In 1988, as a result of alternative elections on the wave of democratization, he was elected its secretary. He became nearly the youngest (27 years old) leader in this position in the history of the MPEI, second only to 22-year-old A.D. Pelipei, who was elected secretary in 1942.
Due to the change in the political course of the country in 1990, Andrei Kosogov was one of the first in Moscow to leave the Communist Party, disbanding the Komsomol organization of the MPEI.
In 1990, Andrey Kosogov returned to his department as an engineer. Together with his colleagues — professors, Ph.D. scientists and researchers — he created a small research and production enterprise at MPE, the Center for Automation of Thermophysical Research (CATR), where he worked as commercial director for two years. The center still exists today and produces measurement and computing systems, sensors. and software.
According to Andrei Kosogov's own recollections, in 1992 he accidentally came across an advertisement in Moscow News announcing that "a financial group needed a director". After calling the number listed in the ad, he found himself in the waiting room of Mikhail Fridman, who initially did not want to consider his candidacy, as he was looking for a person with a higher education in economics to launch the new division. But Kosogov's energy and curiosity prevailed: a thermal physicist by profession, he mentioned that he had recently read Paul Samuelson's two-volume book on economics after "standing in a huge line at the Progress bookstore on Park Kultury.” "That cracked the code," Kosogov said, and Fridman then invited him to a personal meeting.
The meeting took place in a very modest little office. "We talked for about an hour, we talked about a lot of things, and at that time nobody really knew what to do in the investment field: there were no professionals, there were no headhunters, there was nothing," the future shareholder recalls. A few weeks later, Fridman called and invited Kosogov to work with him. And so, on October 2, 1992, Andrey Kosogov began working for Alfa Group.
A few days later, during the wave of privatization in Russia, the law on the creation of a securities market was passed. In November 1992, the Alfa Capital management company and the Alfa Capital privatization fund were established. "In a month and a half, we actually went from a complete lack of understanding of what to do and how to do it to the creation of a real organization," recalls Andrey Kosogov. He became CEO and Chairman of the Fund's Board of Directors, a position he held until 1999. Today, Alfa Capital is the only fund in Russia that has remained in operation since privatization.
Under the leadership of Andrey Kosogov, Alfa Capital has completed a number of successful transactions. One of them was the acquisition of shares in regional cement plants across Russia and their subsequent merger into Alfa-Cement Holding, which was then sold to the German company HeidelbergCement at a high profit. In 1997, one of the most important transactions in Alfa Group’s history took place: Andrey Kosogov and partners, together with Len Blavatnik's Access and Viktor Vekselberg's Renova, became the owners of a 40% stake in Tyumen Oil Company (TNK).
After the merger of Alfa Capital and Alfa-Bank in 1999, Andrey Kosogov became First Deputy Chairman of the Board and Head of the Investment Block. He was responsible for direct investments, treasury, interbank relations and even risk management. Kosogov also received a stake in the group and became a full co-owner.
Alfa-Bank withdrew from trading in short-term government bonds before the 1998 global economic crisis, which saved it from major financial losses. Despite the challenges of the time, the bank maintained its stable position and remained reliable. Andrey Kosogov personally played an important role in this, as a number of successful transactions took place under his leadership, including.
Andrey Kosogov founded and headed AlfaStrakhovanie (Alfa Insurance) in 2003 and became its Chairman of the Board. In 2007 he handed over his responsibilities to Pyotr Aven before returning to AlfaStrakhovanie in 2022.
In 2005, Andrey Kosogov left his position at Alfa-Bank and moved away from operations, retaining only a seat on the Board of Directors. Soon after, he became the head of Alfa Asset Management, which merged Alfa Capital Management and the Alfa Capital Partners investment company.
Andrey Kosogov emphasizes that throughout his time at Alfa Group, he was solely responsible for business processes, was a non-public figure, and did not interact with political authorities in any way.
In 2013, the Russian state corporation Rosneft bought 100% of TNK-BP's shares in the oil company. At that time, the share of Alfa-Bank's co-owners in the company was about 25%. The total value of the transaction was $13.86 billion, of which Andrey Kosogov received $570 million.
The funds from the sale of the oil business were used to establish LetterOne, an investment holding company in which Andrey Kosogov became a member of the Board of Directors. As of 2022, the owners of LetterOne had assets with a total value of $18.654 billion, including:
In 2022 there was a redistribution of shares in Alfa-Bank. Andrey Kosogov, who previously held a 3.67% stake, received 41% of the company and became Alfa-Bank's largest shareholder.
Andrey Kosogov is involved in private philanthropy; since 1996 he has continuously supported a hospital for children with diseases of the central nervous system. He is also an individual participant in a program to support elderly Russian scientists.
Together with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, Kosogov restored a temple at the site of Yuri Gagarin's death. He considers himself an "educated atheist".
1985 - Medal of Success for outstanding work at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow.
1986 - Medal of the USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Gromyko.
2018 - Winner in the Industry Legend category of SPEAR'S Russia Wealth Management Awards, the first annual awards in the field of private banking and asset management in Russia.
Since 2009, Andrey Kosogov has been ranked annually in the Forbes top 100 list of Russia's richest businesspeople. In 2022, he was ranked 76th. In the Forbes global ranking for 2023, Kosogov's fortune was estimated at $1.1 billion.
Andrey Kosogov does not tend to advertise the details of his private life.
According to the media, Andrey's wife Svetlana is a fashion designer who specializes in creating men's suits. The businessman has three children. In 1986, the family had a daughter named Olga, a daughter named Alina in 1991, and a son named Yaroslav in 2015.
Andrey Kosogov does not own and has never owned real estate abroad, nor does he own private yachts or airplanes.
Andrey Kosogov: I have never owned villas, residences, airplanes or yachts. I have, however, traveled halfway around the world...
Andrey Kosogov has many unusual and even extreme hobbies. These include regular trips with a team of like-minded people to the most remote places above the Arctic Circle. A surprising fact: Andrey does not like fishing, but he loves and knows how to "revive" fish after they have been caught in order to release them back into the water. "Revitalizing fish and returning them to nature is a science in itself," says the businessman.
Another of the entrepreneur’s notable scientific hobbies is astrophysics. One of our outstanding contemporaries, according to Andrey Kosogov, was the Russian astronomer Andrey Sklyarov. "He knew how to summarize any complex problem in such a way that everyone could understand it," says Andrey Kosogov. In Andrey Nikolaevich's office hangs an image of the Crab Nebula, which exploded in the constellation Taurus and is the remnant of a supernova star. The images were taken by different high-resolution telescopes and superimposed to create a color image. Kosogov is confident that intelligent life forms exist beyond our planet. "There may be worlds out there that are billions of years older than us. I think even a million years is enough to be in a completely different league," says Kosogov.
Andrey Kosogov is a serious sports enthusiast: he plays hockey, runs, bikes, and does weight training and "physical training according to his own system".
In addition, Kosogov is interested in alternative world history and painting — he even has a small collection of paintings in his office.
