Mikhail Khodorkovsky

In 1989 he established MENATEP, one of the first Russian commercial banks. Took control of Yukos and made it a profitable company,the leader of the world power market, with capitalization of US$40bn.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born 26 June 1963 in Moscow to an ordinary family. His parents were engineers at a Soviet plant (Kalibr). The family never had spare money and lived in a so-called shared apartment till 1971, when they were provided with their own home.
As a boy Mikhail was fond of chemistry and later entered Moscow chemical-engineering university. Due to the poor family situation Mikhail didn’t find it possible to be supported by this parents and being a first-year student worked as a carpenter. His job wasn’t an obstacle to getting good education – Mikhail performed as the best student of the course. Despite excellent knowledge, skills and joining Komsomol (Young Communist League) Khodorkovsky couldn’t calculate on a good position after graduation from the University – his origin played a trick on him, his father was a Jew. The Soviet authorities made it impossible for Jewish people to work at researching institutes or get easily promoted >>>