Andrey Rappoport
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Andrey Natanovich Rappoport (born June 22, 1963, in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is an economist and executive with a career spanning the banking and energy sectors, as well as an international investor and philanthropist. He was one of the founders of Alfa-Bank — one of Russia's largest private financial institutions — and served as its first Chairman of the Board from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2009, he held senior leadership positions at RAO UES of Russia and the Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System. Since 2015, he has lived in Switzerland, where he runs his own asset management business.
Andrey Rappoport | |
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Андрей Раппопорт | |
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| Born | June 22, 1963 |
| Education | PhD from the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences |
| Alma mater | Donetsk State University |
| Occupations | entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist |
Early Life and Education
Andrey Rappoport was born on June 22, 1963, in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, Ukrainian SSR to Nathan and Tamara Rappoport. Soon after he was born, the family relocated to Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast, where he received his secondary education.[1][2]
In 1984, he enrolled in Donetsk State University to study economics. He completed an internship at Santa Clara University as part of a student exchange program.[2][3] In 1989, he graduated with a degree in national economic planning.[3]
In 1997, he earned his PhD from the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with research focused on the development and performance of management teams in the commercial sector.[4]
Professional Career
Early Career (1989–1991)
In 1989, Andrey Rappoport began his career as a consultant at EKOU-Consult in Novaya Kakhovka, a firm that helped businesses adapt to the market economy. In early 1991, he founded the Conso & K brokerage firm in Donetsk.[5][2]
Alfa-Bank: Founding and Leadership (1991–1997)
In late 1991, Rappoport was invited to help establish a major commercial bank — the future Alfa-Bank — and was appointed Chairman of the Management Board.[2][3]
His job was to build a full-service bank from scratch, with no existing infrastructure. He assembled a team of professionals and got all the core business lines up and running. His approach to growth was deliberately cautious, with an emphasis on the quality of banking products rather than geographic expansion. In 1997, Andrey Rappoport sold his 15% stake in the bank and stepped down as Chairman of the Management Board.[4][5]
YUKOS-Rosprom (1997–1998)
In 1997, Rappoport became First Vice President of YUKOS-Rosprom, a company that managed equity stakes in various industrial enterprises, with responsibility for economics and finance.[3]
Rappoport built out a team and led the merger of Eastern Oil Company, which included the significant asset Tomskneft.[3][5]
He left YUKOS-Rosprom in 1998.[2]
Alongside his executive career in Russia, he also began building a foreign investment portfolio in the mid-1990s, acquiring securities through Swiss banks.[3]
RAO UES of Russia (1998–2004)
In 1998, Andrey Rappoport joined RAO UES of Russia as Deputy Chairman of the Board, focusing on financial stabilization and completing unfinished power plants. He resumed stalled projects, commissioning the Boguchany and Bureya hydroelectric plants, the Northwest TPP plant, and others.[4]
To resolve approximately $800 million in CIS energy debts, he initiated a debt-for-assets swap that secured controlling stakes in Ekibastuz GRES, Telasi, and other companies, forming the basis of Inter RAO UES. He later served as Chairman of its Board of Directors.[2][4]
Rappoport was a member of the RAO UES Board from 2004 to 2008 and left the Russian energy sector entirely following the company’s dissolution in 2009.[2]
Rusnano (2012–2013)
In 2012, Rappoport joined Rusnano, a state-owned nanotechnology corporation, as First Deputy and adviser to the Chairman of the Board. He remained in this role for less than a year.[4][5]
He was brought in to audit the company's investment portfolio — separating high-potential investments from underperforming assets — and to work with Bain & Company on a structural overhaul of the corporation's operations.[4][5]
Move to Switzerland (2015)
Rappoport has lived in Switzerland since 2015. By February 2022, he had exited all of his Russian business holdings, shifting his focus entirely to the foreign investment portfolio he had begun building in the 1990s through Swiss financial institutions.[2][5]
Investment Activities
In 2016, he began assembling a professional team to manage his investments, bringing in specialists with experience in Western markets. This marked the beginning of a more systematic approach to investment management and coincided with the establishment of a family office in Switzerland.[4]
By 2023, the family office had evolved into Tira Management, a dedicated wealth management firm. Today, Andrey Rappoport is an investor in more than 100 private and venture funds and works with leading Swiss and international banks.[4]
Among his most successful early investments are Datadog, a cloud infrastructure monitoring company that went public on the Nasdaq in 2019 and was added to the S&P 500 in 2025, and German food delivery company Delivery Hero, which listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2017 and joined the DAX index in 2020.[4][6]
Philanthropy
Andrey Rappoport and his spouse Irina Eduardovna Rappoport have been involved in philanthropic work for more than 30 years. In November 2023, they established the FAIR Charitable Foundation of Andrey and Irina Rappoport.[4]
The foundation focuses on five areas: education, scientific innovation, music and the arts, social and humanitarian initiatives. Its primary programs are concentrated in Switzerland, Italy, Portugal.[2][3]
Education has been a central focus of his philanthropic work since his years working in Russia. In 2006, he participated in the launch of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo charitable project. It was the first nonprofit business school of its level in Russia. It was conceived from the outset as an independent initiative, operating without government participation.[2][3]
From 2011 to 2016, Rappoport served as President of Skolkovo, combining executive leadership with teaching responsibilities. After stepping down from this role, he remained a member of the coordinating council, without involvement in day-to-day operations. In early 2022, he ended all ties to the school.[2]
From 1996 until early 2022, Rappoport was a bureau member and one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress charitable foundation. He stepped down from the organization's Board of Directors in March 2022.[3][5]
As part of its cultural programming, the FAIR Charitable Foundation has been a long-standing sponsor of a music festival in Lerici, Italy. One of the family's major projects is its support of the conservatory and music university in Lugano, Switzerland, as well as the creation of Città della Musica — a regional music ecosystem.[2]
Irina Eduardovna Rappoport serves on the foundation's Board and has been actively involved in its work since its founding. Philanthropy has been her sole professional focus since the 2000s.[3][2]