Yuriy Vitrenko

Vitrenko Yuriy Yuriyovytch (Ukrainian: Вітренко Юрій Юрійович; born on 17 September 1976 in Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian economist, CEO of the investment company "AYA Capital", and Director for Business Development at the National joint-stock company "Naftogaz of Ukraine". On 21 December 2020 he was made acting Minister of Energy by the Shmyhal Government.[1]

Yuriy Vitrenko

Biography

Yuriy Vitrenko was born in the city of Kyiv on 17 September 1976.

His father, Yuriy Mykolayovytch Vitrenko (Ukrainian: Юрій Миколайович Вітренко; born on 21 September 1947 in the city of Romny, Sumy region), graduated from D. S. Korotchenko Kyiv Economic Institute (currently Kyiv National Economic University) where he majored in economics, specializing in finance and credit, and later acquired his PhD. Yuriy Mykolayovytch was awarded an honorary departmental decoration "For dedicated work, I degree" (2007) and the title of Honoured Economist of Ukraine (2007). In 1991–2010, he held various positions at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, retiring as Deputy Minister of Economy.

His mother,[2] Nataliya Mykhailivna Vitrenko (Ukrainian: Наталія Михайлівна Вітрéнко; born on 28 December 1951 in the city of Kyiv), is a Ukrainian politician, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Member of Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) of the II and III convocations, who ran for President of Ukraine in the elections of 1999 and 2004. Nataliya graduated from D. S. Korotchenko Kyiv Economic Institute; she has a PhD degree in statistics and is a Doctor of Economics.

Yuriy spent his childhood in Kyiv. In the 1980s, his father had already started his career working at DerzhPlan (the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR); his mother worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Statistics at the Kyiv Economic Institute. In 1991, after his parents' divorce, Yuriy stayed with his father. According to media reports, Natalia Vitrenko mentioned that her energetic political activities had been the main reason for divorce. At the age of 5, Yuriy started studying at the Ukrainian-language school No. 172 and became actively engaged in football training, attending the FC "Dynamo" academy. After the 8th grade, Yuriy enrolled in the economic class of gymnasium No. 153, while simultaneously attending classes at the KROK Kyiv Management School. Later on, this high-school level educational institution was reorganized into the Economics and Business Lyceum, from 1993 – Kyiv Business Lyceum. During his studies at the Lyceum, Yuriy participated in various academic events and competitions, was elected president of his class, and was a winner of the All-Ukrainian competition "Manager-selection".

Education, postgraduate studies

While studying at the Kyiv National Economic University, Yuriy completed coursework at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology, US, as well as taking part in various international student conferences.

  • 2002 – after passing 14 examinations and obtaining required professional experience Yuriy became a member of the "Association of Chartered Certified Accountants" (ACCA) – one of the major international accounting organizations—and became a Fellow of ACCA in 2007.
  • 2004 – Yuriy obtained an MBA degree from INSEAD, an international business school based in France and Singapore, thereafter taking up internship at Merrill Lynch, an investment bank in London, UK.
  • 2005 – became an Associate Member (ASI) of London Securities & Investment Institute, received Level 3 Certificate in Investments (Securities & Financial Derivatives).

Career

1991 – Yuriy got his first experience in finance at 14 years old, during his internship as assistant accountant at PJSC "Ukrinbank"; 1992 – 1993 – analyst at the Ukrainian financial group, while being a full-time student at the Kyiv National Economic University; 1995 – 1996 – second-category specialist at PJSC "Ukrinbank", International Settlements and Foreign Economic Activity Division; 1998 – 2002 – different positions at the management-consulting unit of "PricewaterhouseCoopers" (Coopers & Lybrand prior to the merger with Price Waterhouse), a leading provider of audit and consulting services. He left the company in 2002, having reached the position of Senior Consultant at the Management Consulting Services department. His main responsibilities included financial management, information systems for financial management, overall strategy and financial strategy. He was part of a team working on projects for major Ukrainian and international companies; May–September 2001 – Yuriy tried to combine his job at "PricewaterhouseCoopers" with academic endeavours, working as research assistant at the Department of International Integration Strategy of The Institute for Economic Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He quit this side-job, however, and decided to devote all his time to consulting, continuing his work at "PricewaterhouseCoopers"; 2002 – Yuriy agreed to participate in the project of developing strategy and creating a vertically-integrated company, undertaken for "Naftogaz of Ukraine", as an assistant to the Deputy Chairman of Naftogaz (until his admission to the MBA programme in 2003). Since then and up until now, he has been involved with the company in various roles, such as assistant to the Deputy chairman, Head of the Corporate Finance Department, Chief Advisor to the chairman, non-staff Advisor to the chairman, and Director for Business Development. During this time, Yuriy was involved in attracting some of the largest loans that the company has ever taken up, and was responsible for a successful restructuring of USD 1.6 bln worth of the company's international loans and eurobonds. 2004 – 2005 – after completing the MBA programme, Yuriy held the following positions at "Naftogaz of Ukraine": Head of the Financial and Economic Activity Planning Division, Head of the Corporate Finance Department, Deputy Head of the Department of Economics and Pricing. However, he voluntarily resigned from Naftogaz because of the biased attitude of Ukraine's top political leadership to Yuriy's surname. 2005 – 2006 – Yuriy was employed in the Investment Banking Department at the London office of Merrill Lynch. During that time, he worked on a number of M&A transactions in the Ukrainian, Russian and East European markets. 2006 – Yuriy tried to create a new high-tech retail bank in cooperation with partners. However, the project was not successful because of the changes in the partners' views on the future project development. 2006 – 2007– became first an Advisor, and then Chief Advisor to the chairman of the board of "Naftogaz of Ukraine". Yuriy arranged for international funding and was asked to undertake economic calculations and subsequent negotiations on gas prices and gas transportation charges with OJSC "Gazprom". His disagreement with the contracts as they were signed became one of the main reasons for his decision to resign. After his resignation, Yuriy published an article detailing his views in a leading Ukrainian weekly newspaper.[3] 2008 – 2010 – Senior Vice President and chief operating officer at «Amstar Europe», a private equity fund affiliated with Amstar Group headquartered in Denver, US. 2008 – 2014 – Yuriy was invited to help restructure Naftogaz's international debt (replacing it with newly issued Eurobonds) as non-staff Advisor to the Chairman of "Naftogaz of Ukraine". This position did not prevent Yuriy from constructively criticizing the government's policy of resolving the gas dispute with Russia, which he did by publishing a number of articles devoted to this issue. After the company leadership changed in *2010, Yuriy kept his non-staff advisor position, but the new leadership did not try to tap his advice. In 2010, Yuriy Vitrenko founded an investment company called "AYA Capital", of which he remains a co-owner. At the end of 2013, there were a number of media reports on AYA Capital's putative plans to take part in restructuring the debt of the bankrupt state-owned enterprise "Coal of Ukraine".[4] Among other things, AYA Capital conducts economic analysis, and its domestic and international reviews are publicly available on its website ayacapital.com. In particular, three special reports were published in March 2014: "Economic Reforms: Aren’t we missing the point?", "First actions of the new government: do they meet expectations about economic reforms?" and "Lustration and Amnesty: towards a new economic system", in which AYA Capital analysts provided their forecasts, recommendations and assessments regarding new government actions. Yuriy Vitrenko currently remains AYA Capital's CEO, having also returned to work at "Naftogaz of Ukraine", where he is holding the position of Director for Business Development. He is involved in the multilateral working group focused on developing, implementing and monitoring the efficiency of reforms, which are under way in accordance with commitments undertaken within the framework of the Energy Community [4]. Work for NJSC "Naftogaz of Ukraine" In 2002, Yuriy was involved in the project of creating a vertically integrated oil company (VIOC) on the basis of the state-owned enterprise "Ukrnafta". However, in 2004, it was decided to create a VIOC on the basis of Naftogaz.[5] Since then, the issue of control over Ukrnafta has remained unresolved. Yuriy Vitrenko comments on this long-standing conflict between "Naftogaz of Ukraine" and the Privat Group on behalf of the state-owned company. In the mid-2000s, he was involved in attracting investment to "Naftogaz". Since 2008, he has been involved in restructuring its debt.[6] Since 2014, when Yuriy Vitrenko resumed work at "Naftogaz of Ukraine", he has been involved in many high-profile initiatives aimed at reforming the energy sector and ensuring Ukraine's energy security:

  • Diversifying gas supplies to Ukraine;[7]
  • Filing a lawsuit with the Stockholm Arbitration Institute against Gazprom disputing the terms of gas transit through Ukraine;[8]
  • Reforming Naftogaz.[6]

Ukrainian media paid much attention to Yuriy Vitrenko in April 2014, when he was appointed Advisor to the Chairman of "Naftogaz of Ukraine". This stimulated active discussion of his political views. However, even earlier, in November 2013, in his interview to the Ukrainian weekly magazine "Vlast Deneg" Yuriy Vitrenko expressed his clear support of pro-European ideas, underscoring that Ukraine belonged with the European Union.[6]

At February 2020, Yuri Vitrenko filed a lawsuit in Kyiv Pechersk court because of non-payment of his bonus for winning the above mentioned lawsuit against Gazprom like other his colleagues. At December 2020 Yuriy Vitrenko was invited to pass position of Ministe of energy and First Vice-Prime-Minister by the Shmyhal Government. For his candidacy, according to the legislation, the Parliament of Ukraine must vote, but since he had a conflict of interest due to a lawsuit between him and NAFTOGAZ UKRAINE, most of the deputies did not want to support him even despite the promises of Yuriy Vitreno to reduce tariffs. Just a day before voting for the candidacy of Yuriy Vitrenko, NJSC NAFTOGAZ UKRAINE made a decision to issue government bonds for the entire amount of the award claimed by Yuriy Vitrenko, namely 170 MLN Hryvnias to remove conflicts of interest. On 17 December 2020 the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) did not support the appointment of Vitrenko to the post of First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Energy, Vitrenko didn't unable to get enough votes - 186 out of the minimum required 226.[1] Four days later he was made acting Minister of Energy by the Shmyhal Government.[1]

During the term of office of the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, Yuriy Vitrenko in less than a month fell into several loud scandals at once: he almost instantly allowed an increase in electricity by 30% for the population, which caused outrage among the population and numerous protests throughout the country, and also canceled several pro-European reforms in the coal and gas industries.

Yuri Vitrenko offered to buy gas from "independent gas companies" from Russia. To put it simply, buy gas directly from Russia. The economic benefits of such purchases were previously announced by the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Yuriy Vitrenko imposed restrictions on the functioning of the gas market in Ukraine, instead of using the modern European practice of regulating prices using European market instruments.

On the website of the President of Ukraine, activists of the "Tariff Genocide movement" created a petition demanding the return of the preferential tariff of 0.9 hryvnia for the first 100 kW / h, as well as dismiss the acting Energy Minister Yuriy Vitrenko.

On 6 January 2021 the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine is investigating why the ex-manager of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, received bonuses in the amount of $ 7.2 million. It is speculated that this could have been an abuse of power.[9]

On 28 January 2021 parliament again failed to appoint Yuri Vitrenko as First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Energy, 204 deputies voted for, 45 against, 62 abstained, 38 did not vote.[10]

Private life

Yuriy is married. Yuriy met his future wife Iryna while studying at the university. Iryna also graduated from the Kyiv National Economic University cum laude and later studied abroad. She has occupied senior positions at different international corporations in Ukraine, Poland, and the UK. Yuriy and Iryna have three children: Christina (born in 2004), Gregory (born in 2007) and Margaret (born in 2015).

Hobbies and lifestyle

Since childhood, Yuriy has been active in sports. He was training at the football academy of FC "Dynamo" (Kyiv). Yuriy is fond of skiing and is a member of the Ukrainian Ski Club. Yuriy’s hobbies also include kite surfing and golf.

References
  1. (in Ukrainian) The government appointed Vitrenko acting Minister of Energy, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 December 2020)
  2. Volodymyr Zelenskyy represents the ‘non-Maidan’ section of Ukrainian society, New Eastern Europe (29 May 2020)
  3. The economic justification for calculating transit rates and the cost of imported gas
  4. Yuri Vitrenko not comment on his company offered to buy back debt "Coal of Ukraine"
  5. VIOC: straight with zigzag
  6. Yuri Vitrenko: We can spend the winter without Russian gas
  7. Ukraine wants to stake out a place in the pipe Slovakia to the "big" reverse
  8. The issue of transit: Naftogaz has filed another lawsuit against Gazprom
  9. https://novyny.24tv.ua/bagatomilyonni-premiyi-vitrenka-nabu-rozshukuye-yogo-mayno_n1505609
  10. (in Ukrainian) Vitrenko was again not appointed First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Energy, Ukrayinska Pravda (28 January 2021)
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