Mikhail Prokhorov Russian tycoon and politician, who is best known for instituting ‘Onexim’, Russia’s largest private commercial bank, and for owning ‘Brooklyn Nets’, NBA basketball team. Prokhorov’s enterprising spirit and flashes of entrepreneurial streaks were visible right from the time when he enrolled at Moscow Financial Institute. He did odd jobs as a college student, including manufacturing and selling acid-washed jeans, and admitted to earning much more than a highly qualified engineer. He joined International Bank for Economic Cooperation after his graduation as a management trainee. After a few years, he founded the Onexim Bank with Vladimir Potanin, first deputy-PM of Russia, under Boris Yeltsin’s regime. His bank advanced loans to the cash-strapped Russian government in lieu of stakes in the public companies that owned Russia’s abundant natural resources. Mikhail Prokhorov is credited with privatizing Norilsk Nickel, a Russian nickel and palladium mining and smelting company, and turning it into the biggest nickel and palladium producer worldwide. Later on, he traded his holdings in Norilsk in exchange of over $5 billion in cash and a controlling stake in Rusal—the world’s largest aluminum producer. He attracted the attention of the public and the media when he contested against Vladimir Putin in the 2012 Russian presidential election, as an independent candidate.
