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Businessman and philanthropist (born 1957)
Sir Leonard Blavatnik is a British-American businessman and philanthropist. As of April 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at $26.5 billion, ranking him the 75th-richest person in the world.
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Blavatnik was born in Odessa in 1957, then in the Ukrainian SSR and part of the Soviet Union, to a Jewish family. His parents moved to Yaroslavl, a Russian city north of Moscow, when he was a child. He attended Moscow State University of Railway Engineering but did not complete his coursework due to the family's request for emigration visas. At the University of Railway Engineering, he became close friends with Viktor Vekselberg, another Ukrainian Jew, who would go on to found Renova Group. Blavatnik's family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States of America in 1978 and, in 1981, he received a master's degree in computer science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.
In the wake of sanctions targeting Russian oligarchs during the Russo-Ukrainian War, media attention debated Blavatnik's status as a Russian oligarch, and his corresponding connection to Vladimir Putin. Some outlets have suggested Blavatnik has been involved in reputation laundering through his philanthropic projects, and that he maintains close connections to Viktor Vekselberg, an oligarch sanctioned by the US government. Blavatnik denies connections to Putin, and has attempted unsuccessfully to avoid the label of oligarch. In December 2023, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed personal sanctions against Blavatnik.
In 1986, Blavatnik founded the holding company, Access Industries. The New York-based business controls 21% of LyondellBasell, the world's largest producer of polypropylene. Through Access Industries, Blavatnik owns most of Warner Music Group, and conducts most of his business operations.
Blavatnik established the Blavatnik Family Foundation, which supports higher education, good governance, early-stage scientific research, arts and culture, and Jewish history. Educational institutions supported by Blavatnik have included Yale University, Harvard University, and Oxford University. In 2011, Blavatnik donated more than £50 million to the Tate Modern gallery in London – the largest donation in the gallery's history. In 2017, the gallery named its new extension the Blavatnik Building. Some critics, such as Ann Marlowe, have characterized his donations as influence-buying and whitewashing. A letter signed by 21 academic was published in The Guardian also criticizing Blavatnik's donations and Oxford University's decision to accept them.
Blavatnik is married to Emily Appelson Blavatnik. The couple have four children. He owns a Grade II listed building in London on "the most expensive street in the world", Kensington Palace Gardens (number 15), which is valued at £200 million. He acquired the property in 2004. Other residents on the street include Israeli and Russian ambassadors. He also has a residence in Manhattan valued at more than $250 million. Blavatnik holds British, American and Greek citizenship.
Biographical detail compiled from Wikipedia and Wikidata, which are edited openly and may be incomplete or out of date. Fleet data is our own. Source →
