Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik (born June 14, 1957) is a Ukrainian-born American-British business magnate and philanthropist. As of March 2022, Forbes listed his wealth at $35.4 billion, making him somewhere between the 20th- and 33rd-richest person in the world. In 2017, Blavatnik received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.
Blavatnik made his initial fortune after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the privatization of state-owned aluminum and oil assets. He owns most of Warner Music Group and has stakes in several publicly traded assets via his privately held U.S. company Access Industries Holdings. He refers to himself as a self-made billionaire.
Blavatnik’s owns a majority stake in Warner Music Group, a record label and entertainment conglomerate. He acquired the company for $3.3 billion in 2011, investing $1.2 billion in cash, and listed it on the Nasdaq exchange in June 2020, raising $1.9 billion. He holds his investments, public and private, through Access Industries, a New York-based company he created in 1986.
He owns a 20.5% stake in publicly traded chemicals manufacturer LyondellBasell, the world’s largest producer of polymer compounds, according to its website. He also owns DAZN, a global live sports streaming platform, in which he’s invested more than $4 billion as of 2023.
Blavatnik sold a 12.5% stake in Russian oil joint venture TNK-BP for $7 billion to Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, in March 2013, after collecting almost $5 billion in dividends from 2004 to 2012.
Through his tech division, Access Technology Ventures, his investments include Opendoor Technologies and Digital Ocean. Access Biotechnology invests in companies that develop transformative therapies for conditions with high unmet needs. Its portfolio includes Day One Biopharma, which focuses on pediatric cancer, and late-stage clinical drugmaker, Acelyrin.
Through Access Real Estate, he owns personal and commercial properties around the globe valued at approximately $2.8 billion, according to the company. His holdings include the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat in the south of France and the Faena Hotels.
In Israel he owns Clal Industries, one of the country’s biggest diversified investment groups, whose holdings include a majority stake in Israel’s sole cement producer.
The value of closely-held assets are included based on information provided by a Access in May 2023. The assets are detailed in the individual valuation notes and verified independently where possible.
Biography
Early life and education
Education: Columbia University, Harvard Business School, Moscow State University
Blavatnik was born in 1957 in Odesa, then in the Ukrainian SSR and part of the Soviet Union, to a Jewish family. Blavatnik’s parents moved to Yaroslavl, a Russian city north of Moscow, when Blavatnik was a child. Blavatnik attended Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, but did not complete his coursework due to the family’s request for emigration visas.
At Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, Blavatnik became close friends with Viktor Vekselberg, another Ukrainian Jew. Vekselberg would later go on to found Renova Group.
His family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States of America in 1978, and he received a master’s degree in computer science from Columbia University‘s School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1981 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.
After school, Blavatnik worked at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where he developed pattern-recognition software that helped the school catch cheating students. He later worked at Andersen Consulting and Macy’s, where he became director of information services. He began investing in New York real estate and soon recognized the opportunities emerging in Russia.
He incorporated Access Industries, a holding company, in 1986. Four years later, he partnered with his former classmate Viktor Vekselberg to make investments in aluminum businesses that were being privatized by Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The two began buying smelting factories, and eventually combined those assets into United Co. Rusal, now the world’s second-largest aluminum producer. Access divested its interest in UC Rusal in a private transaction in 2022.
With Vekselberg and three billionaire partners from Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group, Blavatnik acquired a 40 percent stake in TNK in 1997, taking control of the former state-owned oil company that had interests in several West Siberian oil fields.
BP later paid almost $7 billion to become a 50 percent owner of TNK. Fridman and his partners consolidated the other half under the holding company Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR). Their venture created TNK-BP, Russia’s largest foreign oil investment. The partnership was rife with drama, including executive departures and lawsuits. But it was lucrative, paying out $38 billion in dividends through 2012. Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, bought AAR’s half of the venture for $27.7 billion in March 2013.
In the past decade, Blavatnik has accelerated his acquisitions, including his purchase of the now-merged chemical companies Basell in 2005 and Lyondell in 2007. Operating under heavy debt in a weak economy, LyondellBasell filed for bankruptcy in 2009. It emerged a year later, with financing from Access, among others. Its market cap surpassed $30 billion in 2020.
Blavatnik turned his sights to the music industry in 2011, buying Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion. He listed it on the Nasdaq Exchange seven years later, raising $1.9 billion. Through Access’s entertainment division, he’s produced numerous Hollywood films and Broadway productions. He has a multi-billion dollar stake in London-based DAZN, now the world’s largest sports streaming platform.
His philanthropy, The Blavatnik Family Foundation, donates to scientific, cultural and educational institutions and fellow charitable organizations. He endowed the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University with a 75 million-pound gift in 2010.
Milestones
- 1957 Born in Ukraine.
- 1981 Graduates with a master’s degree from Columbia University.
- 1986 Incorporates holding company Access Industries.
- 1989 Gets an MBA from Harvard Business School.
- 1996 Forms aluminum company SUAL with Renova’s Viktor Vekselberg.
- 2003 Joins TNK-BP partnership between BP, Alfa-Access-Renova.
- 2010 Funds Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
- 2011 Acquires Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion.
- 2013 State-owned Rosneft buys AAR’s TNK-BP stake for $27.7 billion.
- 2015 Launches live sports entertainment platform DAZN.
- 2016 Founds Access Entertainment.
- 2017 Knighted for services to philanthropy,
- 2018 Donates $200 million to Harvard Medical School, its largest gift ever.
