Alexander Ponomarenko

Alexander Ponomarenko was born on October 27, 1964 in Crimea, Belogorsk City, Ukrainian SSR.

From 1983 to 1985, Ponomarenko served in airborne divisions of the armed forces. By the end of the 1980s, he was the junior boxing champion of Ukraine.

The two business partners later moved to Moscow and founded the Russian General Bank in 1996. In 2006, according to Vedomosti, the bank was sold to Hungarian OTP Bank for $477 million.

Following the financial crisis in 1998, the partners started buying up shares in cargo companies that eventually combined to form Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), which became the largest seaport in Russia.

In 2004, Ponomarenko was appointed the Chairman of NCSP. In 2007, NCSP had its initial public offering, listing 19.3% of total equity on the London Stock Exchange for US$955 million. At the beginning of 2011, the majority stake of NCSP was sold to Summa Capital and Transneft for US$2.5 billion.

In 2011, Ponomarenko purchased a "palace allegedly constructed for the private benefit of Russian president Vladimir Putin", now known as Putin's Palace. At the time of the purchase, Ponomarenko indicated that he had picked the palace up for "a song" and that the value of the complex may be as much as $350 million when the project was complete.

In 2013, the above trust acting in the interests of the families of Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko established TPS Avia Holding to invest in infrastructure development at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. In 2013, the company won a bid to develop a new cargo terminal at the airport. Ponomarenko joined the Board of Directors of JSC Sheremetyevo International Airport in 2015 and was elected its Chairman in 2016.

In 2016, TPS Avia secured 68% stake in Sheremetyevo Airport and committed to investing US$840 million to upgrade and expand the airport's infrastructure.

In 2017, it was reported in The Guardian that Ponomarenko had acquired Cypriot citizenship in 2016 through a "Golden visa" scheme.

Ponomarenko previously made the list in 2019. He ranked 31st on the Forbes list of "200 Richest Businessmen in Russia" in 2020.

In September 2020, Ponomarenko was named to Kommersant’s list of the top business leaders in Russia. He was among 46 business leaders within a list of the country’s top 1,000 managers chosen by a committee of experts from the Russian Managers Association.