Corporate Governance - Biography

Director since: 2011 

Committee memberships: Executive 

Professional Experience: Mr. Blavatnik has served as a director and as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Company since July 20, 2011. Mr. Blavatnik is the founder and former Chairman of Access, a privately held, U.S. industrial group with global strategic investments. He previously served as a member of the Board from March 2004 to January 2008. Mr. Blavatnik provides financial support to, and remains engaged in, many educational pursuits. Mr. Blavatnik is a member of boards at Oxford University and Tel Aviv University, and is a member of Harvard University’s Committee on University Resources, Global Advisory Council and the Task Force on Science and Engineering. In 2010, the Blavatnik Family Foundation committed £75 million to establish the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Mr. Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation have also been generous supporters of other leading educational, scientific, cultural and charitable institutions throughout the world. Mr. Blavatnik is a member of the board of directors of the 92nd Street Y in New York, The Mariinsky Foundation of America, The Carnegie Hall Society, Inc. and The Center for Jewish History in New York. He is also a Trustee of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Blavatnik emigrated to the U.S. in 1978 and became a U.S. citizen in 1984. He received his Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1981 and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1989. Mr. Blavatnik is the father of Valentin Blavatnik. 

Skills and Qualifications: Mr. Blavatnik brings beneficial experience and attributes to the Board, among which is his extensive experience advising companies, particularly as founder and former Chairman of Access and in his role as a former director of UC Rusal plc and TNK-BP Limited. In addition, Mr. Blavatnik possesses experience in advising and managing publicly traded and privately held enterprises and has significant expertise with the corporate finance and strategic business planning activities that are unique to leveraged companies.