Yelena Baturina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yelena Baturina
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| Елена Батурина | |
Baturina in 2013
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| Born |
Yelena Nikolayevna Baturina
8 March 1963 |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Occupation | Founder of Inteco and Be Open |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Viktor Baturin (brother) |
Yelena Nikolayevna Baturina (Russian: Елена Николаевна Батурина; born 8 March 1963) is a successful businesswoman and a philanthropist from Russia. She is known for founding the company Inteco. She was married to Yury Luzhkov, who was the mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010, until he passed away in 2019.
For a time, she was considered the richest woman in Russia. She has a lot of experience in business and has been involved in many different projects around the world.
Contents
About Yelena Baturina
Yelena Baturina was born in Moscow. After finishing high school, she started working as a design-technician at a tool plant where her parents also worked.
- 1980–1982: She worked as a technician and then a senior design engineer at the Frazer plant.
- 1982–1989: She was a researcher at the Institute of Integrated Economic Development of Moscow. She also worked for the Russian Union of United Cooperatives and a commission on cooperative activity.
- Since 1989: She began her own private business activities.
- 1991–1994: She was the director of LLP "Inteco".
- 1994–2011: She became the president of CJSC "Inteco".
- 2006–2011: She helped lead a group focused on making "Affordable and Comfortable Housing" for Russian citizens.
Baturina met her husband, Yury Luzhkov, in 1987. They were both working for a city commission at the time. They married in 1991, and the next year, he became the mayor of Moscow. In 2010, her husband left his position as mayor. After this, Baturina moved to London because her two daughters decided to study there.
In 2011, a newspaper called The Sunday Times mistakenly said that Baturina had bought a very large house in London. The newspaper later apologized for the mistake and paid her damages.
Her Business Career
Inteco Company
In 1989, Yelena Baturina started her first business with her older brother, Viktor. They first worked with computer software and hardware. In 1991, Baturina founded her company, Inteco. It started as a plastics business but soon focused on construction.
In 1994, Inteco bought a plastic factory. In 1998, the company won a contract to make 85,000 seats for Luzhniki Stadium, which is Moscow's biggest stadium. Some people thought her husband, the mayor, helped with this decision. However, Inteco said their price was much lower than other companies.
In the mid-1990s, Inteco started building. They focused on new materials and ways to build, like making cement, bricks, and concrete buildings. They also worked on architectural design and real estate.
In 2001, Inteco bought a large share in DSK-3, one of Moscow's main house-building factories. After making it more modern, this factory could build 500,000 square meters of homes each year. Baturina said this was her first big step into construction.
At one point, Inteco was thought to handle a large part of the construction in Moscow. However, experts said that from 2000 to 2010, Inteco's share in government construction projects was actually small.
In 2005, Inteco sold its cement factories. This helped the company focus its money and efforts on new construction projects. In 2006, Baturina was asked to help lead a group working on "Affordable and Comfortable Housing" for people in Russia.
Later, Inteco sold DSK-3 and focused completely on building modern homes and business properties. Baturina also invested in shares of large Russian companies like Gazprom and Sberbank. This smart move helped Inteco pay back its bank loans early during a tough economic time in 2009.
By 2007, Inteco was a very large company with many different parts. Its income was about $1 billion. In 2008, Inteco was listed as one of the 295 most important companies in Russia. In 2009, Inteco started working with a famous Spanish architect, Ricardo Bofill, to create new housing designs for Russia.
In 2010, Inteco began building a second academic building for Moscow State University. Baturina was also named one of Russia's largest taxpayers in 2010. By the end of 2010, Baturina sold her Russian Zemelny Bank to investors from other countries.
Some of Inteco's big projects in Moscow included:
- The "Shuvalov" residential area (270,000 square meters).
- The "Grand Park" residential area (400,000 square meters).
- The "Volga" residential area (400,000 square meters).
- The "Fusion Park" complex, which included a museum of unique cars.
- The Fundamental Library and the academic building for Humanities at Moscow State University.
After her husband left his role as mayor, Baturina started selling her businesses in Russia. The company Inteco was sold to Mikail Shishkhanov and Sberbank Investments. The exact price was not shared, but experts thought Inteco was worth about $1.2 billion.
Hotel Business
Yelena Baturina also started a hotel chain. Her first hotel was the five-star Grand Tirolia Golf & Ski Resort in Kitzbühel, Austria. It was finished in 2009. This hotel became famous as the "Home of Laureus" in Austria, hosting a big sports awards ceremony. In 2018, the hotel was sold.
In 2010, Baturina opened the New Peterhof Hotel in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This hotel won several awards for its design. In 2012, after a lot of work, Baturina opened the Quisisana Palace in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. This hotel is in a beautiful old building from the late 1800s. In 2013, Baturina opened the Morrison Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. She bought it in 2012 and spent money to make it even better. It was sold in 2022.
Grand Tirolia Hotel and Resort, Kitzbühel
This was the first hotel in her chain. It is located in the Eichenheim golf club in Kitzbühel, Austria. It was finished in 2009 and sold in 2018.
Quisisana Palace, Karlovy Vary
The Quisisana Palace is a beautiful, old building from the 19th century that was restored. It is now a small, fancy hotel with 19 rooms, a restaurant, and a wellness center. It opened in September 2012.
New Peterhof, St. Petersburg
The New Peterhof Hotel opened in June 2010 in Saint Petersburg.
Baturina has said she wants to keep growing her hotel chain in different parts of the world.
Development Business
In late 2015, Baturina opened an office in New York. She invested $10 million in commercial buildings in Brooklyn and looked into building new homes there.
In November 2016, Baturina's companies started a construction project in Europe. They bought land on the coast of Limassol, Cyprus. They began building a fancy apartment building called Symbol Residence in 2019. This project cost over 40 million Euros.
Membrane Construction
In autumn 2015, Baturina's companies became a major investor in Hightex GmbH. This is a company in Germany that builds structures using special fabric-like materials called membranes.
Renewable Energy
Since 2014, Baturina's investment group has been working on a project to create and use clean, renewable energy in Europe. In 2018, her company started its first energy services project in Cyprus.
Her Brother
In 2007, Yelena Baturina had a disagreement with her brother, Viktor Baturin, about business matters. He later faced legal issues.
Helping Others (Philanthropy)
Yelena Baturina has been involved in helping others through charities since the 1990s. Her main goal is to make the world better by supporting new ideas, design thinking, and the creativity of young people.
Since 2012, her international charity work has been done through the BE OPEN Foundation. BE OPEN is based in Switzerland. It aims to connect smart people and new, promising young talents. It does this through conferences, competitions, exhibitions, special classes, and art events.
BE OPEN has worked with famous designers, international brands, schools, and cultural groups. It has also partnered with governments and city organizations, like the Government of India and the Mayor's Office in London.
Mrs. Baturina also served as a trustee for the Mayor's Fund for London for two years. She is also a vice-president for Maggie’s, a charity in the UK that helps people with cancer.
BE OPEN Foundation
BE OPEN is a cultural and social project started in 2012. Yelena Baturina funds it. Its goal is to use the ideas of creative leaders through events like conferences, competitions, and art shows.
BE OPEN wants to connect today's great thinkers – like designers, artists, and writers – with the talented young people of the future. It also helps these thinkers meet people in media and business to share their ideas and make positive changes happen.
The foundation officially started at Milan Design Week in 2012. It worked with a leading design magazine, Interni, and had a big presence at the event.
BE OPEN returned to Milan Design Week in 2013 with an experience that involved many senses. They explored how colors and tastes, or smells and sights, can be connected. In 2015, they had a fascinating "Garden of Wonders" exhibit about redesigning old perfume brands.
In 2014, with help from the Indian government, BE OPEN created an important exhibition in Delhi. It showed works by promising local designers. The goal was to encourage artists to find new ways to use their traditional skills and keep them alive.
BE OPEN has also been part of other big design events around the world. These include Design Basel, Design Miami, and the London Design Festival. They have also worked with the Mayor’s Fund for London on several charity programs.
At its public events, BE OPEN often celebrates the winners of student competitions with exhibitions and award ceremonies. For the past four years, the foundation has run a competition program to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These are goals set by the United Nations to make the world a better place.
In 2020, BE OPEN started an online art gallery called BE OPEN Art. It helps new artists from all over the world get noticed. It also helps artists connect with art collectors. This gallery was created to help artists during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, BE OPEN Art started BE OPEN Regional Art. This is a series of competitions for new artists. It aims to support artists whose work best shows their local culture and identity. There are four stages each year, and a winner is chosen for each stage. The winners receive cash prizes. Also, a selection of the best artwork from each region is shown in an exhibition. This helps share the art with many people and celebrates the artists.
In June 2023, BE OPEN Art held an exhibition in Nicosia, Cyprus. It showed artwork from the Eastern Mediterranean region. Many people attended, including the artists, their families, and representatives from government and art groups.
Her Life Outside Work
In 1991, Yelena Baturina married Yury Luzhkov. Their first daughter, Elena, was born in 1992, and their second daughter, Olga, was born in 1994. In 2010, her husband said in an interview that they were sending their daughters to study in London to keep them safe from possible difficulties in Russia. Yelena Baturina owns a house in Aurach, Austria, and spends a lot of time there.
It is known that her family also owns a home in the nice Kensington area of London. This property was bought in 2013 and was reported to be worth a lot of money in 2018. Baturina has often said that she and Luzhkov were very lucky because they loved each other. She enjoys cooking his favorite dish, borscht, and says her traditional "Soviet upbringing" taught her to be a good homemaker.
Yelena Baturina has not been in contact with her brother since a public business disagreement in 2007.
From 1999 to 2005, Baturina was the President of the Equestrian Federation of Russia. She successfully raised money to help develop horse riding sports in Russia.
Baturina also runs the BE OPEN Foundation, which she started in 2012. BE OPEN works closely with the Mayor's Fund for London. Baturina was a trustee for the Mayor's Fund for London from 2017 to 2019.
Her Wealth
In 2021, a list called the Sunday Times Rich List estimated Baturina's wealth to be over £1.1 billion. In 2018 and 2019, her wealth was estimated at $1.2 billion. In 2020, Forbes magazine announced that another businesswoman, Tatyana Bakalchuk, became the richest woman in Russia.
According to Forbes, Baturina's wealth grew from $1.1 billion in 2004 to $4.2 billion in 2008. However, during a financial crisis in 2009, her wealth dropped to about $1 billion. By 2012, it was listed as $1.1 billion.
In the 2000s, Baturina owned hotels, a lot of farmland, and a factory that made condensed milk. In the next decade, she owned hotels in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Dublin. Now, most of these properties are no longer connected to her.
She owns a private jet. She also has one of the largest private collections of Russian Imperial porcelain, especially from the time of Nicholas I. In April 2011, Yelena Baturina gave about 40 pieces of her rare porcelain collection to the "Tsaritsyno" museum in Moscow.
In 2011, Baturina won a lawsuit against a British newspaper. The newspaper had wrongly said she bought a very expensive estate in London. The newspaper later printed a correction and apologized.
Awards and Recognition
Yelena Baturina received the State Prize of the Russian Federation for Science and Technology in 2003. Her company, Inteco, and its projects have won many awards, including:
- The "Russian Building Olympus" prize for "Architecture and Design Planning" (2008).
- "Brand of the Year/EFFIE 2007".
- A national prize for "Construction and Real Estate" (2008).
- The International Star of Leadership award for quality (Paris, 2009).
- "Company of the Year" national prize for "The Best Investment and Construction Company in Russia in 2009" (2009).
- The International Award for Technology & Quality (Madrid, 2010).
- The International Construction Award (France, 2011).
Images for kids
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Yelena Baturina in 2013
See also
- List of female billionaires
