Pyotr (Petr) Aven - Biography

Petr Olegovich Aven (Petr O. Aven) (Петр Олегович Авен; b. March 16, 1955, in Moscow) is a Russian businessman and politician. Petr Aven graduated from Moscow State University in 1977 and holds PhD in Economics (1980). Subsequently, Petr was a senior researcher at the All-Union Institute for Systems Studies at the USSR Academy of Sciences and then spent time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria (1989–1991).

Mr. Aven went on to become the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federaion (1991–1992), serving as Russia's representative to the Group of Seven and conducting a number of high-level trade and economic missions to Western capitals. In 1993 he joined the Russia's Choice movement and was a candidate for State Duma.

Business Activities

Since October 1994 Mr. Aven has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium. From 1994 till June 2011 was the President of Alfa Bank Russia. Currently Mr. Aven is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Alfa Banking Group. Aven is also Chairman of the Board of Directors at AlfaStrakhovanie Group, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of CTC Media, Inc.

Public Activities

Petr Aven holds a number of public facing positions:

• A member of the Endowment Foundation Board of Trustees of the New Economic School.
• A trustee of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CERP) in Great Britain.
• A member of the Board of Trustees of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
• A trustee of the Board of National Association for National Financial Reporting Standards.
• A member of the Council of Trustees of the Russian Olympians Foundation.
• A professor at State University Higher School of Economics.
• Since April 2006, Petr Aven has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

In 2007, Mr. Aven became Chairman of the Russia-Latvian Business Council.

Petr Aven is the author of numerous scientific papers and articles on economic and trade issues and is widely quoted in the financial and trade press on matters related to the Russian economy and trade policy. Mr. Aven has acted as a guest professor and lecturer at numerous universities, including Yale University, Bar-Elan University (Israel), and the University of Glasgow and has published two books on econometrics and on economic reform and numerous articles in Russian and international journals, including in Communist Economies and Economic Transformation in Economic Policy. Yale University Press and the Kiel Institute of World Economics, and other scientific and academic institutes have published Mr. Aven's monographs. Aven is a frequent visitor to Western capitals where he often gives lectures on economic developments in Russia.

Family

Grandfather - Janis Aven, Latvian marksman, repressed.

Father - Oleg Ivanovich Aven, professor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, specialist in computer engineering.

Widower.

Wife - Elena Vladimirovna (1958 - August 25, 2015).
Two children: Daria and Denis.