Eugene Shvidler

Shvidler was born in Ufa, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia),[3] into a Jewish family. His father is Soviet geologist Mark Iosifovich Shvidler.[4][5] He received a degree in mathematics from the Gubkin Institute of Petrochemicals and Natural Gas and an MBA from Fordham University.

Early in his career he worked for Deloitte & Touche in New York and became a U.S. citizen. He later returned to Russia, where he teamed up with Roman Abramovich to start the oil trading outfit Runicom S.A.[6] In 1995, the men partnered to gain control of oil giant Sibneft "in an auction that some experts," according to the Irish Independent, "suspect of having been rigged";[7] Shvidler joined Sibneft initially as senior Vice President and served as company president from 1998 until October 2005, when Russian state energy company Gazprom acquired Sibneft.[8] For most of his tenure, Sibneft was Russia's fastest growing oil company in terms of production, and its most profitable in terms of earnings per barrel.[9]

Shvidler is chairman of Millhouse LLC, the investment and asset management company he shares with Abramovich and their partners.[10]

Shvidler is married to Zara Shvidler and they have five children.[12][1] He owns the Château Thénac vineyard in France, a £22 million ($37m) house in Belgravia, London, a $14.5 million home in Snowmass Village, Colorado, and the yacht Le Grand Bleu.[13][14] Shvidler and Abramovich are known to be closely connected and several media reported Shvidler to be a “longstanding business partner” of Abramovich.[15] In 2008, Shvidler and Abramovich purchased three houses in Snowmass Village, Colorado totaling over $62 million in real estate.[14]