Petr Olegovich Aven was born on March 16, 1955, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Oleg Ivanovich Aven ( half Latvian and half Russian ) was a professor of computer science and his mother was from a Jewish family. His paternal grandfather, Janis Aven, was a Latvian rifleman.
Education and Early Career
Aven graduated from Moscow Physics and Mathematics School No. 2, which was known for its excellent teaching staff. The school was later closed, as most of the teachers and graduates left the country.
Aven went on to study at Moscow State University, where he received a diploma in economics and defended his dissertation on Economic Cybernetics. He planned to pursue a career in academia, which was seen as a stable and prestigious path at the time.
After graduating from Moscow State University, Petr Aven worked as a senior researcher at the Institute for Systems Analysis of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union from 1981 to 1988. During this time, he rose through the ranks from junior to senior research fellow.
While at university, he met Yegor Gaidar, Alena Doletskaya, Alexander Mamut, and his future business partner Mikhail Fridman. He was also close friends with Nikita Khrushchev’s grandson, Nikita Adzhubey.
He also met Yegor Gaidar, an economist who would later become the Acting Prime Minister of Russia.
In 1989, Aven was appointed as an advisor to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was then sent to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria as a research fellow on a two-year contract. He returned to his homeland during a time of profound change.
Ministry of Economic Relations
In 1991, Petr Aven was appointed First Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations under Yegor Gaidar. In 1992, he was named Russian Minister of Economic Relations under the administration of Boris Yeltsin. He was also made the President’s representative for relations with developed nations, specifically the Group of Seven (G7).
During this time, Aven was responsible for creating a new ruble exchange program and solving Russia’s foreign debt crisis. He also led numerous high-level foreign trade and economic missions to capitals around the world. Aven played a crucial role in making the ruble convertible with foreign currencies and liberalizing foreign trade in the early years of the Russian Federation. After Gaidar’s resignation in December 1992, Aven left his post, having helped to bring the free market into the Russian economy.
Petr Olegovich Aven’s Business Career
Petr Aven entered the business world almost immediately after leaving politics. In December 1992, the same month he resigned from his government post, he became an advisor to billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who was then the president of Russia’s first private car dealership. Aven held this position until February 1993.
The following month, in March 1993, Aven founded the Petr Aven Finances (FinPA) consulting company, which helped businesses to raise capital by leveraging external debt. FinPA was a regular consultant to Alfa-Bank, which is how Aven and Mikhail Fridman, the founder of Alfa-Bank, first met and began their working relationship, which continues to this day.
A Glimpse into the Private World of a Russian Oligarch Petr Aven
Petr Aven was born on March 16, 1955 in Maryanovka , Omsk region.
Petr Olegovich Aven and Elena Vladimirovna Aven were married for 25 years. He lived with his first wife Elena for 30 years, but Elena Aven died in 2015. It is said that Aven’s wife died near his Porto Rafael, Italy estate in 2015 . She had a heart attack while on a yacht. They have two children, twins, Denis and Daria Aven born on 09.01.1994 in Austria. They are children from his first marriage.
Both the children were born in Austria. They graduated from St George College in England, and Yale University then, together with her brother Denis, she interned at Sotheby’s .
The son Denis Petrovich Aven has a double degree in mathematics and economics, with honors. Daughter Darya Petrovna Aven promotes the MAC brand at Estée Lauder. In 2015, Denis Aven completed an internship at the international investment company Lazard, which specializes in financial consulting and asset management.
Later , Kozina Ekaterina and Petr Aven first announced their relationship in 2017. Kozina Ekaterina and Petr have a son, Filipp, who was born on 13.01.2014.
Ekaterina Kozina was accused of funding Mr Aven’s basic needs since March 2022, but there is no information to suggest that she had independent funds to meet Mr Aven’s monthly outgoings of £140,000.
This was after a plea by Petr Aven to lift a freezing order on two accounts holding about £1.5 million suspected of being used to breach sanctions imposed because of his connection to Vladimir Putin.
Petr Olegovich Aven’s Philanthropic Activities
In 2008, Petr Aven and his wife Elena founded the Generations charity foundation, which supports children’s healthcare and cultural exchange between Russia and Latvia. One of the foundation’s projects was to purchase equipment for a hospital and establish the first baby boxes in Latvia to save newborn children.
Aven also co-funds the Jewish Museum with Roman Abramovich and Viktor Vekselberg. He is also involved in supporting the Russian School of Economics, the Olympians Support Fund, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and a dozen other institutions.
