Full Name Andriy Kobolyev Nationality Ukrainian | Occupation CEO of Naftogaz Name Andriy Kobolyev | |
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Born 16 August 1978 (age 45) ( 1978-08-16 ) Kyiv, Ukraine Alma mater Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv | ||
Andriy Kobolyev: Gazprom’s chance for success is lower than 6%
Andriy Kobolyev (Ukrainian: Андрій Коболєв; born 16 August 1978) is Chief Executive Officer of Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz. In October 2014 Mr. Kobolyev was named in Fortune magazine's "top 40 under 40 (years of age)" for his reform efforts at Ukraine's energy giant.
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Early life
Kobolyev was born in Kiev. In 2000, he graduated from the International Relations Institute at Kyiv National Shevchenko University with a Master's degree in International Economic Relations. Andriy started his career in PricewaterhouseCoopers (1999-2002). There he worked as a management consultant and was responsible for strategic management and corporate reorganization projects. He has over eight years of experience in the oil and gas sector in Ukraine. Prior to his appointment as CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andriy was an adviser at the AYA Capital private investment and banking group. There he was involved with raising debt and equity capital, loan restructuring, and reorganization of corporate structures of large enterprises. Andriy worked for Naftogaz between 2002 and 2010, where he started his career as a specialist in the Economy and Price Policy Department. In 2006-2007, he occupied the position of director of the Department for Corporate Finance and Price Policy and in 2008-2010 he was an adviser to the chairman. In these roles he took part in numerous negotiations with Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom. In 2004-2010, he coordinated the process of raising borrowings from international banks of $2 billion and was responsible for restructuring external debt in 2009.
CEO of Naftogaz
Andriy Kobolyev took over as CEO of Naftogaz after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Relatively little was known about him by industry experts as he was chosen as an outsider untainted by the corruption of the regime of Viktor Yanukovych. Immediately upon entering office he was faced with the challenges of negotiations with Gazprom (which was seeking to increase the price of gas to Ukraine by 80% as a response to the country's democratic revolution), domestic companies refusing to pay their debts, and Russia seeking to prevent Ukraine importing gas from Europe.
In October Kobolyev was instrumental in agreeing an interim gas deal between Ukraine, Russia and the European Commission. Kobolyev has however stressed that this deal is an interim measure and that boosting domestic energy efficiency and diversifying supply sources remain strategic imperatives