Mordashov vs Blavatnik
Severstal and Warner Music Group.
The differences
- Forbes puts Alexey Mordashov about $1.4B ahead of Len Blavatnik.Forbes figures from 9 Oct 2026 and 9 Oct 2026.
- Alexey Mordashov: built it up. Len Blavatnik: founded it.
- Len Blavatnik is about 8 years older than Alexey Mordashov.
- Alexey Mordashov is from Russia; Len Blavatnik is from United States.
Put someone else on either side
Side by side
Mordashov
BlavatnikThe money
- Net worth, Forbes
- $36.9BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
- $35.5BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
- Net worth, Bloomberg
- $27.6BBloomberg, 17 Oct 2026
- $40.2BBloomberg, 21 Sep 2026
- Forbes rank
- No. 61Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
- No. 66Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
- Billionaire since
- Not stated
- Not stated
Where it came from
- How it started
- Built it upJoined the Cherepovets steel mill as an economist in 1988, became finance director in 1992 and CEO in 1996; Bloomberg says he built his majority stake through two investment funds that bought workers' shares after the 1993 privatisation
- Founded itFounded Access Industries in 1986; Forbes says his early fortune came from TNK-BP dividends and the $7 billion sale of his stake in 2013, and Access bought Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011
- Main source
- Severstal stockBloomberg: the majority of his fortune comes from his 77% stake in Severstal; it also values Nordgold, Power Machines and Lenta
- Warner Music Group, held through Access IndustriesBloomberg names WMG as his biggest asset; Access also holds about one-fifth of LyondellBasell and a majority of DAZN
- Companies
- SeverstalSeverstal: Chairman of the board
- Warner Music Group, Access IndustriesWarner Music Group: Director and vice chairman of the board; Access Industries: Founder
- Biggest stake
- Severstal77% owned
- Warner Music Group72% owned
The person
- Born
- 26 Sep 1965Cherepovets, Russia (then the Soviet Union)
- 1957Odesa, Ukraine
- Country
- RussiaLives in Moscow, Russia
- United StatesLives in London, United Kingdom
- Education
- Graduate degreeLeningrad Engineering and Economic Institute (1988); MBA, Northumbria University (2006)
- Graduate degreeMS computer science, Columbia University (1981); MBA, Harvard Business School (1989); earlier studied at Moscow State University
- Parents
- Both parents were steelworkers at the Cherepovets mill
- Son of two university professors; the family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1978
What they give
- Giving Pledge
- Not a signer
- Not a signer
- Foundation
- Way Home Charitable FoundationSet up by Severstal in 2005; Severstal says he personally oversees its programme
- Blavatnik Family FoundationA self-funded 501(c)(3) private foundation
- Lifetime giving
- Not stated
- $1.5BBlavatnik Family Foundation, 17 Oct 2026. 'More than $1.5 billion' contributed over the past decade, per the foundation's site; covers ten years, not his whole life
Role and record
- Role now
- Chair of the boardChairman of Severstal and of Severgroup
- On the boardFounder of Access Industries; director and vice chairman of Warner Music Group
- Successor
- Alexander Shevelev is CEO of SeverstalNo family member is named in a Severstal executive role in the cited sources
- Lincoln Benet has been CEO of Access Industries since 2006; his brother Alex Blavatnik is its chairman
- Public office
- None found
- None found
- Legal record
- 2022: Council of the EU; 2022: US Treasury (OFAC); 2023: EU General CourtListed under EU restrictive measures concerning Russia in 2022; the EU listing describes him as a Russian businessperson with close links to the Russian government. Designated by OFAC on 2 June 2022 under Executive Order 14024 (Russia). The General Court dismissed his challenge to the EU restrictive measures (Case T-248/22) on 20 September 2023 and ordered him to pay the costs.
- 2016: US District Court for D.C. (DOJ case at the FTC's request); 2017: US Bankruptcy Court, S.D.N.Y.A consent final judgment in a Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger-notification case ordered him to pay a $656,000 civil penalty, without trial, adjudication or admission. In the Lyondell Chemical trustee's suit, the court cleared him of the fraud claims but found him liable on one of nine counts, a $7.2 million judgment related to a lending requirement, per the Financial Times.
