Leonid Nevzlin

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Leonid Borisovich Nevzlin (Hebrew: לאוניד בוריסוביץ' נבזלין‎; born September 21, 1959) is a leading Russian-born businessman and philanthropist who currently lives in Israel.

Nevzlin is best known as a founding shareholder of Group Menatep. Nevzlin first became connected to Group Menatep and its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 1987 after answering a newspaper want ad. He rose with Khodorkovsky to become a high ranking official in YUKOS, the Russian oil firm. In 2001, he was elected as a senator to the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, and served as the deputy chairman of the Russia Upper House's Foreign Affairs Committee. He also served as deputy director of the Russian news agency ITAR TASS, and as a rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities.

While still in Russia, Nevzlin took a keen interest in educational and Jewish causes, serving as president of the Russian Jewish Congress. He was a key player in Jewish historical and heritage research projects, including the establishment of the Moscow Jewish Cultural Center and the International Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewish Studies [1] in Moscow. Moreover, Nevzlin was the benefactor of numerous other Jewish educational programs developed in cooperation with World ORT [2], the Jewish Agency for Israel [3], where he serves on the Board of Governors, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee [4].

In 2003, Nevzlin moved to Israel as the Kremlin began nationalizing YUKOS and arresting some of its officials, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is currently serving a jail sentence in Russia on charges largely seen as political.

Since moving to Israel, Nevzlin has expanded his philanthropic work on behalf of the Jewish people. His first philanthropic project in Israel was the creation of The Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry located at Jerusalem's Hebrew University [5]; similar centers also exist in Moscow, Vilnius and Kiev.

Nevzlin has also established the NADAV Fund in partnership with Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal [6], which supports projects in Jewish studies and education, Israel-Diaspora relations and Jewish peoplehood. His projects focus on building closer connections between Israeli Jewish youth and young Jews from around the world and include his patronage of the Masa Israel Journey [7] and the Birthright Israel-Mifgashim programs.

In cooperation with the Israeli government, Nevzlin created a relief fund in 2004 to help preserve Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora [8] in Tel Aviv, and was elected as chairman of its International Board of Governors. He also supports the Nevzlin Program for the Study of Jewish Civilization at Tel Aviv University. In addition, the NADAV Fund played a critical role in opening the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beth Hatefutsoth.

Despite the nationalization of YUKOS Oil, Leonid Nevzlin remains one of the richest people in Israel and is a leading philanthropist in that country and abroad.

In his positions at Group Menatep and YUKOS, Nevzlin was a close associate of the now jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Kremlin has charged Nevzlin with a series of business-related crimes that international observers dismiss as politically motivated. Courts in the United Kingdom and Switzerland have declared the case to be political persecution and the Israeli government has refused to extradite Nevzlin. Leading politicians in Israel and the United States, such as former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA) have professed their faith in Nevzlin's innocence.

The son of Boris Nevzlin, an engineer, and Irina Markovna, a schoolteacher, Nevzlin graduated from the Russian State University of Oil and Gas in Moscow in 1981 and soon thereafter was employed as a computer programmer for Zarubezhgeologiya, an external trade organization of the then-Soviet Ministry of Geology. He also holds a master's degree in management and marketing from the Plechanov Russian Academy of Economics in Moscow.

Nevzlin resides in Tel Aviv and since 2003 has been an Israeli citizen. He has two daughters.