Alexey Mordashov is a Russian oligarch and self-made billionaire with an estimated net worth of $18.7 billion in June 2019. He ranked 73rd in the list of World Billionaires and the 11th richest person in Russia. His business career began in 1988 when he joined Cherepovetskiy Metallurgical Plant as an economist. Shortly before the company was privatised, he served as the finance director in 1992. He founded his investment fund and bought up shares in the firm. Later on, he has amassed the largest stake in the steel mill. He became the general director in 1996.

Mordashov also built the Severstal, a mining conglomerate that acquires steel, coal and mining companies. It has been a successful company until it began selling several of their U.S.-based plants for an almost 50% loss to a Russian conglomerate. In 2011, he has increased his stake in an equipment maker, Power Machine, and has bought a 25% stake from Siemens.

In 2012, Alexey Mordashov formed a new company that went public in the London Stock Exchange, after he was done with the spin-off of the Severstal’s gold mining assets. Previously, he sold three of the money-losing steel plant for $1.2 billion to fellow billionaire Ira Rennert's Renco Group. He held on to two of his several plants in Columbus, Mississippi and Dearborn, Michigan.