Alexander Mamut is a lawyer, businessman and investor with an estimated net worth of over $2.7 billion as of May 2015 according to Forbes. Born Alexander Leonidovich Mamut on January 29, 1960 in Moscow, he came from a family of lawyers. He earned his LLB degree at the Moscow State University. _­In the late 1990's, he gained notoriety during the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal. He became known as “the Yeltsin family banker” when he served as an advisor to the former Russian government of Boris Yeltsin. He was also a friend of Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana Dyachenko. Despite his connection with the case, no charges were filed against him.

With Mamut’s estimated net worth of $2.7 billion, he is the 44th richest person in Russia and is ranked 641st in the list of World Billionaires according to Forbes. He began earning his net worth as one of the founders of Imperial bank. He also ran MDM-Bank at one point. He was a major investor in the Troika-Dialog investment bank and Ingosstrakh insurance company.

Recently, Alexander Mamut preferred portfolio investor with interests in real estate, retail, telecom, construction, and oil fields. In December 2012, he sold his 50% stake in the mobile phone chain Evroset to Alisher Usmanov, as well as Usmanov’s cellular operator, Megafon, for more than $1 million. He did not only earn cash but he took Usmanov’s 50% share of the Internet company SUP Media which owns LiveJournal. It is Russia’s most popular blogging platform that started in the U.S. Mamut bought it in 2007. He owns a substantial stake in Polymetal and Uralkali. He bought Waterstone, a British bookstore chain founded by his friend Tim Waterstone, in 2011. He is one of the founders of a cultural and educational center, the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design.