Biography:
Aleksander Rakshin was born in 1951 in the village of Altai in Altai region. He graduated from an Altai high school. In 1968 he entered the Faculty of Physical Education at Barnaul Pedagogical Institute. After graduation he worked as a coach. The last six years before going into business he worked in Barnaul school № 64 as teacher of physical education. From 1990 to 1993 he had a livestock farm in the Altai Mountains. In March 1993 he bought his first Maria-Ra store.
Aleksander Rakshin received the title of Manager of the Year twice, in 2002 and 2007, based on a survey of businessmen of the Altai region, which is held annually by VD.
The first Maria-Ra store was opened in the city of Barnaul, in March 1993 on 3, Sovietskaya Str. In early 2000 the company already had 20 stores in the city and the suburbs of Barnaul.
Rakshin is married. His son, Yevgeny Rakshin, is a co-owner of construction company Central-alpha.
Source: News.altapress.ru
Dossier:
In early 2001 Aleksander Rakshin announced publicly the reasons for his resignation as head of the regional federation of ski racing. Referring to the large workload on the main job, he said that he could not single-handedly do this work for the community. He said that no one in the end made any efforts to develop skiing in the region.
Rakshin confessed that he had no team that would work efficiently after his retirement. But no cohesive team could form around him. Ski Federation, as a matter of fact, was not a collective body. Rakshin pushed all like-minded people who had self-esteem away by his intolerance to opinions different from his own, and by a sort of painful itching to teach everyone, believing that the ability to make money made him the most clever of all.
Source: Altai Pravda, 17 January 2001
In 2007 Maria-Ra became the owner of state-owned shares in Central Market JSC, and after a while was able to acquire 100 percent stake of its shares. The owner of Maria-Ra, Aleksander Rakshin, repeatedly stated that for at least 10 years he had no plans to change the profile of the company, although many observers predicted that a residential area and a hotel complex may appear in the place of the Central Market. Rejecting all the charges, the owners of the market claimed that they planed only to change the concept of the market, expanding the range of non-food items and having an underground parking constructed.
However, when in 2011 the company Ampir undertook to build the parking lot, Maria-Ra addressed Barnaul mayor with a complaint about builders.
This caught Ampir by surprise. According to Elena Panova, a representative of the company, Ampir began preparations for the construction three years ago. "All this time there was a constructive dialogue with the market leadership, without any hint of conflict," she said.
Source: FederalPress, 06 April 2011
According to the Finance magazine, in 2011 Rakshin ranked 291st in the list of Russian billionaires, his fortune reaching 10 billion rubles.
Source: Finance, 14 February 2011