Bio:
Andrey Tarasov was born in 1959 in Moscow. In 1982 he graduated from Moscow aeronautical engineering school.
In 1992-1993 was a senior consultant of Fais design and construction company.
In 1993-1994 he was the director-general of Novy Vek LLC.
In 1995-1996 he worked as securities manager for Russian Credit bank.
In 1996-1998 he was a deputy chairman of the board of Tsentrokredit bank.
In 1998 he became chairman of the board of Tsentrokredit.
In 2006 he graduated from the Academy of National Economy under the RF Government. He took Banks MBA programme and received doctor's degree in economics.
Tarasov is fond of tennis, skiing, and collecting Russian age-old securities.
In 2011 Tarasov's wealth was estimated at about 500 million dollars.
He is married and has two daughters.
In 2005 Tarasov was awarded the title of Best Banker of Russia.
Sources: Finance, 28 March 2010; Forbes.ru, 15 April 2011
Dossier
In June 2006 police made an inspection of Tsentrokredit's head office. Despite the fact that media reports called it ''search'', vice-president of the bank said that police officers had not pulled out their guns and had not seized documents. The inspection was provoked by rumors on forged banking chart most likely spread by competitors.
Source: lentacom.ru, 08 June 2006
In early August 2007 Tsentrokredit fell victim of serious fraud. Attackers tried to write off 3 billion rubles from an account of the bank at the Central Bank of Russia. For this purpose they issued bills of nonexistent company that allegedly had been registered in the Krasnodar region. The criminals managed to obtain from the magistrate a decision to recover 3 billion rubles from the bank for benefit of Profilstroy LLC. The case was sent to Bailiffs Service which initiated proceedings against Tsentrokredit. But at the time the bank was not aware of the claims and court proceedings. When it became known, the bankers had to act very quickly and invite law enforcement agencies and the Central Bank of Russia for help. However, when Tarasov first applied to the police, they were not in a hurry to open a case. Tarasov accounted it for criminals' wide connections, including police. Finally, Tarasov managed to stop the attack. On 9 August panel of Krasnodar Regional Court cancelled the decision on debt recovery.
Source: New Region - Moscow, 28 August 2007
In May 2009 the bank disclosed its beneficiaries. Board chairman Andrey Tarasov owns more than 50% of shares, while chairman of the board of directors Sergei Eremin and board member Ilya Korbashov own 10% of shares each.
Tarasov accentuated that disclosure of ultimate owners was held not because of a transaction, but for improvement of reputation of the bank.
Source: Finance, 18 May 2009
For the same reason in autumn 2011 Tarasov contributed three million rubles to MGIMO Endowment and planned to start a project on spelling skills improvement among students. Somewhat earlier, he was the first in Russia to produce affinity cards which allowed their owners to donate to charity in fact at the expense of the bank. This practice is very popular in foreign countries. For instance, clients who pay by their card at the supermarket thus save endangered species or fight against global warming. Tsentrokredit took the patronage over Moscow Zoo and shared profits earned from each transaction with it.
Source: Development Foundation for MGIMO, 22 September 2011