Bill Browder

Browder is the grandson of Earl Browder, a union organizer from Kansas who went to Moscow in 1927, married a Russian, and became the head of the Communist Party in the United States. The younger Browder grew up in Chicago, attended the University of Chicago, and later Stanford GSB. "How do you rebel against a family of Communists? I rebelled by putting on a suit and tie and becoming a businessman," he quipped. Graduating with a Stanford MBA in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, Browder decided to pursue opportunities in Eastern Europe. While working in the region for Boston Consulting Group and later Salomon Brothers, he saw how Soviet bloc countries like Poland and Russia were privatizing companies at absurdly low valuations. He soon realized there was a lucrative opportunity for investors to buy in cheaply to the post-Soviet Russian economy. In 1996, Browder set up Hermitage with $25 million from the late Edmond Safra, a renowned banker. Browder moved to Moscow and focused on undervalued Russian companies overlooked by mainstream securities researchers. By the end of its first year, the Hermitage Fund soared to $100 million. Eighteen months after launching, it was worth $1 billion. Things began unraveling in November 2005, when Browder was denied re-entry at the Moscow airport. What followed was a twisted tale of corporate raiding, Russian style. In June 2007, police raided Hermitage's office, taking away files and records. Criminals used the documents to steal ownership of three companies from Hermitage and to arrange sham court judgments against them. Today, Browder says it is Hermitage that has become a victim of the criminal activity and official corruption that still pervade Russia's economy. He has gone public with accusations that Russian fraud artists and high-level government officials colluded to steal companies owned by Hermitage, intimidate or jail Hermitage lawyers, and rob the Russian treasury of at least $230 million. Hermitage has exited Russia and now has an $850 million fund investing in other emerging economies in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.