Dmitry Firtash was born on May 2, 1965 in Sinkov (formerly Bogdanivka), Zaleshchiki district, Ternopil oblast, Ukraine. His father was a driver and later an instructor at a driving school. His mother has two degrees: in economics and in veterinary medicine. She worked as an accountant at a livestock farm, and later at a sugar refinery.

Dmitry began his working career in his early childhood helping his parents grow vegetables at their family plot for additional family income.

He graduated from Krasnolimansk Railway Vocational School and later received a degree from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Serving in the military from 1984 through 1986, Dmitry Firtash was awarded the bronze medal ‘For Achievements in the Development of the Soviet Economy’ and the ‘Order of the Badge of Honor’.

Married. Wife Lada Pavlovna Firtash. The Firtashes have two children: daughter Anna (born in 2005) and son Dmitry (born in 2007). Daughter Ivanna (born in 1988 from the first marriage). Lada Firtash is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the charity FIRTASH Foundation, and Chairman of the Investment and Development Projects Board.

            

Business Career

Dmitry Firtash started in business almost immediately after completing his military service. He founded his own trading company first in Chernivtsi (Ukraine), eventually moving to Moscow (Russia) in the early 1990s.

In 1993, he established commercial ties in Central Asia and organized food supplies to this region in exchange for natural gas.

In 2002, Dmitry Firtash founded the company EuralTransGas which won exclusive contracts for Turkmen gas supplies to Ukraine.

At the same time, Dmitry Firtash began investing in the chemical industry, becoming the owner of mineral fertilizers producers Nitrofert (Estonia) and Tajik Azot (Tajikistan).

In 2003, Mr. Firtash founded the company Emfesz in Hungary to promote the gas and energy business. Two years later, this company was granted a license to supply natural gas in Poland.

In 2003, Mr. Firtash became a shareholder in the company Rivneazot  – a major manufacturer of nitrogen fertilizers in Ukraine. Following a radical modernization effort, the company today is among the industry leaders in energy efficiency.

In 2004, the Ukrainian businessman and Russian Gazprom jointly set up RosUkrEnergo, a company to distribute natural gas in Ukraine and in the European Union. Due to this company’s activities, Ukraine was able to acquire gas at prices well below market rates.
 
Another Mr. Firtash’s acquisition in 2004 was an Austrian company, Zangas Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH, specializing in gas pipeline construction and infrastructure development.
 
Later that year Mr. Firtash became a major shareholder of Crimean Soda Plant (Krasnoperekopsk) and Krymskiy TITAN (Armiansk).

In 2007, a private international group of companies, Group DF (‘The Firtash group of companies’) was formed with the view to consolidating Dmitry Firtash’s business assets in different sectors. Presently, Group DF incorporates assets in the chemical industry, energy, media, real estate, agribusiness, banking and gas sectors. This consolidation effort is still underway.
 
In 2010, seeking to enhance Ukraine’s positions in the international fertilizers market, Mr. Firtash launched an effort towards consolidation of the Ukrainian nitrogen business. From September 2010 to September 2011, the Mr. Firtash acquired ownership in ‘Concern STIROL’ (Gorlovka), ‘Severodonetsk Production Association Azot’ and ‘Cherkassy Azot‘. In just over a year, the joint marketing strategy of the four fertilizers manufacturers owned by Mr. Firtash substantially strengthened its domestic market position. The total portfolio investments made in Rivneazot, Severodonetsk and Cherkassy AZOTs and STIROL from September 2010 through September 2011 is about 1 billion hryvnias.

The businessman is also actively pursuing an agenda of titanium industries development. In order to achieve a double increase in titanium dioxide production outputs at Krymski TITAN, Mr. Firtash intends to invest heavily in the company. In order to expand the raw materials supply base, Mr. Firtash’s group of companies commissioned Mezhdurechensk Mining and Concentration Complex in 2010.
 
In July 2011, Dmitry Firtash became a shareholder in Nadra Bank.

In February 2013, GDF MEDIA LIMITED, part of GROUP DF (Dmitry Firtash Group of Companies), reached an agreement to acquire INTER MEDIA GROUP LIMITED (Media group includes INTER, INTER+, NTN, K1, MEGA, ENTER FILM, K2, PIXEL and Zoom television channels).

In the course of the last 15 years, Dmitry Firtash has become one of the leading energy sector and chemical industry investors in Central and Eastern Europe with his companies and industrial units operating in Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Estonia, Switzerland, Tajikistan.

             


Public activity

Dmitry Firtash is not a member of any political party or movement.
 
In 2010, as one of Ukraine’s major employers, he was elected Head of the Joint Employers’ Movement of Ukraine – the Joint Representative Body of Employers at the National Level. Dmitry Firtash pointed out that his main focus in this capacity is on consolidation of efforts of Ukraine’s corporate world, the Government and trade unions in order to achieve the nation’s sustainable socio-economic development and strengthening of Ukraine’s positions in international markets.

At the same time, Dmitry Firtash has been appointed a Co-Chairman of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council under the President of Ukraine (NTSEC). This Council includes representatives from the Government, Employers’ Movement and Trade Unions and is jointly chaired by representatives of these three groups. NTSEC puts forward recommendations to the President of Ukraine regarding national social and economic policy development and implementation.

Later Dmitry Firtash became a Co-Chairman of the Council of Domestic and Foreign Investors under the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, established in 2011. This Council brings together representatives of national authorities, research and development and educational institutions, public organizations and major businesses with the aim of attracting and effectively implementing investments in education, science, youth affairs and sports.

At the first Council meeting held in May 2011, Mr. Firtash moved forward a package of initiatives towards systemic support to chemical education in Ukraine.

Intensive efforts towards unification of employers organizations materialized in the unification congress of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine on November 29, 2011 where Mr. Firtash was elected President of the Federation. FEU has become the most powerful organization representing Ukraine’s industry and business. The Federation has become an active and effective factor of influence upon social and economic processes in the country having signed Memorandums of Understanding with the State Tax Service of Ukraine, State Customs Service of Ukraine and Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and having established an ongoing dialog with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
 
In February 2012 the President of Ukraine appointed Mr. Firtash to the post of a Chairman of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council of Ukraine (NTSEC). The Council’s mission is to devise and submit for the President’s review proposals related to the nation’s socio-economic policy elaboration and implementation. In addition to that, this body works to facilitate its parties’ common understanding and a concerted position in matters relevant to furthering socio-economic and labor relations. In May 2013, Yuriy Kulyk, the President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine, was appointed the Chairman of NTSEC after Mr. Firtash.

Being a large investor, Mr. Firtash is convinced that principal employers – enterprises whose operation is vital for the communities housing them – must help hosting municipalities. As a practical example of this attitude and as part of implementation of Mr. Firtash’s initiative ‘Preserve Your City’, the Cherkassy-based Azot revitalized works in the city’s culture club ‘People’s Friendship’, and the fountain and the square across the culture club. The company also donates funding to an orphanage in the city of Smila and the pediatric ward of Cherkassy cancer treatment center.

In the city of Severodonetsk, the local company Azot, in which Dmitry Firtash is a principal investor, renovated the municipal trolleybuses park.

A large-scale municipal infrastructure social development and renovation program initiated by Dmitry Firtash has been implemented in the cities of Armiansk and Krasnoperekopsk.

Concern Stirol, part of Group DF, financed road renovation in Gorlovka.

The President of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine Dmitry Firtash initiated the creation of the SME support system operating through regional investment funds founded by successful businessmen. Due to Mr. Firtash’s financial support Bukovyna Investment Fund established with an eye on supporting small and medium enterprises started its operation in Chernivtsi region. It has already provided financial support to 9 projects.

In 2014, Dmitry Firtash, the President of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, took part in two Round tables held in Vienna and initiated by the German-Ukrainian Forum.

               

During the event, influential experts, politicians and businessmen from Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany and Great Britain discussed the steps necessary to be done by Ukraine and other countries in order to restore peace, stabilize situation in Ukraine, and defuse military, political and economic tension in Europe.

               

On March 3 2015, in Vienna, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine with the participation of the largest trade union organizations held an international forum Ukraine Tomorrow attended by more than 500 influential politicians, experts and businessmen from Ukraine, Austria, the UK, Germany, Poland, and France. Representatives of France, Germany and the UK have endorsed the proposal jointly moved forward by the Federation of Employers of Ukraine and trade unions of Ukraine to set up the Agency for the Modernization of Ukraine. As a result of the Ukraine Tomorrow forum held in Vienna, the declaration speaking about the Agency foundation was signed by Mr. Reiner Lindner, Head of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group; Mr. Karl-Georg Wellmann, a Bundestag Member; Mr. Bernard-Henry Lévy, French public activist, writer and philosopher; and Lord Risby, British MP.  In 200 days, till September, the Agency will present a clear and comprehensive Ukraine modernization action plan. The modernization plan will be being drafted by eight renown European politicians and business people leading various facets of Ukraine’s Euro-integration including health care, finance and taxation, economy, trade, constitutional and legal reform, anti-corruption and law enforcement.
 
               

Charity

Dmitry Firtash has been active in initiating and developing programs aimed at promoting Ukraine at the international arena.

In 2008, on Mr. Firtash’s initiative and with his financial support, the University of Cambridge (UK) established a Cambridge Ukrainian Studies aimed at promoting the study of Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage in the United Kingdom and beyond.

As part of this program, Cambridge’s students from across the globe attend an academic course of Ukrainian Studies that includes the Ukrainian language, literature, cinematography, culture and history. Prominent international researchers of Ukraine are invited to lecture and host workshops on topical issues pertinent to both Ukraine’s history and preset. The University of Cambridge also holds literary readings, art exhibitions and the Annual Cambridge Ukrainian Film Festival. Over the history of its existence, the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies Program has truly become Ukraine’s informal humanitarian mission in the United Kingdom.

Another charity initiative by Dmitry Firtash enabled the establishment of the Cambridge-Ukraine Studentships that made it possible for eligible students from Ukraine to seek a Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge. The scholarships cover the cost of both tuition and accommodation for qualified students.

Dmitry Firtash has been supporting a series of other massive educational projects. An example of such philanthropic support is his financing of construction of the Ukrainian Catholic University campus in the city of Lviv.
 
The entrepreneur is actively involved in projects aiming at the international promotion of Ukrainian culture. His donation made it possible to organize and hold International Poetry Festival Meridian Czernowitz in 2012 and 2013
 
A series of benchmarking events in Ukraine’s cultural life – films screening and festivities on occasion of the 70^th anniversary of the world-famous Ukrainian actor Bohdan Stupka – became a well-known success largely due to Mr. Firtash’s benefaction.
 
Among other Dmitry Firtash’s charity work is assistance to Ukrainian professional theaters. The celebration of the 75^th anniversary of Kherson Regional Musical and Drama Theater largely owes its success to the philanthropist’s endowment. In addition to that, his sponsorship support enabled a major restoration of material and technical resources of Chernivtsi Regional Musical and Drama Theater which became a generous gift on occasion of the theater’s 80^th anniversary.
 
Dmitry Firtash has been supporting Chernivtsi Regional Museum and a whole series of other ethno-cultural projects.
 
2011 saw the completion of construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the Holy Ascension Monastery in the village of Bancheny of Chernivtsi region. The financing of the project came from funds raised by the Orthodox community and a sizeable contribution from Dmitry Firtash.
 
Mr. Firtash’s generous support was recognized by the Orthodox church: His Holiness Kirill Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia awarded the philanthropist with the Order of Venerable Serafim Sarowsky, 2^nd Degree.
 
The Holy Ascension Monastery is widely known to a large extent due to the assistance to orphans and disabled children that it has been providing for many years. The covenant houses an orphanage which houses over 200 children, many of them with special needs. The residents are housed with care and enjoy all necessary amenities, partly owing to substantial assistance from Dmitry Firtash.
 
Dmitry Firtash is very active in fostering the social development of his home region by helping his fellow villagers and the broader community. In 2008, Mr. Firtash took part in a charity project ‘Warm a Child with Love’ by financing the acquisition of housing for 120 large families in Ternopil and Chernivtsi regions of Ukraine.

Thanks to Dmitry Firtash’s financial support, large-scale infrastructural transformations are being implemented in his home village of Sinkov, which become an acting prototype of the future Ukrainian township. To date, local roads capital repairs have been completed, and gas supplies are connected to each household. The village school has been remodeled and technically refurbished with the most updated equipment supplied to its classrooms. The local Church of Translation of Relics of St. Nicholas originally built in mid-17^th century has been renovated. Also a stadium, culture club, hotel and restaurant complex and polyclinics have been renovated.
 
In September 2012, the largest agricultural complex of the Western Ukraine ‘DF Agro’ (Sinkov) was built in the village of Sinkov. The new enterprise has created a good deal of jobs for local residents.

Massive assistance is also channeled to the district administrative center of Zaleshchiki where Dmitry Firtash financed the reconstruction of a district hospital servicing over 50 thousand local community members. After new buildings of a pediatric and surgery wards were erected and nine new ambulance vehicles were acquired, Zaleshchiki district hospital is providing neighboring districts with its services.

In 2010, Dmitry Firtash committed UAH 10 million to help households that suffered from the seasonal floods in Chernivtsi region.

Seeking to further support the development and implementation these initiatives, the charitable FIRTASH Foundation was established in 2008. Among the FIRTASH Foundation projects are Days of Ukraine in the United Kingdom, Malanka Festivals in Chernivtsi, Ukrainian Studies Program and Cambridge-Ukraine Studentships.