Yevgeny Chichvarkin

Yevgeny Alexandrovich Chichvarkin
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, 14 April 2008
Native name	Евгений Александрович Чичваркин
Born	(1974-09-10) 10 September 1974 (age 43) Moscow, Soviet Union

Yevgeny Alexandrovich Chichvarkin (Russian: Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Чичва́ркин; born 10 September 1974 in Moscow) is a Russian entrepreneur who founded the largest Russian mobile phone retailer, Yevroset. Due to this business, he became the richest man under 35 of his country, with an approximatively $1.6 billion wealth. He was a member of the Right Cause political party and was expected to become chairman of its Moscow section. Chichvarkin currently lives in London, from where he has campaigned against corruption in Russia and president Vladimir Putin personally. On August 2012 he launched his new wine store Hedonism Wines in London's South Audley Street.

Chichvarkin was born in Saint-Petersburg, former Leningrad, from mother Lyudmila of Russian tatar descent and father Aleksandr from Moscow. His father was a pilot and his mother was an economist working for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade; during his childhood, the family moved to Moscow.

From 1991 to 1996 Chichvarkin studied at the State Academy of Management, as well as earning money trading on Moscow flea markets. After graduating Chichvarkin started studying for a PhD (Kandidat), which he abandoned in 1998. In 1997 Chichvarkin and his friend Timur Artemiev started a business named Yevroset to sell mobile phones. In 2002 Yevroset became one of the top three Moscow mobile phone retailers, with 92 retail outlets. The company developed a franchising business model, opening 100 more outlets in 2002, 117 more outlets in 2003, 800 more outlets in 2004, 1934 more outlets in 2005, etc. In 2007 they had 5156 outlets in 12 countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In November 2008 Chichvarkin jointed Right Cause, a Russian liberal democratic political party founded on 16 November 2008 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces, Civilian Power and the Democratic Party of Russia.