Petro Poroshenko
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is the fifth and current President of Ukraine, in office since 2014. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, Poroshenko headed the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Beyond politics, Poroshenko has had a career as a successful businessman. He owns, along with a number of other companies, a large-scale confectionery business, which has earned him the nickname of 'Chocolate King'.[1] He was elected president on 25 May 2014, capturing more than 54% of the vote in the first round, thereby winning outright and avoiding a run-off.[2][3][4][5][6]
Early life and education
Poroshenko was born in the city of Bolhrad, in Odessa Oblast, on 26 September 1965,[7] but was raised in the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine.[8] He also spent his childhood and youth in Bendery (Moldavian SSR, now officially Moldova but under de facto control of the unrecognised breakaway state Transnistria.)[9] His father Oleksiy was an agricultural engineer.
In his youth, Poroshenko practised judo and sambo, and was Candidate for Master of Sport of the USSR. Despite good grades he was not awarded the normal gold medal at graduation, and on his report card he was given a "C" for his behaviour. After getting into a fight with four Soviet Army cadets at the military commissariat, he was sent to army service in the distant Kazakh SSR.
In 1989, Poroshenko graduated (he started the study in 1982 with a degree in economics from the international relations and law department (subsequently the Institute of International Relations) at the Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University.[10] In 1984, he married a medical student, Maryna Perevedentseva (born 1962). Their first son, Oleksiy, was born in 1985 (his three other children were born in 2000 and 2001). From 1989 to 1992, he was an assistant at the university’s international economic relations department. While still a student, he founded a legal advisory firm mediating the negotiation of contracts in foreign trade, and then he undertook the negotiations himself, starting to supply cocoa beans to the Soviet chocolate industry in 1991. At the same time, he was deputy director of the ‘Republic’ Union of Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs, and the CEO of “Exchange House Ukraine”.
References
- ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ "Poroshenko wins presidential election with 54.7% of vote - CEC". Radio Ukraine International. 29 May 2014. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ "Petro Poroshenko Net Worth". The Richest. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "Kerry heads for crisis talks over Ukraine". The Scotsman. 29 March 2014. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ Continuity and Change in Transnistria’s Foreign Policy after the 2011 Presidential Elections by Marcin Kosienkowski, 2012, Academia.edu (page 38).
- ↑ "Ukraine's tycoon Poroshenko confirms plans to sell assets"
