Dmitry Vladimirovich Konov (b. 2 September 1970, Moscow) is a Russian business executive and the former head of SIBUR, Russia's largest integrated petrochemical company, from 2006 to 2022.
Biography
Dmitry Konov was born in Moscow. His father worked as a geodesist mapper, which involved extensive travel across Russia and contractual trips abroad. His mother was an expert at the of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Konov attended a school that placed a special emphasis on English language training. He later graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). In 1988, he was conscripted into the Soviet Army, where he achieved the rank of sergeant, and served in Baku during a period of military unrest in the country.
Konov worked as a trader at the MFK Bank (1994–1997) and at Renaissance Capital (1997–1998). He later moved to the Treasury Department of the YUKOS Oil Company (1998–2000). In 2001, he received an МВА from IMD Business School in Switzerland. The same year, he became Vice President Head of the Investment Banking Department, and managing director of the Corporate Finance Division at Trust and Investment Bank (renamed Trust Bank since 2003).
SIBUR
In 2004, Konov joined the SIBUR petrochemical holding as advisor to its president Alexander Dyukov. According to Konov, the company was in bad shape at the time, but he saw that it offered significant potential for growth and accepted the job offer.
Konov held various positions at SIBUR, including Vice President for Strategic Development and Analysis, Vice President for Corporate Policy and Strategy, Senior Vice President for Corporate Policy and Strategy, and Senior Vice President for Business Development - Head of the Plastics and Organic Synthesis Division. He was tasked with leading the restructuring of the company's assets and debt at a time when SIBUR owed $2.5 billion in corporate debt to Gazprom. In less than a year, cross ownership was renounced and agreements with creditors were made, at which point Konov de facto took charge. He converted the company's debt into shares owned by former creditors, enabling the working capital to be invested rather than paid out. Konov had a hand in SIBUR's development strategy as presented to Gazprom's board of directors in 2005, which shaped the new structure of the company. Konov was later known as one of the 'architects' of the holding company.
Upon his departure from the company, Alexander Dyukov recommended Konov for appointment as president. Konov became the president of SIBUR in 2006.
President
In the spring of 2008, Konov and four of his deputies made an offer to SIBUR's owner Gazprombank regarding a company buyout. The transaction was estimated at some RUB 53.5 billion, which would have made it the biggest MBO in Russian history. However, due to the breakout of the global financial crisis, the sale did not take place. In 2011, the company was sold to Leonid Mikhelson.
When Konov joined SIBUR, the company consisted of several dozen Soviet-era factories processing oil and gas by-products into various low-margin chemical products. Konov led a change in strategy to reposition SIBUR as a petrochemicals company specializing in high-margin plastics production for the global market. In 2015–2016, SIBUR opened up to international investors by selling a 10% stake to China's Sinopec. China's Silk Road Fund bought another 10% stake in the company.
Between 2012 and 2014, SIBUR completed a number of large-scale investment projects: a pipeline from the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area to Tobolsk, the construction of Russia's largest polymer facilities in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Tobolsk, Bashkiria and Voronezh, and an LPG transshipment terminal in Ust-Luga.
By 2015, SIBUR was at the top of Forbes's list of Russian producers by import substitution; by 2019, the company significantly reduced the share of imports in the domestic consumption of polypropylene, PVC, PET and polystyrene.
SIBUR invested heavily into current repairs and maintenance of the facilities' fixed assets.
By 2016, the company's value stood at $13.8 billion compared to zero in 2003.
Chairman of the Management Board
From 2018, Konov served as Chairman of SIBUR's management board, focusing on the company's strategic tasks: digitalisation, circular economy development and business globalization.
In 2018, together with Reliance (one of India's largest local manufacturers), Konov initiated the construction of a rubber production plant. Notably, this was the first time the SIBUR company licensed Russian intellectual technologies in India.