Eduard Volodymyrovych Shifrin (alternative spelling: Shyfrin) (; ; born 12 July 1960) is a Ukrainian entrepreneur who is a co-owner of the

Midland Group The Midland Group is an international trading and investment holding company. Registered in Guernsey under the name Midland Resources Holding Ltd, the group owns a number of subsidiaries across the agriculture, manufacturing, real estate, shippin ...

. He is a resident in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Biography

Early life and education

Shifrin was born in

Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party m ...

, the son of

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

professor Vladimir Moiseyevich Shifrin. In 1976–7 he came first in the National Ukrainian Physics Olympiad. From 1977–1983, he attended the

Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys The National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) () is a public technological university in the field of steelmaking and metallurgy, based in Moscow, Russia. It was established in 1918 as a part of the Moscow Mining Academy. In 1930 ...

, becoming a metallurgical engineer. He later returned to school and obtained a PhD in metallurgy in 1992.

Business career

From 1983 to 1993, Shifrin worked in

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

at the steel company Dniprospecstal, rising from assistant foreman to manager of the steel plant and then head of marketing. He then rose to prominence as a

business oligarch A business oligarch is generally a business magnate who controls sufficient resources to influence national politics. A business leader can be considered an oligarch if some of the following conditions are satisfied: # uses monopolistic tactics to ...

in newly independent Ukraine, taking control of privatized steelmaker Zaporizhstal. He co-founded, with Alexander Shnaider,

, a holding company headquartered in

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

that embraces interests in steel (including Zaporizhstal, Ukraine's fourth largest steel mill), shipping, real estate, agriculture and sports. Together they own a share in The St. Regis Toronto and formerly owned

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

and a

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team,

Midland F1 Racing Midland F1 Racing (also known as MF1 Racing, or simply as MF1, or Midland) was a Formula One constructor and racing team which competed in the 2006 Formula One World Championship with drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro. The team wa ...

. In the 2006 edition of the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

'', Shifrin was listed at no. 59 with an estimated wealth of £920 million. In ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' magazine's ranking of "

The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...

" in 2009, Shifrin was ranked 559th with an estimated fortune of $1.3 billion. In 2013, ''

Focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

'' magazine estimated his net worth at $893.3 million, making him the No. 20 richest person in Ukraine. In 2008, the global economic crisis hit the group's assets, and the group began selling off its real estate and Russian and Ukrainian steel assets. In 2010, it sells the company's main asset, Zaporizhstal Steel Works, and all related assets. After that, the division of assets between Shifrin and Shnaider began, which was finally completed in 2017 after the business co-owners concluded the trial by signing a settlement agreement. As a result of the division, Shifrin acquires several Moscow properties, which he completes and sells, and then finally leaves Russia in 2020.By 2022 all his businesses in former-Soviet countries were closed.

Writing career

In 2006, together with his late father, Shifrin published a book titled ''The Theory of Metallurgical Processes'' for which he was awarded the State Prize of Ukraine. In 2018 Shifrin's book ''From Infinity to Man: The Fundamental Ideas of Kabbalah Within the Framework of Information Theory and Quantum Physics'' was published in Russian, with an English edition being released in 2019. In 2019, his children's book ''Travels with Sushi in the Land of the Mind'' was published in English. In 2020 it was named a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Award for Juvenile Fiction. He is a sponsor of Jewish Book Week. He regularly writes articles about the Kabbalah of Information for the Jerusalem Post.

Musical career

In 2022/23 Shyfrin wrote 12 jazz-rock-blues compositions (music and lyrics) and recorded them in Paris within the frame of the project Shyfrin Alliance. They are united in the Upside down Blues Album. Shyfrin sings himself 9 compositions. Three singles, Whiskey Blues, The Cage, and Unconditional, have been released on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and US and UK radios, the videos were released on the YouTube, Facebook, Tic Tok.

Philanthropy

In 2003 he financed the reconstruction of the oldest synagogue in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

and Jewish educational center dedicated to his late father. He also co-sponsored the construction of synagogues in Moscow, Volgograd, and Zaporozhye. He sponsors over 60 Chabad educational classes for children. He served as regional vice-president of the

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress's main purpose is to act as ...

. In May 2025 he was elected as vice-president of

from Ukraine.

Political opinions

Following the outbreak of full-scale hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, Shifrin decried armed conflict and submitted a request to the Russian embassy in London in which he strongly condemned the aggression against Ukraine and requested the renunciation of his Russian citizenship. He and other family members donated to Ukrainian organizations supporting people within and near warzones including the UK-based

World Jewish Relief The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, formerly Central British Fund for German Jewry, (CBF) which currently operates under the name World Jewish Relief (WJR), is a British charitable organisation and the main Jewish overseas aid orga ...

. Put on the wanted list by the Russian authorities without any warning In 2023, he was awarded the Cross of Freedom medal of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine for his work for Ukraine.

Personal life

Shifrin and his wife live in

with their three children.

References

External links

Midland Group website

Zaporizhstal website

Eduard Shifrin, World Jewish Congress Vice-President

Travels With Sushi website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shifrin, Eduard 1960 births Living people Businesspeople from Dnipro Former Russia citizens Ukrainian billionaires Ukrainian Jews National University of Science and Technology MISiS alumni Ukrainian oligarchs Zaporizhstal Formula One team owners Ukrainian businesspeople in the United Kingdom Kabbalah Laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology