Russell Hardy is a British businessman, and the chief executive (CEO) of

Vitol Vitol (Pronounced: Vee-Tol) is a Swiss-based Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though trading, logistics, and distribution are at the core of its b ...

, the world's largest independent oil trading company.

Early life

Hardy has a master's degree in engineering from

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

Career

Hardy began his career working for BP, trading fuel oil. In 1993, Hardy left BP and joined Vitol. He has been a member of its executive committee since 2007, and CEO of the Europe, Middle-East and Africa region since 2017. In March 2018, he was appointed CEO of the entire company, succeeding Ian Taylor, who became chairman. In 2022, Hardy predicted that Russia won't be able to protect itself from the negative effects of the

international sanctions International sanctions are political and economic decisions that are part of diplomatic efforts by countries, multilateral or regional organizations against states or organizations either to protect national security interests, or to protect i ...

, while Russian oil export would fall by 1 million barrels a day in winter 2022-2023.

References

Living people British chief executives Alumni of Imperial College London Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-business-bio-stub