You're reading: #20 Richest: Volodymyr Boiko, 72

$600 million Married with one daughter Interests: metallurgy, agribusiness

2010 was the year when the down-to-earth Mariupol native finally lost control of leading steelmaker Illich.

Boiko, who has spent his entire working life at the factory, struck a deal in July with Metinvest, owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, which gave the new owner a 75 percent stake in the company.

Illich had been in trouble for a while, struggling with its external dependence on supplies of coking coal and iron ore and the government’s failure to return millions of dollars of value-added tax.

Akhmetov stepped in after shady Russian investors claimed they had taken over the plant, and Boiko, one of the last “red directors” of huge ex-Soviet factories, cried raider attack.

“There really was no way out,” Boiko told Dzekalo Tyzhnia weekly after the deal.

Boiko remains as general director of Illich, but with a hugely reduced, minority stake.