Net Worth: $178 million

Age: 54

Marital status: Married, one daughter

Last year: $708 million

Industry: Machine building

Azovmash entered the crisis weighed down by cumbersome loans. Its debt-to-capital ratio had reached 85percent to 15percent. But at the end of April Alexandr Savchuk broke his oath of silence and announced that the worst was over. “Yes, we overdid it with our credit operations,” he says. “Even in hard times we have $10 million profit a month, but a large part of that we have to use to pay off our debts.” Savchuk reinforced his words when he announced that the company had signed a contract for 2,000 freight cars. That’s manna from heaven in the current climate. “In my opinion, we’ve reached the bottom. If this carries on for another year, many won’t survive, but if this is the bottom, we’ll survive. The most important thing is to cope with the number of orders that will come in in the next year or two,” the head of the Mariupol-based company concluded his April theses by saying.