Content
- Lev Khasis — early years
- He worked in the field of trade
- He was in Sberbank
- He is the ex-head of the Sberbank
Lev Khasis is a financier and businessman. He is also a founder of Russian domestic retail. In his youth, he received the profession of an aircraft engineer and did not intend to work in the trade. The plans were disrupted by perestroika and active business development in the country. The Top Manager was directly involved in scaling X5 Retail Group retail chains, managed to work in international business, and in recent years he held the post of First Deputy Chairman of Sberbank. Why did the head leave his position, and what is Lev Khasis’ current occupation?
Lev Khasis — early years
Lev Khasis was born on June 5, 1966, in Kuibyshev (now Samara) in an intelligent family of aircraft engineers. His parents worked at the famous Kuibyshev Aircraft Factory in Soviet times, which produced Il-2, Tu-154, Tu-142, and other models. Khasis did not face the question of choosing a profession — he had dreamed of becoming a designer since childhood. As the Top Manager recalls today, in his youth, he would have been very offended if he had been called a trade representative. The family considered this activity field unattractive and even a little indecent.
In 1984, Khasis applied to the Faculty of Aircraft Engineering of the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute (KuAI) and was enrolled in the first year. In the future, he planned to get a rocket and space specialty, and therefore studied well, was engaged in social work, and took part in the organization of the Student Spring festivals. As the businessman noted, the institute’s teaching staff was powerful. At that time, students were learning to work on computers and use computers to design airplanes.
In 1989, Khasis graduated with honors from KuAI, but he did not have to work in the aircraft industry. The industry was in a deep crisis due to financial problems caused by the process of perestroika. For several months, the young specialist headed the international relations department at his native institute and then plunged headlong into business. In 1990, he was already the founder of the InterVolga advertising agency, later transformed into the Samara Trading House. The company was engaged in trade, including sales of AvtoVAZ cars. Business connections helped the entrepreneur to take the chair of the manager of Avtovazbank in 1993.
During this period, Khasis received his second higher education at the RF Government-affiliated Financial Academy. The thesis defense was held in 1995. At the same time, he was a court-appointed manager of the Aviakor Factory, the former Kuibyshev Aircraft Factory, where his parents worked. The Top Manager made a lot of efforts to prevent the company’s bankruptcy. After reorganizing the management, Lev Khasis found new partners for the factory, allowing him to continue assembling aircraft and receiving orders for airliners repair. The Top Manager lead Aviakor until 1999. The head left his post after the Siberian Aluminum company became the main shareholder of the factory, which planned to make significant investments in production.
“Perhaps in the future, in my free time, I should write a book about Aviakor, its amazing people, and the struggle for the survival of the enterprise in 1994-1999,” the businessman notes today.
Work in trade
After leaving the factory’s director post, the top manager moved to Moscow. In the capital, he was interested in the retail sector, which was developing rapidly at that time: new retail chains appeared, and retailers actively conquered the market. In 1999, Lev Khasis joined the board of directors of Perekrestok and three years later headed the company. In 2001, he graduated from the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and was awarded a law degree. During this period, Perekrestok began expanding into the regions and opened stores all over the country.
In 2001 Lev Khasis headed the board of directors of two major Moscow department stores: GUM (State Department Store) and TsUM (Central Universal Department Store). A year later, the entrepreneur became a key shareholder of TsUM and actively worked on updating the store: reducing the number of small tenants, updating the assortment, developed the company’s brands. In 2006, due to the merger of Pyaterochka and Perekrestok, X5 Retail Group holding was formed. Lev Khasis headed the company. In the news of the Kommersant, there was a message about the recognition of the Top Manager as one of the best managers in the field of trade.
The Top Manager left X5 Retail in 2011 when he received an offer to take a senior position at Walmart. For two years, Lev Khasis lived and worked in the USA. As vice president of Walmart, he was engaged in scaling the company, integrating acquired retail chains, and was responsible for operations in the financial market. In parallel, the top manager implemented his business projects.
Lev Khasis in Sberbank
In 2013, Khasis returned to Moscow to take up the post of Chief Operating Officer and First Deputy Chairman of Sberbank. The tasks of the head were the development of the retail sector and increasing the bank’s competitiveness. In just a few years, the financial institution has completely reformed its customer service, restructured its credit policy, and moved most operations online. Introducing software based on artificial intelligence and developing technological products has begun.
The top manager began work on turning Sberbank into a fintech company with its ecosystem, where many services, including non-financial ones, are assembled under one brand. The area of responsibility of the head included the direction of e-commerce, which became new for Lev Khasis. Sber announced the launch of the telemedicine service in 2017, and then the structure of SberX appeared — the core of the ecosystem.
Sber began to develop e-commerce in partnership with other large IT companies: Rambler and Mail.ru. In 2020, the ecosystem already included 48 services, among which the largest were “SberMegaMarket,” “SberHealth,” and “SberLogistics.” Together with the leading market players, the bank sought to expand the presence of non-financial services in the regions. Still, by the end of 2021, the management recognized the idea of partnership with other companies as unproductive. After the reorganization, Sberbank put e-commerce into a separate holding company and offered the First Deputy Chairman to head the new structure.
Lev Khasis’ contract with the bank expired on February 15, 2022, after which the head announced his intention to leave his post to focus on developing his business projects. According to the top manager, the decision was made by him back in 2021, and he agreed with the management. Today Lev Khasis has been relieved of all positions in Sberbank.
Current occupation of the ex-head of the Sberbank
Currently, the Top Manager lives in Miami, where he is implementing a real estate project. Lev Khasis owns two condominiums in one of the fashionable districts of the city. In the past, the entrepreneur owned a stake in Momentus, which provides engineering services to aerospace enterprises, but in 2021 he sold his part of the shares.
