Oleksiy Chernyshov

Oleksiy Chernyshov
Олексій Чернишов
Head of the Board of Naftogaz
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 November 2022[1]
President	Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Prime Minister	Denys Shmyhal
Preceded by	Yuriy Vitrenko
Minister for Communities and Territories Development
In office 4 March 2020[2] – 3 November 2022
President	Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Prime Minister	Denys Shmyhal
Preceded by	Denys Shmyhal
Governor of Kyiv Oblast
In office 28 October 2019 – 11 March 2020
President	Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Prime Minister	Oleksiy Honcharuk
Preceded by	Mykhailo Bno-Airiian
Succeeded by	Vasyl Volodin (Acting)[3]
Personal details
Born	(1977-09-04) 4 September 1977 (age 47) Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Political party	Independent
Education	Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy” Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
Occupation	Entrepreneur politician

Oleksiy Chernyshov (Ukrainian: Олексій Михайлович Чернишов; born 4 September 1977^[4]) is a Ukrainian statesman, politician, and businessman. CEO of the Naftogaz Group since November 2022.^[1] Minister for Communities and Territories Development in 2020–2022^[5][6] and Kyiv Region Governor in 2019–2020.

He coordinated the decentralization reform, recognized by the European Union as one of the most successful reforms in Ukraine, as well as the reform of state regulation in construction. He also revived the corporate governance reform within the Naftogaz Group. He has over 20 years of experience in the private sector in Ukraine and abroad, specializing in finance, investments, investment banking, real estate, and IT.

He was born in Kharkiv, where he spent his childhood, school years, and obtained his higher education.

1994–1999: Studied at Kharkiv Humanities University "People’s Ukrainian Academy", specializing in "Enterprise Economics."

1996–2002: Studied at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, specializing in "Law."

1999: Completed a professional course based on the standards of the Project Management Institute (PMI) as part of the "Project Management" program at Westinghouse, Pennsylvania, USA.

In 1998, he began his career at Westinghouse Electric Company (USA) as a project manager. He continued his career at Telesens, a subsidiary of Telesens AG (Germany). In 2002, together with partners, he acquired the Ukrainian part of the group, which became an independent company.

In the early 2000s, he also started working in development. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the president of the AVEC Group of Companies and, until 2013, as chairman of the supervisory board. He developed a portfolio of commercial real estate projects with a total area of 350,000 m² and attracted major international players in the fields of direct investment and commercial real estate development, including UNIQA Real Estate AG, New Century Holdings (NCH), ECE, and others.

In parallel, in 2012, he founded investment and development company Eastgate Development, focusing on large-scale commercial real estate projects and attracting foreign investments to Ukraine.

In 2014, he established investment company VI2 Partners with offices in Kyiv and Vienna. Its activities include direct investments, portfolio asset management, and investment banking.

On October 20, 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved Oleksiy Chernyshov's candidacy for the position of the Head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration. The appointment decree was signed by the President of Ukraine on October 28, 2019.

Under Chernyshov's leadership, the Kyiv Regional State Administration developed a strategic development plan for the region. Its priorities included decentralization, infrastructure development in Kyiv Oblast, improving rail connectivity, constructing schools, kindergartens, and stadiums, and enhancing the region's investment attractiveness. Additionally, during his tenure as the head of the administration, Chernyshov revived the work of the Regional Development Agency of the Kyiv Region.

On March 4, 2020, Oleksiy Chernyshov joined the newly updated Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as the Minister of Communities and Territories Development. His priorities in office included decentralization reform, reforming the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate, regional development, housing and utility sector reform, and fostering international cooperation.

During his tenure, Ukraine experienced an active phase of decentralization reform, which the European Parliament recognized as one of the most successful reforms in the country.  

Notably, in July 2020, Ukraine introduced a new administrative-territorial structure, prepared by the ministry team under Chernyshov’s leadership. The goal was to enhance the capacity of local communities.  

Additionally, Chernyshov's team worked on developing social infrastructure projects as part of the "Great Construction" program initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As a result, 800 social infrastructure facilities were built or renovated.

As minister, Chernyshov ensured the successful passage of the 2021–2022 heating season without raising tariffs for the population.

In August 2021, he received an honorary diploma from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for his outstanding service to the Ukrainian people.

With the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion, Oleksiy Chernyshov adapted the activities of the ministry he led to the realities of war. His team developed a concept for state functioning under martial law.

In early June 2022, Chernyshov was appointed head of the Headquarters for Preparing for the 2022–2023 Heating Season. Under his leadership, the headquarters devised a plan to ensure a successful winter despite ongoing hostilities. He resolved issues related to settling the debts of district heating companies (DHCs) for consumed gas and coordinated the development of an online platform, UNEEDS, to collect critical needs of DHCs. Chernyshov also advocated for legally fixing gas prices for the population at the 2021 level and prohibiting penalties and fines during martial law.

From the outset of the full-scale invasion, Chernyshov actively addressed the needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Together with his team, he developed and implemented the "Shelter" social program, which provided compensation to households offering free temporary accommodation to IDPs. With the support of the Polish government, he initiated and executed projects to build modular towns for free temporary housing for IDPs.

In April 2022, Chernyshov was appointed by the government to oversee the urgent restoration of damaged residential, critical, and social infrastructure in liberated territories. Under his leadership, the ministry developed a concept for housing recovery and compensation for damages caused by the war.

Together with the World Bank and the European Commission, Chernyshov prepared the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) report—the first comprehensive evaluation of war consequences across 20 sectors. This report became a roadmap for developing further state plans for both immediate and long-term recovery.

Based on the report, Chernyshov's team created an emergency recovery program, prioritizing critical infrastructure objects for restoration by the end of 2022. The program received support from the World Bank, resulting in the establishment of a special Ukraine Recovery Trust Fund managed by the World Bank. This fund was designed to provide mechanisms and resources to meet Ukraine's urgent needs.

In April 2022, Oleksiy Chernyshov joined a special mission of representatives of the President of Ukraine to EU member states. ^[7]Between May and June 2022, as part of this mission, Chernyshov and other representatives conducted 19 diplomatic visits to EU countries to support Ukraine's integration into the European Union. These visits significantly accelerated the process of granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership.  

Chernyshov was specifically responsible for securing support in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Finland.^[8] According to statements by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Chernyshov played a key role in influencing his perspective and providing a broader understanding of the situation in Ukraine.  

On November 3, 2022, Oleksiy Chernyshov stepped down from his position as Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine.

On November 4, 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Oleksiy Chernyshov as the Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine.^[9] His priorities in office included corporate governance reform, strengthening Ukraine's energy independence by increasing gas production, and enhancing trust among international partners.  

Chernyshov began his tenure by requesting that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine resume the selection process for the supervisory board. As a result, in January 2023, the company welcomed a new supervisory board. Background: the authority of the previous board was terminated in September 2021, with its functions temporarily assumed by the Cabinet of Ministers.  

Under the leadership of Oleksiy Chernyshov, Naftogaz Group enterprises, JSC "Ukrgazvydobuvannya" and PJSC "Ukrnafta", produced over 13.2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023.^[10] PJSC "Ukrnafta", which came under state management at the end of 2022, contributed to this figure. Meanwhile, the state-owned JSC "Ukrgazvydobuvannya" increased its gas production by 6% compared to 2022 levels.^[11]

As of the first 10 months of 2023, the enterprises demonstrated a production increase of over 6% year-on-year, extracting 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas.^[12] By the end of 2023, the total increase in gas production by Naftogaz Group is projected to reach 5%, with the total output expected to be 14.7 billion cubic meters.  

Since July 2022, Naftogaz had been in default on its 2022/2026 Eurobonds. To restore investor confidence, Chernyshov prioritized debt restructuring. In May 2023, Naftogaz reached an agreement on restructuring terms, which the Cabinet approved in June. On July 27, Naftogaz officially exited default after bondholders voted to approve the restructuring.^[13]  

On April 12, 2023, an arbitration tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ordered Russian Gazprom to pay ~$5 billion to Naftogaz for the seizure of the Group's assets in Crimea in 2014. In June 2023, Chernyshov’s team initiated a U.S. court procedure to enforce the compensation by using frozen Russian assets. The motion was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This case could set a precedent for compensating Ukraine for damages caused by Russia using frozen Russian assets.  ^[14]

In Q1 2023, Naftogaz reported a net profit of ₴7.7 billion, compared to a loss of ₴24.6 billion during the same period in the previous year.  ^[15]

In 2014, Oleksiy Chernyshov founded the Kyiv Vision Foundation, an organization is dedicated to attracting investment to the country, supporting cultural projects and promoting Ukraine in Europe through the contemporary Ukrainian art. In the fall of 2014, an exhibition of contemporary Ukrainian art "Through Maidan and Beyond" dedicated to Euromaidan events was successfully held in the Museumsquartier of Vienna (Austria). Among the guests were cultural and artistic figures and politicians, including Austrian Foreign Minister (since 2017 - Austrian Federal Chancellor), Sebastian Kurz. Ukrainian art was presented by works of 23 artists, among them were Boris Mikhailov, Vlada Ralko, Sergey Bratkov, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova and others.^[16]

In the same year Chernyshov supported the publication Awesome Kyiv, a modern guide to the Ukrainian capital that opened unknown places to people. The publication was the first in a series of such guides in Kyiv. A few years later with Chernyshov's support, the publishing house Osnova published a new book from the Awesome series about Kharkiv – the industrial and cultural center of Ukraine. The publication of Awesome Kharkiv took place in December 2018.

In November 2017, Chernyshov became a chairman of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Real Estate (URE) Club, a professional organization that brings together local and international experts and practitioners of the Ukrainian real estate market and promotes investment.^[16]

In 2018, with the initiative and support of Chernyshov, the School of Commercial Real Estate Management was established. This is the first joint project with URE Club and the International Institute of Management (MIM).

In March 2019, Chernyshov joined the All-Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance (UNIC). The network was started by the Business Ombudsman Council with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The purpose of creation is to promote the idea of ethical and responsible business.

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Chernyshov served as head of the Kyiv Oblast State Administration from 28 October 2019 until 11 March 2020.^{[17][18][19][20][21]} His tenure focused on decentralization, regional development, improvement of infrastructure and rail service, and the construction of schools, kindergartens, and stadiums.^[22] He also sought to increase investment into the region, restoring the activities of the Regional Development Agency and convening an Investors Council, which first met in February 2020.^[23][24]

Chernyshov was appointed minister of communities and territories development and confirmed during a special session of the Verkhovna Rada on 4 March 2020.^[5][2] On 1 June 2020, he was also appointed to the National Anticorruption Policy Council.^[25] As minister, he focused on regional development, housing and communal services reform, State Architectural and Construction Inspection reform, decentralization, and international cooperation.^[26] Chernyshov also helped to oversee the Great Construction, a controversial project announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2020 to modernize infrastructure in the country.^[27] On 6 October 2020, Chenyshov and European Investment Bank Vice President Teresa Czerwińska signed a €300 million loan to improve energy efficiency in some government-owned buildings.^[28]

On November 3, 2022, Chernyshov was dismissed as Minister for Communities and Territories Development by the Verkhovna Rada.^[6] On the same day, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed him as head of the board of Naftogaz.^[1]

Oleksiy Chernyshov is married to Svitlana Chernyshova, Doctor of Philology (PhD in Philology), professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Has two sons (2006 and 2014) and a daughter (2019).

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• Oleksiy Chernyshov on Facebook
• "Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Oleksiy Chernyshov to the post of Kyiv RSA Head". Office of the President of Ukraine. October 28, 2019. Retrieved January 23, 2020.