Herman Gref is a statesman, businessman, and top manager. Over the past 15 years, he has held the position of Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank. If you have been itching to know more about this legendary banker, here is all you need to know in this post.
Herman Gref; Education and First Career Stages
Herman Oskarovich Gref was born on 8 February 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Kazakh SSR. After graduation, he studied in an ordinary village school and worked for a year in a district agricultural department. In 1982, he was drafted into the army, where he served for 2 years in the internal troops. The military unit’s referral helped him enroll at the law department of Omsk State University. Studying was easy for Gref – he received excellent grades, was actively involved in social work, and graduated with honors in 1990.
Gref remained with the university as a teacher and simultaneously continued his post-graduate studies at Leningrad State University. His academic adviser was Anatoly Sobchak, who was the head of the business law department at that time. In 1991, Herman Gref moved to the northern capital to get down to work on his thesis. However, he was not able to finish his thesis due to his active participation in political life.
Herman Gref was appointed legal advisor to the Committee for Economic Development and Property of the Administration of Petrodvorets and St. Petersburg. He quickly rose through the ranks to become deputy head of the Administration of Petrodvorets and head of the Committee for Property Management in 1992.
In 1993, Gref completed his post-graduate studies but was never able to complete his thesis, as his hard work got in the way. He received his Ph.D. in economics only in 2011. In 1994, Herman Gref moved to the mayor’s office in St. Petersburg, worked as deputy chairman of the State Property Management Committee, and then headed it. The head took part in the reforms of the committee.
During his work at the city hall, Herman Gref’s managerial talent became apparent. The position of the head of the Property Committee made it possible to structurally change the city management system to make it more flexible and responsive to the needs of the time.
It was then that the registers of city buildings appeared, foundations were laid for market property valuation, and the operations of public utilities were restructured. In 1997, Gref took the post of the city’s vice-governor, and a year later, he joined federal structures.
Other Activities
Herman Gref moved to Moscow in August 1998. In the government, he took the post of deputy minister of state property and was engaged in preparing the utilities reform. Gref was directly involved in developing a plan for transition to the market-based management of the utilities sector, which implied competitive order distribution, personalized resource accounting, meter installation, and consumer control over management company operations.
In 2000, the President signed a decree on the creation of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. It was Herman Gref who was offered to head the new structure. The minister’s main objectives included the restructuring of natural monopolies and economic recovery. In the early 2000s, the MEDT became the driving force behind the country’s key reforms.
In the autumn of 2007, another twist occurred in Gref’s biography. The entire government resigned, and the former minister took the key decision to leave civil service and continue his career in banking structures.
Work At Sberbank
From 2007 to the present, Herman Gref’s permanent place of work has been Sberbank. The head came to the institution at a time when the organization had already overcome the financial crisis but was an outdated structure with a still “Soviet” approach to customer service. The bank managed to accumulate significant assets and maintain its branches during the economic reforms, but the former top managers didn’t even think about implementing new technologies and restructuring operations.
The main task of the new head of the board was to turn the oldest financial institution in the country into a modern bank focusing on customer service. The first step in this way was the restructuring of the central office, the renovation of the premises, and the organization of a staff canteen. During the first months the former minister spent most of the day in the central office making plans for bank reorganization.
By 2009, the company had completed the formation of its strategy, and the range of the nearest tasks was determined. Herman Gref tried to bring his every decision to the staff and personally wrote emails to each team member. The manager set goals for the team for 5 years ahead. At the top of the list was to increase productivity by 50%, improve service quality, and increase banking product sales.
Since the beginning of the reforms, the bank has:
- Increased assets 5.3 times (from RUB 7.1 tln in 2009 to RUB 37.5 tln in 2021)
- Taken 42.3% of the retail lending market
- Increased the number of clients to 100 mln people
- Developed the ecosystem, including access to 128 services
- Transformed itself from a financial structure into a technology and IT company.
In interviews, Gref has repeatedly noted that he feels much more comfortable as the bank head than as the federal minister. The top manager notes that in the coming years, the company will continue its development in the non-financial sector.
A key part of the strategy will be the ESG agenda: the development of “green” products, the implementation of social projects, participation in environmental initiatives, and assistance in economic decarbonization.
Herman Gref’s Personal Life
A significant part of Herman Gref’s life is family and children. The top manager pays a lot of attention to education and considers it necessary to change the approach to education in secondary schools. Together with his wife, Gref founded a private gymnasium in Moscow.
The educational institution was built with funds from investors and adhered to the principles of a personalized approach. The curricula focus not only on subjects but also on unlocking the personal potential of schoolchildren.
Gref’s children were educated under an experimental model. The top manager is sure that the main thing is to awaken in younger schoolchildren an interest in subjects and a desire to learn. According to Sberbank’s head, a passion for gadgets at too young an age interferes with the versatile development of personality. Technology should help in middle and high school, where gadgets become an integral part of the learning process.
Plans and Prospects
Now Gref is focused on the development of the already established Sber ecosystem and believes that the company has laid the foundation for the next few years. A traditional bank is an obsolete structure, thinks Herman Gref.
News from world markets shows that today the functions of financial institutions are taken over by technological giants, and Sberbank’s task is to join their ranks.
