Simon Kukes

Simon Grigorievich Kukes is a Russian-born American chemist and retired oil industry businessman. He emigrated to the USA to work in the oil industry in the late seventies, and returned to Russia with AMOCO in 1995. He became vice president at YUKOS, president of TNK-BP from 1998 until 2003, and returned to head Yukos, replacing Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Officially retired he is still consulting oil businesses. He has contributed to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Elizabeth Cheney's 2016 run for a congressional seat.

Simon Kukes was born in Moscow. He studied at Mendeleev Moscow Chemical & Technological Institute and at Nesmeyanov Institute of Hetero-Organic Compounds for his postgraduate studies.

Kukes emigrated to the USA in the late seventies, and became an American citizen, giving up his Russian passport. He briefly taught at Rice University, in Houston, Texas. From 1979 to 1986, he worked for Phillips Petroleum, thereafter for Amoco. In 1995, he became vice president of its Moscow Office. From 1996 to 1998, he was vice president at YUKOS. From February 1998 until June 2003 he was president of TNK-BP or Tyumen Oil Company, and brokered a joint venture with BP=that year.

TNK President Simon Kukes with Vladimir Putin at the Millennium Summit 6–8 September 2000 signing an agreement between TNK and Eximbank USA.

In November 2003 after being elected to the board of YUKOS he replaced Mikhail Khodorkovsky to head the company for a year.

In June 2004 he became co-owner of the Russian oil company ZAO Samara-Nafta, a subsidiary of Lukoil. As of 2005, Kukes owned 8 percent in Amarin Corporation, then a neurology drug developer. He also was a partner at Hess Corporation, a New York-based oil and gas company.

As of 2016 he is a consultant for oil businesses in the US and Russia, as well as Leverate, a FinTech company for foreign exchange brokers.

In 2003 Kukes had said in an interview with the Guardian: "I am not a political animal. I spent one year in Siberia [sorting out operational oil issues for TNK] in 2001. That is not what someone interested in politics does."

In 2016, Kukes gave more than $150,000 to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and fundraising committee called Trump Victory Committee.

He has also contributed to Elizabeth Cheney's 2016 run for a congressional seat in Wyoming.

In 2000, Kukes bought a 4 room condominium in Trump Parc in Manhattan.