Bill Browder’s fascinating new book Red Notice, is a roller-coaster ride through post-Soviet Russian history. Bill Browder was one of the architects of Russia’s growing economy during the privatization era. He saw an opportunity to make a great deal of money and created the Hermitage Capital investment fund based in Moscow. Browder became the largest foreign investor in Russia. In 2000, his fund ranked as, “The best performing emerging-markets fund in the world.” (p. 1) However, on November 13, 2005, Bill Browder was expelled from Russia. He would later become one of Russia’s harshest critics after the imprisonment and murder of his Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. He grew up in the United States as the grandson of the leader of the American Communist Party. In his teens, Browder rebelled against his family’s ideology. “I would put on a tie and become a capitalist.” (p. 17) He studied business at Stanford University in California. After graduation, he moved to England to work for the Boston Consulting Group and Robert Maxwell. His first job led him to Poland where he discovered the immense opportunity for profit in Poland’s privatization process. After setting up his own investment fund called Hermitage Capital, Browder became […]
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