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Life stories of successful businessmen are similar in many ways. The specifics may be different, but the essence remains the same — every one of them had to face challenges at one point or another. These either teach entrepreneurs valuable lessons and make them stronger, or crush all their dreams. Oleg Belay is no stranger to this experience.
The CEO of the TRINFICO Investment Group started his business a few years after the collapse of the USSR. It was a time of economic chaos and overwhelming risks. The entrepreneur chose a promising, but extremely challenging market — in 1993, he co-founded an investment company.
Oleg noted that he was well aware of the risks associated with this business and since the first days did everything in his power to diversify them and protect the company's assets. However, even the best management strategy could not rule out business risks in an era of endless crises. All the more interesting is the biography of the entrepreneur who managed to get through many obstacles and ultimately build one of the largest companies in the Russian market.
It is commonly believed that the most interesting parts of success stories have to do only with business achievements. However, many experts express a different opinion. Oleg Belay's biography as a whole will be of greater interest to general readers than the list of his many achievements by itself. The businessman's path to the top was not easy. So, it makes sense to tell his story from the very beginning.
Belay Oleg Viktorovich was born in Moscow. His parents were MIET graduates and programmers. The future businessman grew up in a well-educated family, but none of his relatives were entrepreneurs. He attended a regular secondary school that did not have any advanced study programs.
Nothing seemingly indicated that Oleg Belay would decide to get into business in the future. Moreover, he chose to study at MIET. However, his decision had little to do with his parents and their careers; Oleg considered several universities and settled on the option that seemed the most promising to him.
The future businessman graduated from the University of Electronic Technology with a degree in engineering physics. He was genuinely interested in science and enjoyed studying. For a long time, he believed that he could pursue an academic career. However, later his priorities changed. His desire to become a businessman came to the fore.
Although the young man did not have start-up capital or influential relatives to support him and was not integrated into the business community, he did not feel discouraged. Despite being a graduate of a technical university, Oleg Belay knew that he could take a chance and try on a different role. During his final university years, he decided that he wanted to start a business.
Oleg began to spend a lot of time with like-minded people. Soon, he was receiving offers to participate in various business projects. They helped him gain management experience, which eventually became the backbone of his own companies. He tried his hand at different businesses in search of the most promising market.
Several years before the founding of TRINFICO, Oleg Belay was thinking about building a business in various industries. He even tried his hand at journalism. However, in the end, the entrepreneur turned his sole focus to the investment sphere.
Oleg created a news service together with his childhood friend. The team of journalists provided materials on financial topics. The business was doing well, and soon, the leading media outlets of that period took notice of the news agency.
Today, experts agree that this business of Oleg Belay had a good chance of success. However, the founders of the news agency lost interest in their project. Shortly before that, they branched out into the investment field. This development influenced their decision to change the course of their activities and leave the media business.
Oleg admitted that he was always attracted to promising markets, even when starting a particular business entailed big risks. After quitting journalism, he dived into studying stock markets. The investment sphere in Russia was poorly developed at the time, so the entrepreneur had to resort to foreign sources of information.
It soon became obvious that building a company in this industry was an extremely promising endeavor. But at the same time, it entailed many risks. By that time, Oleg Belay had gained impressive managerial experience, and it gave him the courage to co-found a specialized company. This decision marked the beginning of a successful company that has now been in the Russian market for over 30 years.
At the beginning, the company was just one of many Moscow brokers working with new securities, which had just entered the country's market. But within just a few years, it became one of the largest market players.
Oleg Belay co-founded TRINFICO in 1993. From that moment on, he was officially responsible for protecting the company's assets. However, in reality, he was also involved in every key aspect of its business operations. The businessman made sure to stay informed about all fundamental processes in the company.
Senior executives at TRINFICO never tried to force the growth of the investment group. Despite the pressure of unstable markets and tough competition, they chose to prioritize stable and gradual growth. This strategy bore fruit; despite the difficult economic situation and extreme market volatility, the company was steadily expanding its business. This was largely attributed to high-quality management decisions.
Having started as a classic brokerage firm, within just a few years, TRINFICO was bringing securities of the largest Russian companies to the market and managing the assets of multiple non-governmental Pension Fund The investment group explored many business directions. Its client base included the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.
Let us emphasize that the company was taking shape during a very difficult period:
the industry lacked comprehensive regulation;
the market was highly competitive and there were virtually no competition laws;
more experienced foreign competitors were entering the Russian market;
the list of financial instruments was constantly growing with new types of assets;
investing was a foreign concept to most Russians and they rarely trusted companies operating in this field.
Despite the instability and unfavorable market conditions in general, the company was able to grow at a steady pace. Oleg Belay, along with other executives, made every effort to ensure the business stability of the investment group. As a result, TRINFICO managed to become one of the largest companies in its segment. Last year, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary.
After the consolidation of the investment group in 2013, Oleg Belay took over as CEO of the company. However, he continued to monitor the company's fundamental business processes. Over decades of stable operation in the Russian market, TRINFICO has achieved impressive results.
Here is what you need to know about the group's current state of affairs:
One of the company's current priorities is sustainable development. TRINFICO became one of the first Russian investment groups to implement a full-fledged ESG strategy. Entrepreneur Oleg Belay has been loyal to the "green agenda" for many years. Even today, when the largest corporations are increasingly abandoning these practices, his company continues to follow ESG principles.
Oleg is a modest person. He does not like to mention his contribution to the success of TRINFICO; instead, he talks about the competent managers and great employee performance. However, the now-CEO of the investment group played an important role in the formation and evolution of the company.
Oleg Belay confesses that one of the most painful crises for the company was the collapse of the "GKO pyramid scheme," which provoked a sovereign default in 1998. Back then, the market virtually went into a tailspin. People lost the money they invested in GKO (state short-term bonds). And although TRINFICO's analytics team predicted these events several months before the crisis, there was no way to avoid its consequences.
Oleg noted that the crisis became a hard but valuable lesson for the company's management team. They had to take additional measures to diversify risks and ensure asset protection. Later on, these steps made it possible for the company to quickly return to its previous volume of operations and continue to grow.
Industry experts and people around the entrepreneur note that he remained true to his principles from the first days of his work at TRINFICO. One of these was his desire for a stable growth, as opposed to momentary leadership. This principle ensured the gradual evolution of the company and helped it get through a series of crises and maintain client trust.
Oleg Belay remains loyal to the "green agenda"; he sees ESG principles not only as an opportunity to invest in sustainable companies, but also as the potential to further stabilize the growth of TRINFICO.
The entrepreneur also pays great attention to the issues of social responsibility in business. He came up with the idea of establishing a charity foundation called VMESTE SMOZHEM (TOGETHER WE CAN) and later joined its board of trustees. This organization provides grants to NPOs and projects that aim to solve the most pressing social issues.
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