Dmitry Zimin

Dmitry Borisovich Zimin (Russian: Дмитрий Борисович Зимин; born April 28, 1933, Moscow, USSR) is a Russian radio scientist and entrepreneur, founder and honorary president of VimpelCom. Since his retirement in early 2000s he has become known as a philanthropist. He founded the Dmitry Zimin Dynasty Foundation, the Prosvetitel book prize and The Book Projects of Dmitry Zimin: The Moscow Time Foundation and the Dynasty Library. 
==Early life and education==
Dmitry Zimin graduated from Moscow secondary school number 59. In high school he became engaged in radio engineering. In 1950, he entered the Faculty of Radio Electronics of the Aircraft of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), from where he graduated. in 1957. Then he secured the position of an engineer in the Problem Laboratory of MAI, organized under Professor Mikhail Neumann.
==Career in science and technology==
In 1962, Zimin was invited to work in the Radio Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. For more than thirty-five years he held managerial positions at this institute: he was the head of the laboratory, then for fourteen years, the head of the scientific department, and then the director of the center for the development of radio equipment.
Zimin got his PhD degree in 1963 and the post-doctoral degree in 1984. As a researcher of phased antenna arrays, he was appointed deputy chief designer of the Don-2N radar. In total, he published over 100 scientific works and inventions.
==VimpelCom==
In the last years of the USSR, there was a sharp reduction in the defense contracts for the Radio Technical Institute. In March 1991, Zimin founded a private commercial enterprise "KB Impulse". It hired the technical experts who worked at the Institute and specialized in communication systems.
In 1991 Dr. Zimin organized a group of technical experts within the Radio Technical Institute for development of cellular telephone communications. At the initial stage, an American cellular equipment manufacturer and operator owned by Fabela family was invited as a partner. In 1992 the joint-stock company "Vimpel-Communications" (VimpelCom) was established, with Zimin as President and General Director. Zimin managed the operational activity of the company, while his partner Augie K. Fabela II contributed equipment and money and managed sales and marketing. Soon VimpelCom launched a pilot AMPS station in Moscow.
The company became successful, making millions dollars of profit in the first years of operation (later, in the end of the 1990s, the company faced some problems, but eventually recovered). VimpelCom worked with Western counterparties and investors such as Ericsson. In 1996 VimpelCom became the first Russian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which required the degree of transparency uncommon for the Russian companies at that time. The company and its management, including Zimin, were praised in Russian and Western press.
In 2001, at the age of 68, Dmitry Zimin sold his controlling stake in VimpelCom and left the position of general director of the company. He was honored the title of the Founder and Honorary President of the company.
In 2001 Zimin was awarded the “Business-Olympus” prize in the nomination “Business Reputation”. Russian edition of Forbes magazine rated Dmitry Zimin as 63rd richest person in Russian on 2004 and 52nd in 2005. 
==Post-VimpelCom business activity==
Zimin is investing to various enterprises. In 2019, BMT Private Equity, founded by Zimin, bought the Russian carsharing company BelkaCar.
==Dynasty Foundation==
Since his retirement, Dmitry Zimin devoted most of his time and wealth to philanthropic activities, mainly facilitated through the Dmitry Zimin Dynasty Foundation in Russia.
The Foundation's priorities were the development of fundamental scientific research and education in Russia, creating conditions so that scientists can research and teach at home in Russia, the popularization of science and civic education. The foundation was the first private Russian nonprofit foundation supporting science and education in modern Russia. It was managed by a Board of Directors, who made decisions about strategic development and set the foundation’s priorities. The foundation ran various programs and projects for the support and popularization of science and the development of formal and civic education. These included programs that supported gifted schoolchildren, future scientists, young physicists, mathematicians, biologists, and teachers
Zimin was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2013, the first Russian philanthropist to win the award. 
In February 2015, Zimin received the "For Fidelity to Science" award from the Russian Federation's Ministry of Education and Science.
In 2015, Dynasty was included by Russian Ministry of Justice in the list of “foreign agents”. Zimin closed the foundation. A number of scientists and public figures condemned the position of the Ministry of Justice regarding the fund, considering the decision to be bureaucratic and unfair.
Zimin continued his philanthropic activities through the Zimin Foundation. In Russia it supports the "Prosvetitel" book prize, the Book Projects of Dmitry Zimin, Independent University of Moscow, Skolkovo Startup academy, Gorky Media, the Moscow Time Foundation. 
International projects supported by the Zimin Foundation in public health care and science include New York University (U.S.), Ariel University (Israel), The School of Molecular and Theoretical Biology, Mount Sinai Health System (U.S.), and Berta's development and rehabilitation center (Cyprus); in education and culture, the foundation supports Tel-Aviv University (Israel), Tartu University (Estonia), The Joseph Brodsky Fellowship Fund (U.S.), Polity publisher (U.K.), The New Review magazine (U.S.).
==Family==
Dmitry Zimin has one son, Boris.
==In the media==
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==External links==
* Zimin Foundation facebook page
* Zimin Foundation official website
== References ==
Category:1933 births
Category:Living people
Category:Russian businesspeople
Category:Bachelor's degrees
Category:Russian scientists
Category:Entrepreneurs