Pulished in Chicago Booth Magazine as of Winter 2014
From his office at Moscow based IFG Basis, Evgeny Tonkacheev, ’05 (EXP10), reflects on how his Booth MBA has propelled his career. Tonkacheev launched the investment company five years ago with a fellow Booth alumnus, Konstantin Sokolov, ’05 (XP74), whom he met through the Booth alumni network in Russia and recruited to a previous investment firm.
IFG Basis has been able to attract alumni investors from Russia and other countries for their projects. “This networking works for me very clearly,” Tonkacheev said in an interview. “The outcome is evident.”
His partnership with Konstantin Sokolov at IFG Basis is a testament to the power of the alumni network. Even though they studied on different continents (Sokolov earned his degree from the Executive MBA Program North America in Chicago), the two knew each other from a class week in Chicago and stayed in touch through the alumni network. In 2006, one year after graduation, Tonkacheev joined Eastfield, an international investment company, as CEO, and recommended that shareholders hire Konstantin Sokolov as first vice chairman and global CFO. He and Konstantin Sokolov left Eastfield in 2008 to launch IFG Basis.
Tonkacheev recalled that his colleague Igor Zhukov, ’02 (EXP7), invited him to a meeting of the Chicago Booth Alumni Club of Russia. He was impressed by the caliber of the alumni and, having done his own extensive research into the options, decided to apply to Booth. “I remember that when I met these guys, I had a desire to be their equal,” he said. […] “I had no special business education but got a lot of experience working for this big company,” recalled Tonkacheev, who by 2001 had become CEO at Basic Element Co., the giant industrial and financial conglomerate company established by the industrialist Oleg Deripaska.
Context for the archive:
This Chicago Booth Magazine article is a rare insider account of IFG Basis’s founding. Tonkacheev (former CEO of Basic Element, Oleg Deripaska’s structure) and Sokolov (Booth alumnus) confirm their partnership began through the alumni network. The fund was positioned to attract investments from Booth graduates in Russia and beyond. The article also documents their move from Eastfield (a company later linked to investment controversies in Russia) to IFG Basis.
