Igor Rybakov

Igor Rybakov
Игорь Рыбаков
Rybakov in 2020
Born	(1972-05-16) 16 May 1972 Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Soviet Union
Alma mater	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Known for	Co-founder of Technonicol
Spouse	Ekaterina Rybakov
Children	1

Igor Vladimirovich Rybakov (Russian: Игорь Владимирович Рыбаков; born 16 May 1972) is a Russian billionaire, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Technonicol, a manufacturer of construction materials.^[1][2] As of August 2025, Rybakov holds the 1,513th position on the Forbes' Billionaires List, with an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion.^[3]

Rybakov began his career in the construction industry in 1988 as a member of a student construction brigade during high school. While studying at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, he continued working as a roofer alongside his roommate and classmate, Sergey Kolesnikov. In 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the liberalization of the economy, the two co-founded Technonicol, a company that benefited from the increase in private property ownership and demand for building renovations and new housing construction.^[4]

Technonicol started in 1993 as a trading company, supplying raw materials to factories and distributing finished goods. It opened its first office in Moscow and quickly expanded across Russia and other CIS countries between 1994 and 1999.^[5]

As of 2019, Technonicol reported revenue of $1.7 billion (103.7 billion rubles).^[6] The company operates 53 manufacturing sites across seven countries, including Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany. It also maintains 22 offices in 18 countries, along with 18 training centers and six research centers.^[7]

Technonicol's sales network includes 90 offices across Russia and CIS countries, and its products are distributed in 150 countries.^[8][5]

In 2018, Rybakov and Kolesnikov were named joint winners of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in Russia.^[9] They attended the international awards ceremony in Monaco in June 2019.^[10] That same year, Technonicol was listed in Forbes as one of the 200 largest private companies in Russia, ranking 114th.^[11]

In 2017, Rybakov published The Thirst, a book detailing his business philosophy and the founding of Technonicol. In 2018, it was awarded second place in PwC's "Business Book of the Year" competition.^[12]

In 2019, Rybakov released his first music album Summer Has Been Going Away (Russian: «Уходило лето»).^[13][14][15] “Music stimulates intellectual activity that helps me to search and discover new business opportunities,” Rybakov said in a phone interview for Bloomberg.^[13][16][17] The same year, he produced a short film titled "Fair Play".^[18]

Rybakov and his wife, Ekaterina Rybakov, established the non-profit Rybakov Family Foundation in 2015.^[19] It aims to redefine education through promoting different systems and incentivizing initiative. For example, the foundation created the Rybakov Prize, an award recognizing philanthropists in education, and set up endowment services to ensure long-term funding for educational causes.^[20] It collaborates with organizations such as UNESCO and the World Bank.^[21][22][23] Other projects include the foundation of the Rybakov Playschool, focusing on early childhood education for preschool and kindergarten^[24] and the "X10 ACADEMY", which offers programs for entrepreneurs.^[25]

Other acts of philanthropy include the creation of an endowment for his former school with a $1 million donation and the sponsoring of a monument honoring healthcare workers treating COVID-19 by the artist Alexey Sergienko.^[26]

Igor and his wife Ekaterina have a daughter, who was born in the year 2000.

Rybakov runs a YouTube channel with around 2.68 million subscribers.^[27] A recurring segment, Billionaire’s Thoughts, features weekly discussions with guests on current events,^[28] while Rybakov Talks focuses on the future of education.^[29]