Vitaliy Khomutynnik

His father, Yuriy Volodymyrovych (b. 1953), is a repairman.

His Mother, Valentina Ivanivna (born 1958), is a seamstress, housewife.

Vitaliy Yuriyovych Khomutynnik (Віта́лій Ю́рійович Хомути́ннік, born 4 August 1976, Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, investor, and former politician who was awarded the title of Honored Economist of Ukraine in 2010.

Founder and Chairman of the Cascade Investment Fund, President of the Ukrainian Golf Federation.

Born on August 4, 1976, in Makiivka, Donetsk region.

His wife Svitlana Viktorivna Khomutynnik (née Sopelnyk) (born 1980) is an economist.

In 1991, Vitaliy Khomutynnik started working for the State Enterprise Specialized Department of Reclamation and Mechanization of Construction.

At the age of 17, in 1993, he founded his first private enterprise, Cascade, which focused on the trade of equipment and workwear.

The company was eventually transformed into the multidisciplinary investment holding that is still operating.

From May 1998 to April 2002 he was a deputy, and from September 1998 he was the chairman of the planning and budget commission of the Central City District Council of Makiivka.

He was engaged in local self-government, in particular, he created the first population self-organization committee which organised Voluntary People's Druzhina, created palygrounds, etc. in the Soniachnyi district (September 1999-2002).

He graduated from the Donetsk State Academy of Management in 2000 with a degree in finance and credit.

In the period from 2001 to 2003, he was the CEO of CJSC Spetsodjag.

From 2002 to 2019, he was a member of several convocations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (IV – VIII), including representation of the electoral bloc of political parties For United Ukraine!, Party of Regions and the Revival party.

From January 2002 to August 2019, he was the owner, and since September 2019, the chairman of Cascade Investment Fund.

He is also an owner of the insurance company Brokbusiness.

He received his second higher education at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine (2007).

Khomutynnik is married.

The couple has two children: son Artemii (born in 2007) and daughter Maria.

As of 2014, he was the youngest and richest Member of Parliament of Ukraine.

According to his 2014 declaration, he earned UAH 293.8 million.

In 2015, he declared UAH 167 million in income and UAH 354 million in bank accounts.

In October 2015, Khomutynnik acquired a 5% stake in Ukraine's largest oil processor, Kernel Holding (as of 2021, the company has a landbank of 514,000 hectares ).

In November 2017, Cascade Investment Fund, owned by Mr. Khomutynnik, increased its stake in Kernel Holding S. A. from 5% to 6.59%.

Khomutynnik is on the list of persons against whom the Russian government imposed sanctions in 2018.

In 2018, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed Ukroagro Alliance Ltd and Kma Group Ltd to acquire a stake in the authorized capital of Dnipro Agro Alliance Ltd, which is located in the Dnipro region and covers more than 50 thousand hectares.

Since 2021 one third of the shares in Kernel Agro Holding owned by Cascade Investment Fund have been sold in publicly announced shares buy-back.

The rest were sold during delisting.

In the rating of the magazine The New Voice of Ukraine 100 richest Ukrainians, published in October 2019, his assets were estimated at $478 million (an increase of 23% compared to 2018); that was the 13th place in the rating.

Until 2019, the main focus of Khomutynnik's Ukrainian business was energy and the agricultural sector.

Since 2019, Khomutynnik has been focusing on venture capital investments.

Cascade Investment Fund, headed by Khomutynnik, makes investments of up to $10-15 million each.

The company operates on the principle of investment diversification.

Cascade Investment Fund invested in various sectors of the Ukrainian economy, later invested in public companies, and in 2019 created a venture capital division, which accounted for 10% of the portfolio (as of 2021).

However, from 2020 to 2023, Cascade Investment Fund exited the companies Kernel, JKX Oil&Gas and Ukrnaftoburinnia, now Cascade is focusing on real estate, funds and venture companies in Europe.

Vitaliy Khomutynnik used to own shares in MC Ukrnaftoburinnya PJSC, the second largest private gas production company in Ukraine in terms of production volume, he sold his stocks of Ukrnaftoburinnya.

He sold 19,97% stake in JKX Oil & Gas in 2020.

In 2020, Playco, a mobile game start-up (which is dedicated to creating games that can be played without downloading and launched via a link on any platform), raised $100 million in a funding round and became a unicorn.

Playco's value is estimated at $1 billion.

Khomutynnik’s political career began at the local council.