Oleksiy Honcharuk

Oleksiy Valeriyovych Honcharuk (Олексі́й Вале́рійович Гончару́к, ; born 7 July 1984) is a Ukrainian politician.

Oleksiy Valeriyovych Honcharuk was born on 7 July 1984 in Zhmerynka, Vinnytsia Oblast, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union.

Other sources have claimed that he was born in Horodnia, Chernihiv Oblast, where he finished school.

Honcharuk's father Valeriy was a politician, and part of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united).

Honcharuk was a student of the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management from 2001 to 2006.

He died in an accident in 2003.

Honcharuk later told journalists that his father's death was the motivating factor for his decision to reform emergency medical services as Prime Minister.

Oleksiy's mother, Tetiana, is a doctor.

When Oleksiy was 16 years old, she immigrated to Italy and lives there until now.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tetiana served in a hospital near Milan.

Oleksiy Honcharuk also has a younger brother.

From 2005, Honcharuk worked as a lawyer and head of law departments of various companies.

Honcharuk has had more than ten years of legal practice.

He has worked as a lawyer in the PRIOR-Invest investment company, and later headed its legal department.

In 2006 he obtained his master's degree in Public Administration at the National Academy for Public Administration.

He also graduated from the Aspen Institute in Kyiv and Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

In 2008 Oleksiy Honcharuk established law firm Constructive Lawyers, which provides legal services in the field of investment and financing real estate construction.

Honcharuk's last position as a lawyer was being a lead partner at a company that specializes in real estate development.

In 2009, Honcharuk became Chairman of the Association for Assistance to Affected Investors and the Union of Investors of Ukraine, two non-government organisations centred around investment.

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Honcharuk unsuccessfully sought a parliamentary seat for the Power of the People party, and was placed first on the party's electoral list.

Following the election, he became an adviser to ecology minister Ihor Shevchenko and First Vice Premier Stepan Kubiv.

In 2015, Economic Minister Aivaras Abromavičius, with the financial support of Canada and the European Union, created an office of the BRDO think tank dealing with the simplification of state regulations in the relations between the state and business.

The competition for the leader of BRDO was won by Honcharuk.

Under the leadership of Honcharuk, BRDO primarily sought the deregulation of business, and successfully pursued the abolition of around 1,000 illegal and irrelevant acts, as well as approving more than 50 decisions in favour of business.

The reform of regulatory bodies was initiated, including a transition to a risk-oriented approach.

Apart from that, there were developed a number of progressive on-line products including the portal of step-by-step instructions for starting your own business, an inspection portal for monitoring the use of funds, and a number of other initiatives.

In April 2016, Honcharuk once again met Kubiv, who invited him to become his advisor pro bono as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development.

At the end of 2018, Honcharuk co-created the liberal conservative non-government organisation, which was intended to grow into a political party.

He served as the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 29 August 2019 to 4 March 2020 following a landslide parliamentary election win.

Honcharuk was replaced by Denys Shmyhal during the formation of the Shmyhal Government.

Before this appointment, Honcharuk was a lawyer and the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He was also a member of the Servant of the People.

Being 35 years old at the time of appointment, he is the youngest Prime Minister in Ukrainian history.

However, the party was not deemed ready enough to take part in the snap July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.

On 28 May 2019, Honcharuk was appointed Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

In this position, he was responsible for the block of economic development and continuation of reforms.

As a member of the presidential administration, Honcharuk was a member of the National Council of Reforms, and also served as a member of the National Investment Council of Ukraine from June 2019 and a member of the National Council on Anti-corruption policies.

During his work in the President's Office, Honcharuk was responsible for the implementation of reforms aimed at simplifying business conditions, improving the investment climate, opening up the land market, and a number of other economic reforms.

This led to the signing of a number of decrees during his tenure.

Among the most critical decrees during Honcharuk's time in the presidential administration were those counteracting illegal takeover and smuggling and those promoting the introduction of new approaches in infrastructure.