Biography

Andrey Valeryevich Berezin was born November 9, 1967, in Leningrad. 

Education

He studied at Leningrad’s secondary school 239, majoring in mathematics. His love for exact science helped him choose a university, so Andrey Berezin entered Leningrad Mechanical Institute, named after D.F. Ustinov majoring in mechanical control systems engineering for flying vehicles. He graduated with honors in 1990, and he still calls flying sports one of his main hobbies.

Successful studies at the university, marked by scholarships and the availability of scientific publications, led the future businessman to graduate school at LMI. At that time, hard times came in the country, and a severe commodity shortage began, followed by a sharp price spike. Then Berezin started his first international severe business; he launched container shipments of goods and products from England. 

The first success brought an understanding that business is the main calling of Andrey Valerievich. But even then, at the dawn of his career, and today, as a successful and established man, Berezin never gets tired of repeating: the main value is a serious education and tireless search for the application of his mind and talent. 

The Art of Business

The country for development and prosperity needs educated people who can realize their potential and are interested in working and developing in their home country. Berezin is sure that the state should notice and solve this problem. Still, businesses have to help retain professional staff in the country, support talented young people, and appreciate the work of teachers. 

It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the businessman in support and development of education as he actively supports talented youth and professional and educational projects.

Voenmech, Berezin’s alma mater, has established a personal scholarship named after cosmonaut Georgiy Grechko for gifted undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students. To qualify for the prestigious award, the young people had to prove themselves not only in their studies and scientific work but also in the scientific and technical creativity of the university. Thus, not only the memory of the outstanding cosmonaut was immortalized, but also investments in human capital were made. 

Berezin has always paid and paid special attention to this. As he noted in one of his interviews, the highest education people received in the Soviet Union made it possible to saturate the country with unique personnel, develop production and science, and organize the labor system optimally and professionally.

This kind of philanthropy is actually one of the goals of the businessman’s life. He does not doubt that interested students today are the development and achievements of our country tomorrow. That is why the businessman plans to promote assistance programs, grants, and scholarships in the future. 

Berezin’s company Euroinvest supports gifted youth by helping various foundations and organizations. In particular, the holding sponsors the Euler Foundation, which organizes Olympiads for talented schoolchildren and camps for them.

Besides, a project of the governor’s boarding school for gifted children of the North-West region is actively developing. In addition to studies, pupils will be able to engage in sports and pay due attention both to hobbies and in-depth study of disciplines. The creation of the educational institution is a settled matter; Berezina company has already decided on the construction site, principal agreements have been reached with the authorities, and the terms of reference have been received. The new project will also cultivate the main aspirations of the businessman to interest students, to help them in every possible way in their knowledge and development, and, of course, the general support of teachers, who, in turn, will be selected for the new project with special care. After all, mentors must reveal all of the student’s abilities and consider him the very facet of talent that needs to be developed and nurtured. 

After finishing his postgraduate studies, Andrey Valerievich worked as a teacher for some time and even published several papers on this topic, so he knows firsthand the value of trust and mutual understanding between a teacher and a student.

Berezin remembers well how in his youth, he searched for himself. For example, one of his many projects was to create checkpoint systems that are used in businesses. Eventually, he concluded that he wanted to develop in commercial activities. After a successful container shipping business, he realizes that even in the difficult times in which the country is immersed, it is possible to develop honestly, relying on acquired knowledge and personal experience to earn money. 

Euroinvest the Main Asset 

In 1993 Andrey Berezin took part in the foundation of North-Western Fishery Company. Being one of the founders of the company, Berezin gave an excellent start to the business. The businessman left his brainchild, but even without his creator, the industry lived and prospered thanks to its solid foundation. 

By that time, Andrey Valeryevich was interested in investing, and in 1994 he began buying lands in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. It can be said that this activity created Berezin’s main brainchild, Euroinvest Company, a solid and successful investment business that was one of the region’s top landowners. Today the holding has grown into a structure that unites companies in various directions. Herewith development of land territories of St. Petersburg and the region remains the priority in its work; today, construction occupies a significant niche in the holding’s structure.

The company Euroinvest was created in 1993 in equal shares by Andrey Berezin and his business partner Yury Vasilyev; since then, Berezin has been the permanent chairman of the company’s board. Euroinvest was created and positioned as a business connected with territory development, development, and industrial production.

For the last several years, the holding has paid much attention to its industrial assets, and not only in St. Petersburg. The sphere of interest of Euroinvest includes enterprises with a severe annual turnover. This is partly since the real estate development sphere has recently started to experience specific difficulties. Berezin himself, in his numerous interviews, always draws attention to the fact that the problem is not to buy land but to dispose of the purchase successfully. Only correctly built a business and the correct managerial decisions allow to find financing for large projects, to realize all the objects in operation, to find a balance between profitable business (as well as the balance of work in the city and region, and up to 400 thousand square meters are under construction in the second half of 2022), but not forgetting about the one for whom all this hard work is done about the common people. Given the fall in demand for mortgage loans, which has been observed lately, Andrey Berezin’s company has introduced a unique loyalty program that allows participants to receive substantial compensation for mortgage rates.

At the beginning of 2022, Euroinvest became the main shareholder of the St. Petersburg factory Recond (the leading Russian enterprise producing and manufacturing radio components). Commenting on the deal, Berezin emphasized his desire to revive the legendary Leningrad research and production association Positron in the future, and the purchase of Recond marked the beginning of this ambitious idea.  

Following the conviction that people are the main asset and success of any enterprise and striving for support and assistance from the highest professionals and class specialists, the holding decided to create a research-and-production association in the field of the radio-electronic industry. Euroinvest is ready to invest up to half a billion rubles in the development of Recond, which will undoubtedly become the jewel of the new association.

Euro Venture: Innovative Developments

After taking his business to the leading positions in construction and industrial markets, as well as supporting young talented people, bright minds, who want to work for the good of their country, Andrey Berezin thought of creating a venture capital fund.  In 1917, the Euro Venture fund, with an impressive volume of €10 million, appeared. Euro Venture accepts, evaluates, and develops applications, ideas, and start-ups in the field of innovations in science and technology. Berezin is incredibly proud of a device developed by Russian scientists to fight cancer. The Fund sees among its associates all those who burned with the desire to move science and were not afraid of bold experiments, firmly believing in themselves and their ideas. Thus, among the partners of the Fund could be seen many institutes, from Skolkovo to St. Petersburg State University, from RVC to Polytechnic.

In the same year, 2017, Berezin created a construction division, Euroinvest Development (part of the Euroinvest holding company), to deal more densely and targeted full-cycle development activities. Construction of houses, schools, kindergartens, and other real estate is still carried out based on the needs of ordinary people. It is not surprising that Berezin’s subdivision was eventually awarded the title of the most client-oriented developer in the Leningrad region.

Svetlana PJSC as a Part of Euroinvest Holding

Not abandoning his interest in electronics and instrumentation, in December 2012, Berezin became one of the shareholders of Svetlana PJSC (formerly Leningrad Association of Electronic Instrumentation Svetlana). The company’s name is actually an abbreviation and stands for Svetlana Light Bulbs). This association, leading its history since 1889, is one of the pioneers of the Russian electronic industry; it was here that the first Russian incandescent lamps saw light.

Today Svetlana’s products are electrovacuum devices and microelectronic products that are in wide demand not only in our country but also abroad. The company’s products are delivered to more than 20 countries. It is the enterprise’s specialists who, as part of their cooperation with the Euroinvest Venture Fund, are working on the development of a device to fight cancer. Obviously, the main interest of importers is unique X-ray tubes, without which it is impossible to create devices for diagnostics of oncological diseases.

A strong businessman, a successful entrepreneur, and an experienced developer, Berezin has never deviated from his philosophy that intelligent and talented people should be helped to realize themselves fully; the future lies in science, in a close-knit team of like-minded people of the highest level who have the opportunity to create. Svetlana today is a modern high-tech enterprise with stable growth of both revenues and output. Along with its daughters (Svetlana-Electronpribor, Svetlana-Roentgen. Svetlana-SET, and Svetlana Semiconductors) develops and manufactures products on a complete cycle basis and is part of the holding company Russian Electronics JSC. A unique, innovative subdivision of POA Svetlana is engaged in the development of high-power installations for the production of technical ceramics.

Svetlana has inherited buildings from the Soviet legacy in which it is impossible to carry out industrial and scientific activities. These include old workshops, abandoned buildings, and even dilapidated greenhouses. Berezin plans to turn this into an asset by clearing the territory and building it up in a new way. In addition to the obvious urbanistic benefits, such activities would help Svetlana count on the additional capital needed for development. 

Recycling as a Benefits for the Environment

In 2013 Andrey Berezin launched an investment project, Recycling, in the Kemerovo region (recycling is a kind of waste recycling technology that makes it possible to reuse waste or return it to the production cycle). The businessman’s project was approved and enthusiastically supported by the then governor of the Kemerovo Region, and Berezin called this cooperation an excellent example of a public-private partnership. 

The main task of Recycling was to neutralize waste from the Belovo zinc plant and reclaim areas of disturbed land. The work was carried out using unique, innovative technologies. In particular, reagentless leaching technology was applied, which allowed obtaining such metals as copper and zinc from waste. Besides the successful launch of the recycling technology, it is necessary to note the considerable ecological and economic component of the project. The environment in Belovo has improved noticeably, people have received new jobs, and the regional budget has received additional funds.

Berezin left the recycling project in 2019; however, he repeatedly emphasized that the environmental direction is becoming more and more of a priority for Euroinvest. 

Euroinvest Development is a diversified holding company

In 2017, together with Yuri Vasiliev, Berezin became co-owner of the construction company Euroinvest Development, the debut and, at the same time, the top project of which was the construction of a housing estate in Murino. Berezin explained Euroinvest’s creation of its own construction department by the logic of market development. According to him, potential buyers of the apartments pay attention to the developer’s reliability and the absence of financial problems. All this, together with the availability of the land plots, makes a new structure most attractive for the clients.

Former general director of Arsenal-Nedvizhimost Stanislav Danelyan, an experienced specialist and successful professional, was chosen as a key partner and a general director of Euroinvest Development.

In 2020 in Murino, a pilot project of the interconnection of dwelling houses in iD Club appeared; it is Euroinvest Development’s own concept of smart houses, which includes the development of the territory with 3iD format housing that is to provide residents with modern public spaces, developed infrastructure, as well as educational clubs.

The three keys to success in the 3iD format are the comfort of people in their own apartment, in the whole house, and on the territory of the housing estate. The developer keeps the prices for the dwelling quite affordable for the wide category of citizens.

To date, Euroinvest Development is among the top four developers in the Leningrad region in terms of the current volume of construction. The company is constructing three residential complexes with a total area of 232 thousand sq. m. in the region. 

Andrey Berezin is sure that getting into the construction business was the right decision. The company continues to fulfill all of its obligations to put the objects into operation. Despite the difficulties in the construction and real estate markets, the company has no problems financing its projects, including those in the early stages of realization. The company has stable assets in the form of land plots for development and land plots with construction permits.

Businessman Berezin always emphasizes that he loves his country and is ready to continue working actively for its good and prosperity, opening new directions for his business. The active and proactive person could not pay attention to agriculture, which has been rising recently and needs to be developed. One of the relatively new directions of Euroinvest was the agro-industrial cluster of Krasnoye Znamya in the Pskov region. The cluster was formed based on several regional agricultural enterprises specializing in producing grain, fodder, and dairy cattle breeding. Today the agro-cluster is becoming self-sufficient.