Tatyana Bakalchuk

Tatyana Vladimirovna Bakalchuk (Russian: Татья́на Влади́мировна Бакальчу́к; née Kim, Russian: Ким, Korean: 김; born on 16 October 1975) is a Russian entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer, and the country's first self-made woman billionaire.^[1] As of October 2021, her net worth was estimated at US$13.3 billion.^[2]

Tatyana Bakalchuk
On SPIEF 2019
Born	Tatyana Kim (1975-10-16) 16 October 1975 (age 47) Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Occupation(s)	Founder and CEO of Wildberries
Spouse	Vladislav Bakalchuk ​ (m. 2004)​
Children	7

Early life

Tatiana Bakalchuk was born on October 16, 1975 in a Koryo-saram family. She finished school in Moscow oblast and graduated from Kolomna University. She planned to move to Moscow and continue her education as a designer. Still, she had to abandon that plan and return to teaching English when the 1998 financial crisis struck Russia.^[3][4]

In the early 2000s, she met her future husband Vladislav Bakalchuk, an entrepreneur and a founder of Utech ISP. In 2004, after giving birth to her first child, Bakalchuk launched Wildberries, which initially focused on reselling apparel from Otto and Quelle catalogs.^[3][4]

Career

By 2006, Wildberries got an office in Milkovo, Moscow region, a team of couriers, phone operators, and an IT crew.^[4] By that time, the company started to sell apparel by small local European brands and the excess stock of old collections of well-known brands.^[5][6] Wildberries was among the first Russian e-commerce companies to offer a flat delivery rate and free try-on and to build a network of pick-up points with fitting rooms. By 2020, the company operated over 7,000 pick-up points.^[5][6]

During the 2014—2016 financial crisis, Wildberries switched to a platform business model (the one employed by Amazon). The company benefited from the dramatic increase in online orders during the COVID-19 pandemic (starting in 2020).^[6][4][7]

Tatiana and Vladislav Bakalchuk own Wildberries. By 2022, according to a Data Insight report, Wildberries was the largest e-store in Russia.^[8] In 2019, the company's value was estimated at $1 billion, which made Bakalchuk the second woman in Russia to become a billionaire,^[9][10] and by 2020, she became the wealthiest woman in Russia, worth $1.4 billion.^[11] Forbes US edition praised Bakalchuk as one of the most notable new billionaires.^[12] By 2021, her fortune grew by 800% (compared to 2020) to $13 billion.^[13][14]

From 2021 to 2022 Bakalchuk was the member of the Supervisory Board of VTB Bank.^[15][16] In December 2021, she joined the All-Russia People's Front.^[14][17] In 2021, the government of Ukraine imposed sanctions over Tatyana and Vladislav Bakalchuk and Wildberries for selling Russian military uniforms and anti-Ukrainian literature.^[18]

Personal life

She is married to Vladislav Bakalchuk, they have four children, and live in Moscow.^[2]

References

1. How Tatyana Bakalchuk took Russia’s ecommerce throne, Financial Times, 11 May 2020
2. . Forbes. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
3. "Tatiana Bakalchuk". TASS. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
4. "Tatiana Bakalchuk". Business secrets. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
5. Anna Sokolova (27 September 2012). "A Wild Berry: how the mother of many children launched a popular e-store in Russia". Forbes. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
6. "The real history behind Wildberries: how Tatiana Bakalchuk became the queen of e-commerce". The Bell. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
7. Parfitt, Tom (21 February 2020). "Former teacher Tatyana Bakalchuk is Russia's richest woman". The Times. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
8. "19 more competitors in Data Insight's top-100 e-store rating". Oborot.ru. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
9. Au-Yeung, Angel. "Former English Teacher And Founder Of Online Retailer Becomes Russia's Second-Ever Female Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
10. Kozenko, Andrey (21 February 2019). "Introverted, daring, and very rich Meet Tatyana Bakalchuk, half of Russia's woman-billionaire population". Meduza. Translated by Rothrock, Kevin. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
11. "Tatyana Bakalchuk". Forbes. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
12. "How the English teacher built a billion dollar worth business and became the richest woman in Russia: the success story of Tatiana Bakalchuk". Grazia. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
13. "Forbes reported on 1200% increase in Tatiana Bakalchuk's fortune". Forbes. 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
14. Ganzhour, Yelena. "Как Татьяна Бакальчук превратилась из домохозяйки в железную леди ретейла" ["How Tatyana Bakalchuk started as a housewife and became the Iron Lady of retail]. Forbes (in Russian). Retrieved 4 June 2022.
15. "В наблюдательный совет ВТБ войдет богатейшая женщина России" (in Russian). RBC. 27 May 2021.
16. Biryukov, Matvey. "Глава Wildberries Татьяна Бакальчук покинет набсовет ВТБ" [The CEO of Wildberries, Tatyana Bakalchuk, will leave the Supervisory Board of VTB]. Forbes (in Russian). Retrieved 4 June 2022.
17. "Самая богатая женщина России вошла в руководство Общероссийского народного фронта". Moscow Times. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
18. "Украинский министр объяснил введение санкций против Wildberries" (in Russian). kommersant.ru. 24 July 2021.

External links

• Tatyana Bakalchuk (Bloomberg profile)