Oleksandr Volodymyrovych Gerega is an entrepreneur, politician, founder and co-owner of the Epicenter chain of stores, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the VII, VIII and IX convocations.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on June 27, 1967 in the city of Horodok, Khmelnytskyi region.
In the period from 1987 to 1990, he studied at the Khmelnytskyi Cooperative Technical School. Subsequently, he received higher education at the Lviv Commercial Academy with a degree in Management of Organizations.
Business
In 1990 – 1991, Gerega worked as a freight forwarder at the Horodotsk interdistrict base. In 1991, he moved to Kyiv, where he began his entrepreneurial activity.
Later, he became a co-owner of the largest chain of construction hypermarkets in Ukraine “Epicenter”. The first hypermarket of the chain was opened in Kyiv in 2003. By 2018, 47 hypermarkets were already operating in different regions of Ukraine, eight of which were located in Kyiv.
In 2013, the company “Epicenter K” acquired a controlling stake in the chain of construction supermarkets “Nova Liniya”.
Gerega is the owner and ultimate beneficiary of a number of companies, including:
- Limited Liability Company (LLC) “Epicenter K”;
- “New Line”;
- “Agroholding 2012”;
- “Carpathian ceramics”;
- “CBM Osmoloda”;
- Private Joint Stock Company (PJSC) “Logistics Center Kalynivka”;
- “SGC Vinnytsia Industrial Group”;
- “Respectum”;
- “Alga Active”;
- “Athena Group”;
- “Intertourism”.
Political Career
In 2012, he became a People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the VII convocation. He won the elections in the single-mandate constituency No. 192, located in the Khmelnytskyi region, running as an independent candidate. After his election, he joined the parliamentary faction of the Party of Regions. At the time of the elections, he served as the head of Epicenter K LLC. In the Verkhovna Rada, he headed the subcommittee on customs tariffs of the Committee on Tax and Customs Policy.
In 2014, he voted for the so-called “dictatorial laws”, which significantly limited the rights of citizens and freedom of speech.
On February 21, 2014, he announced his withdrawal from the Party of Regions faction.
In the early parliamentary elections held on October 26, 2014, he again won in the single-member constituency No. 192.
In the parliament of the VIII convocation, he worked as a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy.
He is the founder and co-chairman of the political party “For Concrete Deeds”.
In the early parliamentary elections of 2019, Gerega ran as an independent candidate in the majoritarian constituency No. 192 in the Khmelnytskyi region.
In the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation, he took the position of Chairman of the Subcommittee on General Tax Administration, Corporate Income Taxation, Accounting and Audit as part of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy. He is also a member of the deputy group “For the Future”.
Community Service
In 2004, he founded the charitable foundation “Epicenter for Children”, the main activity of which is to support and develop social and sports schools for children.
In 2011, together with his wife Halyna Gerega, he created the Oleksandr and Halyna Gereg Foundation, a charitable foundation that implements social and humanitarian projects.
In April 2013, he was elected President of the Weightlifting Federation of Ukraine.
On June 16, 2017, he was elected vice president of the Football Federation of Ukraine.
Fortune
In the spring of 2013, Focus estimated the total wealth of Gerega and his wife Halyna at $ 794.7 million, which provided them with 24th place in the ranking of the “200 richest people in Ukraine”.
In 2014, he entered the ranking of the richest Ukrainians according to Forbes Ukraine, taking 18th place with a fortune of $ 94 million. In 2016, he again found himself on the 18th line in a similar ranking, but with a capital estimated at $ 173 million.
In 2018, according to the Focus rating, Alexander and Galina Gerega rose to 12th place with a fortune that reached $ 530 million.
In 2020, Forbes Ukraine ranked the Gereg family in fourth place among the richest Ukrainians. Their fortune was then estimated at $ 1.3 billion.
Marital Status
He is married to Halyna Gerega, former secretary of the Kyiv City Council and co-owner of the Epicenter chain of construction hypermarkets. The couple has two children: daughter Victoria and son Taras.
