Bill Browder

Bill Browder received his MBA from Stanford Business School and worked at Salomon Brothers and Boston Consulting Group before founding Hermitage Capital Management, a hedge fund focused on Russian equities. At peak Hermitage was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, managing approximately $4.5 billion. Browder became known as one of Russia's most aggressive activist shareholders, campaigning publicly against corporate governance violations and corruption at major Russian companies including Gazprom and Unified Energy Systems. In 2005 he was denied entry to Russia and declared a "national security threat" — a decision widely interpreted as retaliation for his governance campaigns. In 2007 Russian authorities raided Hermitage offices and arrested Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer employed by Hermitage, who had uncovered a $230 million tax fraud perpetrated by corrupt Russian officials using Hermitage's seized corporate seals. Magnitsky was imprisoned and died in pre-trial detention in 2009. Browder has since devoted himself to campaigning for the passage of the Magnitsky Act — legislation enabling governments to sanction human rights abusers through asset freezes and visa bans. The Magnitsky Act has been passed in the United States, EU, UK, Canada, and several other countries. His book "Red Notice" (2015) tells this story and became a bestseller.