YULIA TIMOSHENKO
Prime Minister of Ukraine
Millionaire oligarch. Loyal careerist. Opposition firebrand. Romantic revolutionary. Prime Minister. The dramatic personal transformations undergone by Yulia Timoshenko in the last decade have raised questions about her character, capacities and motivations. Sacked as prime minister earlier this month, analysts are predicting a comeback with her own political party at next year's elections, and a final split with the Yushchenko wing of the "revolution".
Though still rash and gaffe-prone, she showed enough in her first year as prime minister to indicate that, unlike her boss, her best political days are ahead of her. While Yushchenko's presidency stalls amidst ideological confusion and administrative disorganization, Timoshenko was widely praised as a leading light. Her dismissal came with next year's elections at the forefront of the president's mind – but it may prove a big mistake. Constitutional changes have strengthened parliament at the presidency's expense. A successful election will give Timoshenko the strongest cards to play in the ensuing political struggle.
Born in eastern Ukraine in 1960 and trained in economics, Timoshenko made millions while heading Unified Energy Systems in the mid 90s, earning herself the sobriquet "gas princess". She began her career in politics firmly in the mainstream, but after her sacking in 2001 by President Kuchma, and with the state pursuing allegations of corruption against her, she began her journey into parliamentary, and then popular, opposition.
This culminated in her leading role in the "Orange Revolution" of 2004. Now the former oligarch was manning the barricades (her blonde hair tied in traditional peasant braids), denouncing Kuchma as a "red-haired cockroach". She made the speeches and stoked the crowds in a way that the cumbersome Yushchenko never could. Her reward was appointment as prime minister.
The corruption of the old regime first pushed her into opposition, while the growing pains and divisions of the new one felled her in 2005. But what does she really stand for? Where is the "new Ukraine" heading? In 2006, this chameleon may finally have to reveal her true colours.
IGOR SECHIN
Chairman, Rosneft
In a biography published before he was elected Russian president, Vladimir Putin describes his erstwhile friend and colleague, Igor Sechin, as "someone who has been in wars".
It provides a tantalizing insight into the background and psychology of many of the siloviki, or "men of force", with whom Putin has surrounded himself in government – the ex-KGB intelligence and security operatives who lost out in the chaos of the Yeltsin era and have now returned to influence, determined to make up for lost time.
The "wars" Sechin fought were the Soviet Union's campaigns to support ailing proxies in Angola and Mozambique in the 1980s (his CV tells us he was a "translator in Africa" at the time). He first met Putin on a trip to Brazil in 1990, when both men were working within the St Petersburg administration. Their personal and professional relationship has defined his career ever since. Sechin has followed Putin to Moscow, rising with him as an aide and adviser, all the way to the office of president.
But he is now more than just Putin's deputy chief-of-staff and key confidant. In 2004 Sechin, seen as the instigator of the break-up of Yukos, was appointed chairman of state gas giant Rosneft. Shortly afterwards, in a deal described by one Putin admirer as the "swindle of the century", Rosneft acquired control of Yukos' main subsidiary in a rigged auction. Sechin has thus been at the forefront of key siloviki objectives: to take Russia's natural resources back into state hands and attack alternative centres of economic and political power.
Sechin and his circle, including Viktor Ivanov and Dmitri Medvedev, see themselves as restorers of Russia's domestic strength and international credibility. When gifted the Rosneft job, Sechin crowed, apparently without irony, "that for someone of my background to rise to become CEO of a major oil company is proof that anything is possible in this economy."
But it is seriously doubtful how well he will fare in a post-Putin environment, or how far Russians will tolerate further authoritarian measures when the oil boom ends. In the coming years, "anything" really will be possible. Sechin might have another war on his hands.
SUZAN SABANCI DINCER
Chairman, Akbank
Suzan Sabanci admits that inheriting her father's mantle will not be easy: "It will be difficult to surpass him, to leave his shadow. But I am ready for the challenge. I am ambitious."
The latter trait is exactly why she was long groomed for the role by banking legend Erol Sabanci. She doesn't hide her debt to him: "I lived with my family until I got married and learnt so much from him. My father was really my in-house tutor."
It was Erol's own father, Haci Omer, who founded the family empire. In the 1920s, he walked 250km to the rich agricultural plains of Turkey's south and went on to make a fortune in cotton. Akbank was founded in 1948. Just before his death, Haci Omer assigned each of his six sons one arm of the business. Erol got the bank.
Now he has handed over Turkey's biggest private bank to his daughter. It remains 40% owned by the Sabanci group, one of the largest family businesses in the world. With interests across the industrial and financial sectors, its total turnover is estimated at $6 billion.
Still only 39 years old, Sabanci has continued to challenge taboos and define her own position in Turkish society. A socially active extrovert, she studied for an MBA at Boston University before beginning her apprenticeship with the family business. She served in a number of posts before becoming managing director in 1998. "I have always found banking very attractive. It is a dynamic environment where you can be creative."
The biggest period of self-doubt came in 1999 with the birth of her first child. "I asked myself whether I was being selfish, nurturing my ego at the expense of being away from my child all day long. But I quickly realized that I was not born to sit at home. I was born with a responsibility."
The responsibility is a huge one: Akbank holds $3.8 billion in equity and recorded profits of $350 million last year. Though some predicted that, in an age of foreign investment and professionalized managerial structures, Akbank had outgrown its family origins, Dincer's appointment as chairman represents a canny compromise. The bank's governance has been reformed, but a new generation of the family has inherited the top job.
SUZAN SABANCI DINCER
Chairman, Akbank
Suzan Sabanci admits that inheriting her father's mantle will not be easy: "It will be difficult to surpass him, to leave his shadow. But I am ready for the challenge. I am ambitious."
The latter trait is exactly why she was long groomed for the role by banking legend Erol Sabanci. She doesn't hide her debt to him: "I lived with my family until I got married and learnt so much from him. My father was really my in-house tutor."
It was Erol's own father, Haci Omer, who founded the family empire. In the 1920s, he walked 250km to the rich agricultural plains of Turkey's south and went on to make a fortune in cotton. Akbank was founded in 1948. Just before his death, Haci Omer assigned each of his six sons one arm of the business. Erol got the bank.
Now he has handed over Turkey's biggest private bank to his daughter. It remains 40% owned by the Sabanci group, one of the largest family businesses in the world. With interests across the industrial and financial sectors, its total turnover is estimated at $6 billion.
Still only 39 years old, Sabanci has continued to challenge taboos and define her own position in Turkish society. A socially active extrovert, she studied for an MBA at Boston University before beginning her apprenticeship with the family business. She served in a number of posts before becoming managing director in 1998. "I have always found banking very attractive. It is a dynamic environment where you can be creative."
The biggest period of self-doubt came in 1999 with the birth of her first child. "I asked myself whether I was being selfish, nurturing my ego at the expense of being away from my child all day long. But I quickly realized that I was not born to sit at home. I was born with a responsibility."
The responsibility is a huge one: Akbank holds $3.8 billion in equity and recorded profits of $350 million last year. Though some predicted that, in an age of foreign investment and professionalized managerial structures, Akbank had outgrown its family origins, Dincer's appointment as chairman represents a canny compromise. The bank's governance has been reformed, but a new generation of the family has inherited the top job.