Boris Jordan

Boris Jordan
Boris Jordan
Born	June 2, 1966 (age 60); Sea Cliff, New York, United States
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, executive chairman
Known for	Founder and executive chairman of Curaleaf

Boris Jordan (, born June 2, 1966) is a billionaire entrepreneur of Russian-American descent, recognized as the founder and executive chairman of Curaleaf.

Early life

Jordan was born in Sea Cliff, New York to parents who emigrated from Russia. His father, Aleksey Borisovich Jordan, was a graduate of the "Cadet Corps" in 1941 and had lived in Yugoslavia. Jordan’s paternal grandfather participated in both the Great War and the Russian Civil War before relocating to the United States. His mother, Maria Alexandrovna Jordan (née Shishkova), earned her degree from New York University. It is reported that Jordan’s grandfather held the position of Russian Minister of Provisions during Pyotr Stolypin’s administration, and he is also a grand-nephew of Czar Nicholas II’s physician, Eugene Botkin.

Jordan obtained a bachelor's degree specializing in Russian–American Economic Relations from New York University.

Career

During the early 1990s, Jordan was instrumental in facilitating Russia's shift toward a capitalist economy, contributing to the establishment of the Russian stock market and the privatization of government-owned enterprises.

Between 1992 and 1995, he worked alongside Bruce Gardner at the Russian Center for Privatization and headed the Moscow branch of Credit Suisse First Boston, part of the Mellon financial group. As managing director, Jordan elevated CS First Boston to a prominent investment bank within Russia by concentrating on privatization initiatives, corporate finance, and securities trading. He was also responsible for founding the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

In 1995, together with Stephen Jennings, Jordan co-established Renaissance Capital, which grew into a significant investment firm in Russia. On November 25, 1998, billionaire Vladimir Potanin endorsed him as Chairman of Sidanko—a role Jordan fulfilled until February 1999.

In 1998, Jordan launched Sputnik Group Ltd., assuming roles as President and CEO. This diversified holding company administers Sputnik Funds—the foremost foreign private-equity funds invested in Russia—and holds proprietary stakes in sectors including insurance (Renaissance Insurance), forestry, telecommunications, media, as well as foreign enterprises.

Jordan founded and took on the presidency of the Cadet Corps Fund in 1999.

From 2001 to 2003, he served as CEO of NTV television channel and Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of Gazprom. He stepped down from these positions in early 2003 amid political pressures.

Currently, Jordan serves as chairman of Curaleaf, a leading cannabis company based in the United States.

Alyosha Jordan

Following the dissolution of the USSR, Boris Jordan’s father, Alexei "Alyosha" Borisovich Jordan—with backing from the All-Cadet Association chapters located in New York, California, Venezuela, Argentina, and France—returned to Russia to revive the Cadet Corps. This initiative was influenced by Vladimir Kirillovich Golitsyn ("Mickey" Galitzine), who had longstanding ties with the Bank of New York. Alyosha Jordan graduated from Yugoslavia’s First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Cadet Corps, served as editor-in-chief for the émigré publication "Cadet Roll Call," and later became Curator of Cadet Corps in post-Soviet Russia. In 1999, Boris Jordan created the Alexei Jordan Foundation for Assistance to Cadet Corps to provide financial support to more than 60 cadet corps throughout Russia; this foundation is funded by his Sputnik Group.

Boris Jordan and family

Boris Jordan is proficient in both English and Russian. In 2011, the NYU graduate established the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University. In 2014, he acquired a penthouse in South Beach, Miami, for $20 million, which he later sold in 2018 to Cliff Asness for a record-breaking $26 million.

Nicholas Jordan

Nicholas Jordan, Boris's brother, has built a prominent career within Russian finance and is fluent in both Russian and English. After earning a political science degree from Boston University in 1982, he quickly entered the financial sector. During his tenure at Deutsche Bank, he served as banker to Alfred Koch while Koch led Gazprom-Media and was instrumental in supporting his brother through Russia's privatization process.

Over a decade at Deutsche Bank, Nicholas facilitated the integration of teams with United Financial Group (UFG), co-founded by Boris Fyodorov and subsequently acquired by Deutsche Bank in 2005. As co-head of Russian investment at Deutsche Bank, he supported Kremlin-backed projects such as Gazprom’s oil industry expansion. In 2007, he moved to Lehman Brothers to relaunch its Moscow branch, earning close to $7 million as head of Russian operations.

Following three years at UBS Group, Nicholas joined Goldman Sachs in 2015 as co-CEO of Goldman Russia. Later that year, he assumed the CEO role at Oleg Boyko’s Finstar. Between March and October 2018, he was affiliated with Big Un Limited.

In January 2019, Nicholas Jordan became a board member of En+ Group and Rusal, companies controlled by Oleg Deripaska, underscoring his continued impact on leading Russian industrial firms.

External links

Profile: Boris Jordan, CNN, April 10, 2001.
Commanding Heights: an interview with Boris Jordan, PBS, October 3, 2000.
Jordan: a statist with a US passport, BBC Russia, April 5, 2001 (in Russian).
An interview with B. Jordan by Elena Lankina, 2002 (in Russian).
The Sputnik Group: Selected Press.
EBRD helps found new Russian life insurance company (2004).
Dossier by Vladimir Pribylovsky (in Russian).