Valeri Belokon
Encyclopedia
Valeri Belokon (born 14 February 1960) is a Latvian businessman, chairman of the Council, and shareholder in the Baltic International Bank and President of English football club Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

.

Since June 2010, The Trustee of the Board of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.

Business career

Born in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, in the former Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Belokon studied at the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...

 in the United States and the University of Latvia
University of Latvia
University of Latvia is a university located in Riga, Latvia. Being established in 1919, University of Latvia is the biggest university in the Baltic states.-History:...

, Faculty of Philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

. He is the chairperson of the council of the Baltic International Bank, and his corporation Belokon Holdings has interests in finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

, media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

, the Food industry
Food industry
The food production is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population...

 and social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

 projects in Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

 and Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

 as well as football in England. These include
  • Finance and investments
    • Baltic International Bank – founded in 1993, servicing VIP customers. Position - Founder, Main Shareholder and Chairman of Council. Representative offices basen in London, Moscow and Kiev
    • Manas Bank – founded in 2008 in Bishkek
      Bishkek
      Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...

      , Kyrgyzstan
    • Since 2007- JSC Investment Management Company Global Fondi - co-founded by ex Prime Minister of Latvia, The former Chairman of National Bank of Latvia - Mr. Einar Repse
    • Since 2009 - JSC Hercogiste - company's aim is to develop sustainable projects in Latvia
  • Food industry
    • JSC Brīvais Vilnis (Established in 1949) – One of the biggest and most developed fish-processing enterprise in Latvia
  • Media
    • Otkritij Gorod – a monthly magazine in Baltic countries
    • Novo News – a daily Internet newspaper
    • Since 1995 - Valeri Belokon's Publishing House Ltd – became popular with the National encyclopaedia Latvijas Enciklopēdija and annual edition Who's Who in Latvia
  • Social Projects
    • Baltic Institute of Strategic Studies – a non-profit scientific research organization founded in 2004.
    • Riga Golf School – Founded in 2003 - charity project - first sport school of golf in Latvia that serves as basics for young generation to be introduced to golf culture


In June 2008, Belokon sold his 30% stake in the Latvian television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 TV5 to the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 owned by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

.

Blackpool FC

Through Belokon Holdings and VB Football Assets, Belokon bought a 20% stake in Blackpool Football Club in 2006, and is the club's president. In June 2007 he stated that he was prepared to increase his stake in Blackpool from 20% to 50% following the clubs promotion to The Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

.

On 8 July 2008, Belokon announced that he and Owen Oyston
Owen Oyston
Owen John Oyston is a controversial self-made multimillionaire English businessman who is the majority owner of Blackpool F.C.. He was convicted of rape in 1996 and served three years of a six-year sentence in prison....

, the majority share-holder of the club, would be personally financing the construction of the new South Stand and South-west corner at Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...

, with work to start immediately.

On 31 July 2009 it was announced that Belokon was setting up a new transfer fund for Blackpool, into which he was adding a "considerable amount" on 5 August in order to invest in new players identified by team manager Ian Holloway
Ian Holloway
Ian Scott Holloway is an English football manager and former player. He became the manager of Blackpool in May 2009. Holloway is well-known amongst football fans for his off-the-wall interviews, with a wide selection of quotes and soundbites being printed. Holloway's playing career spanned 18...

.

On 22 May 2010, Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

 were promoted to the top tier of English football, the Barclays Premier League, one year quicker than Belokon had predicted when joining the club in 2006.

External links

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