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Today, Prolific London will be looking into the life and career of Russian business and entrepreneur Alex Gerko. Alex Greko is a financial trader and the founder of XTX Markets, a company based in the United Kingdom.
Originally from Russia, Gerko holds a PhD from Moscow State University. He commenced his career by trading equities at Deutsche Bank in 2004 and later transitioned to foreign exchange trading. In 2009, Gerko joined GSA Capital, a UK-based hedge fund, where he remained until 2015.
In January 2015, he established XTX Markets, an algorithmic trading company that trades price differences across various market venues. Gerko maintains a 75% majority interest in the company. In 2022, XTX Markets reported a substantial 64% profit increase, reaching £1.1 billion.
Since 2020, Gerko has donated £25 million to out-of-class maths clubs through the Mathematics Education for Social Mobility and Excellence charity (MESME), an organization he founded.
Gerko relocated to the UK in 2006 and resides in North London with his wife and three children. In 2022, he renounced his Russian citizenship after a prolonged legal process, becoming a British citizen.
In January 2024, Gerko earned the distinction of being the largest taxpayer in the UK, contributing £664.5 million in tax, according to the Sunday Times Tax List. As of August 2023, his net worth is estimated at £8.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Last September, Gerko entered a legal dispute. His company, XTX Markets, initiated proceedings against investment managers Aviva and Legal & General, accusing them of discrimination for declining to allow the company to invest in certain funds following the Ukraine invasion last year. XTX claims the refusal is based on Gerko’s Russian citizenship, despite being a UK resident since 2006 and not subject to international sanctions. At the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Gerko held dual citizenship but renounced his Russian citizenship later. XTX, a major proprietary trading and market-making entity alleges that the denial of services constitutes racial discrimination.
The outcome of this lawsuit remains to be seen, but as of now, Gerko is still managing his business and assets as expertly as anyone in the business world has come to expect of him.
