Michel Litvak https://www.runi.ac.il/en/about/runifriends/donor-recognition/michel-litvak/ was born in Leningrad in 1951. Both of his parents were Russians. His mother survived the siege of the city during World War II, while his father was one of the few in his large family to survive the Nazis. The Litvak family left the Soviet Union and immigrated to Belgium via Poland, settling in Brussels in 1962. As the Litvak family arrived to Belgium without any means, the entire family had to work hard. As a teenager, Michel Litvak worked to help out and did not have the privilege of pursuing higher education. In 1990 , following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Michel Litvak moved back to Russia and settled in Moscow. He started out by building up a consumer goods trading activity between Russia and China, which became the largest business of its kind for several years. He later pioneered a new private industry in Russia, being the first to offer Russian energy companies a full range of transportation and logistics outsourcing services. His company, Oteko Group, became the leader in this field and over time owned the largest fleet of rail tankers.