german borisovich khan (; born 24 october 1961) is a ukrainian-russian billionaire businessman. after graduating from university in 1988 he worked in a wholesale business selling consumer items, before setting up his own cooperative. he was then appointed the head of the wholesale trade business alfa eco as part of the alfa group consortium, by mikhail fridman. he became president of alfa eco in 1996 and was instrumental in directing the company to focus on export and the oil trade. when alfa bought tyumen oil (tnk) in 1997, he joined the board of directors. he was deputy chairman of tnk oil company from 1997 until 2003. in 2003, khan worked with the other tnk owners to form a 50–50 joint venture with british petroleum (bp), in what was the largest foreign investment in russia to date, at us$8 billion.