Boris Zingarevich is a Russian billionaire businessman whose fortune is rooted in the massive privatization and consolidation of Russia's pulp and paper industry. His career is closely intertwined with that of his twin brother, Mikhail Zingarevich, and their long-time business partner, Zakhar Smushkin, with whom they co-founded the Ilim Group.

Zingarevich's background is in engineering and technology, providing him with the practical, hands-on knowledge necessary to manage a capital-intensive industry like pulp and paper manufacturing. His entrepreneurial journey began in the turbulent early 1990s, when the privatization of state-owned enterprises offered immense opportunities for those with the foresight and capital to consolidate distressed assets into a modern industrial holding.

Boris Zingarevich co-founded the Ilim Group in 1992. The company's strategy was built on the ambitious consolidation of numerous, large Soviet-era pulp and paper mills and timber assets, particularly in Russia's northwest regions. This systematic acquisition process transformed Ilim into Russia's largest pulp and paper producer and one of the world's leading vertically integrated forestry companies.

The pivotal moment in Ilim's growth was securing a major strategic international partnership. In the mid-2000s, Ilim Group formed a joint venture with International Paper (IP), the largest paper and packaging company in the world. This partnership provided Ilim with crucial investment, technological know-how, and global market access, cementing its stability and its dominance in the international pulp and paper market. Zingarevich's role has been executive and strategic, guiding the company's long-term operational efficiency and maintaining its position as a major global exporter of lumber and pulp products.

Boris Zingarevich's social impact is structural, stemming from the Ilim Group's role as a massive employer in Russia's forestry and industrial regions, providing stable, high-value jobs in areas with limited economic alternatives. The company's commitment to modernization and sustainable forestry practices, necessary for its international joint venture with International Paper, ensures a measure of environmental responsibility.

His philanthropy often supports community development and social services in the towns surrounding the Ilim Group's main industrial facilities, reflecting a commitment to the welfare of its workforce and operating regions.

Boris Zingarevich maintains the reserved, powerful style of a Russian industrial oligarch. His attire is consistently formal and high-quality, favoring tailored business suits. His aesthetic is one of stable, disciplined authority, reflecting the capital-intensive and long-term nature of the pulp and paper industry.

His luxury is the immense security of a fortune rooted in a critical commodity and the autonomy provided by the successful joint venture with International Paper. His life is defined by the high-stakes management of massive physical industrial assets and his commitment to the generational wealth created by his family's successful privatization and consolidation strategy.