V agit Alekperov is a powerful Russian oligarch and one of the most prominent figures in the global oil and gas industry. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union, he worked his way up from being an oil rig worker to becoming the youngest-ever deputy oil minister in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he took control of three state-owned oil fields and consolidated them to form Lukoil in 1993, which has since grown to become Russia's largest independent oil company.

As the longtime president and CEO of Lukoil for nearly three decades, he built the company into a massive, vertically integrated global energy giant, with exploration, production, refining, and retail gas station operations. He is considered one of the most respected and professional of Russia's first-generation oligarchs. In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Australia, which led him to resign as the president of Lukoil to protect the company, though he remains a major shareholder.