ABOUT
Boris Lozhkin is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, philanthropist and published author. He is President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and a Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress.
STARTING OUT
Starting his career as a journalist 1985, Boris spent five years working for newspapers around Ukraine. In 1990 Boris Lozhkin launched one of the first commercial publications in the USSR – the ATV newspaper. The paper published articles about TV celebrities, movie stars and television programs. Lozhkin was the paper’s editor in chief and publisher.
A successful academic, in 1992 he graduated from the local branch of the International Institute of Humanization and Education Development (USA) with a degree in business management. He went on to study Russian language and literature at Kharkiv State Pedagogical Institute and graduated in 1994.
Business Success
By 1994, ATV was a major publishing success and Lozhkin founded a full-scale advertising agency and TV production company, and began publishing Telenedelya, a weekly magazine and TV guide. By 1996 Telenedelya had launched in 10 cities. In the late 90s Boris’s media assets were consolidated under one company – United Media Holding (UMH) Group.
By 2000 UMH Group had become one of the biggest publishing companies in Eastern Europe. Boris Lozhkin began publishing Football, a popular Ukrainian sports magazine, as well as the Ukrainian versions of the Express newspaper, Izvestia and Top Secret.
In 2005 Telenedelya was published in Russia for the first time. By 2013 it had become one of the top 10 largest publications in the post-Soviet world and reached a weekly readership of 4.3 million.
AUTHOR AND JEWISH LEADER
After the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014, Boris was appointed Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, a position he held until 2016.
An apolitical person, Boris spearheaded a major shift in Ukrainian politics by bringing a new generation of politically unaffiliated reformers into Government. During his two-years in the role, Ukraine implemented more reforms than it had in the 20 years since independence.
In 2014, he launched the Boris Lozhkin Foundation. The Foundation’s main aim is to improve pediatric health care facilities in Ukraine. Since 2014, the Foundation has collected and spent more than UAH 35 million (approx. EUR €12.5 million) on medical equipment for children’s care.
Each year the Foundation organises the ‘Art for Life’ charity auction to raise money for the good causes it funds. The event is one of the biggest nights in Ukraine’s contemporary art scene and provides valuable exposure for up and coming artists.
In 2019, funds raised from the fifth annual Art for Life Auction, bought life-saving equipment for the Center for Pediatric Hepatology in Ukraine.
In May 2018 Lozhkin was elected President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine (JCU) and appointed Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress.
As head of JCU, Lozhkin’s main objectives are to strengthen the organisation and help to honor Ukraine’s Righteous Among the Nations via a major initiative called ‘The Righteous People of My City’.
Since taking up leadership of the JCU, Boris has increased the organisation’s profile and activities in Ukraine and around the world. In May 2019, Boris hosted the inaugural Kyiv Jewish Forum, which was attended by more than 500 leaders from Israel, the United States, Europe and Ukraine.
Boris regularly writes about Jewish and Ukraine-related issues and has been published in influential international media.