Billionaire Russian to hire Lenihan

Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg will name Conor Lenihan, the former minister of state for science, as a senior adviser for his Renova Group investment company, according to two people with knowledge of the move.

Lenihan, 50, will soon leave his post as vice-president at the Skolkovo Foundation, a Kremlin-backed technology hub being built in Moscow, to join Renova.

Lenihan said last year that he met Vekselberg through a mutual acquaintance in Rome after an exhibit of the billionaire’s Fabergé egg collection in the Vatican.

Vekselberg, 56, has run the Skolkovo Foundation since 2010 as then-president Dmitry Medvedev sought to duplicate the success of Silicon Valley in a bid to reduce Russia’s oil dependence.

The project faced challenges this year as police raided offices and current president Vladimir Putin overturned an order directing state companies to contribute more than €657m to technical institute Skoltech. Lenihan was hired by Skolkovo in 2011 to help lure international companies to the campus.