Success in business always goes hand in hand with a bit of luck. However, what matters more is people’s dedication and intelligence, as well as their willingness to bear personal responsibility and constantly manage risks. Oleg Belay is an entrepreneur who started his business in very difficult times. Despite economic instability and a series of crises, he managed to become one of the founders of the TRINFICO Investment Group, a major specialized company in the Russian financial market.
To this day, the company is among the top enterprises in its professional field. At the same time, it remains independent from state and banking equities. Today, Oleg Belay is TRINFICO’s majority shareholder and the CEO of the investment group. The asset management company provides a wide range of financial services to private and institutional investors.
What is Oleg Belay Known for? Biography of the Entrepreneur
Even as a very young man, the future businessman dreamed of starting his own company. He had nothing against being someone else’s employee but felt uninspired as one. Oleg understood that he would be able to bring all his business ideas to fruition only in his own company. However, the young man had no idea which particular area to choose for his business.
Childhood and Teenage Years
Oleg Belay was born in 1972 in Moscow. He was brought up in a well-educated family — his parents were engineers. However, neither his parents, nor any other members of his family were in any way engaged in entrepreneurial activities.
Oleg graduated from an ordinary secondary school in Moscow. He was mostly interested in the exact sciences, but his favorite subjects also included some of the humanities, such as economics and history.
Childhood friends remember the now-CEO of a large investment group as an open, sociable, and inquisitive kid. He started working early in his life, not so much because of the need, but out of interest in the very process of earning money.
Education and First Business Projects
Nowadays, thousands of people know who Oleg Belay is. The biography of the entrepreneur is widely known in the Russian business community. However, everything could have turned out differently for the now-CEO of TRINFICO. Being genuinely interested in physics, he graduated from the University of Electronic Technology in Moscow and seriously considered devoting his life to science.
However, the desire to build his own business won. As a student, Oleg got a chance to meet many interesting people, including budding entrepreneurs. He was often invited to participate in various projects. Over time, this helped him gain the necessary management experience.
One of Oleg’s first serious business projects was a news agency. He co-founded it with a friend and, together with his partner, provided financial news coverage.
The news agency had every chance of success, but its founders lost interest in journalism over time. Oleg turned his attention to the investment sector; although it was poorly developed and lacked legal regulation, many entrepreneurs saw its enormous potential and wanted to enter the market.
The Businessman’s Role in the Creation and Development of TRINFICO
Oleg knew that building a competitive company without professional management would be incredibly difficult. So, he decided to start a business together with several partners and skilled professionals. He continues to work with many of them to this day.
Starting an Investment Company
In 1993, a company, which was initially marketed as a brokerage firm, opened in Moscow. One of its founders was Oleg Belay. TRINFICO started to conduct transactions in the emerging stock market.
The company’s management noted that investors did not have many instrument options at the time. It was the era of first vouchers, bonds, GKOs (state short-term bonds), futures, and other securities in Russia. The company tried to provide clients with the most opportune time to conduct transactions. The era demanded that entrepreneurs be flexible — it was essential to quickly adapt to the constantly changing economic environment.
Further Development of TRINFICO
From the first days of operations, the founders of the investment group had to constantly worry about effective risk management. This was not only due to the difficult economic situation — the population also had little trust in brokers due to the novelty of the field and the abundance of scammers. Because of this, security measures were an absolute priority for the firm.
The management also pointed out other problems that TRINFICO had to face in the first years of operations:
- Lack of clear legislation and regulation in the industry.
- High competition in every market segment.
- One crisis happening after another.
- Constantly emerging new instruments, which required rapid service updates for private and institutional investors.
- High volatility, virtual absence of stability.
The crisis that led to a sovereign default became a serious blow for the investment group. Oleg Belay noted that the company’s management learned a painful but valuable lesson from it. However, the firm continued to operate and retained a loyal customer base, while many of its competitors were not able to overcome the crisis and were forced to liquidate their businesses.
Consolidation
In 2013, TRINFICO went through asset consolidation. Oleg Belay became the CEO of the investment group and is now its majority shareholder. The management structure was changed, but the core of each company’s team remained the same.
In the Role of CEO
As CEO, Oleg decided to introduce many changes to the investment group. Among other things, he built a vertically integrated management model that helped to delegate responsibilities more efficiently and ensured full control over the execution of current tasks.
The company’s management, however, noted that there was not even a discussion about whether to expand the powers of the CEO of TRINFICO for one simple reason — Oleg already participated in all fundamental processes long before the consolidation. In practice, Oleg Belay’s activities in his former role always went far beyond the scope of his formal duties.
Important Management Decisions
As head of the company, Oleg Belay was able to implement many unique strategies that ensured the sustainable growth of the investment group. In recent years, he has focused his attention on many aspects of TRINFICO’s operations. Among them are:
- ESG principles;
- expansion of services and expertise;
- responsible investment;
- asset security;
- social responsibility.
The “Green Agenda” occupies a special place in the operations of the investment group. The group’s TRINFICO Asset Management Company was the first in its field in Russia to implement an ESG strategy and receive a score for it. As early as the following year, the company managed to improve this score.
The investment group is committed to ESG principles to this day, when even the largest corporations are abandoning the concept due to the crisis. Oleg Belay admits that for him the “green agenda” is not only concern for the environment, but also an opportunity to ensure sustainable business development in times of overall instability.
TRINFICO Today
Although the Investment Group faced serious challenges at various points, it always continued to grow and improve its business processes. For a long time, the group’s asset management company worked with non-governmental pension funds. Moreover, their number kept steadily increasing. The TRINFICO Asset Management Company also managed the assets of the state pension fund and collaborated with top companies in different segments.
Today, the company does not rely solely on large institutional investors. Experts point out a significant increase in private investors among its clients. This was noticed, in particular, by Russia’s National Rating Agency. In the summer of 2024, it raised TRINFICO’s non-credit rating of reliability and quality of services to the A+|ru.iv| level. Experts point to the fact that the company’s focus on its largest clients is decreasing, while the client base and income of the Investment Group is growing.
TRINFICO has also developed and is successfully implementing a long-term business strategy. Analysts highlight the high level of qualifications and professionalism of its team, the growth in business profitability, and the increasing number of clients. The group’s attention to risk assessment and a focus on responsible investment are critical to its success. Over the years, the company has performed very well in liquidity stress testing.
Oleg Belay says that the secret to the success of the investment group’s management for more than 30 years has been its systematic approach to business development. Although the temptation to get to the top in an instant is great, the group’s executives opt for gradual growth, focusing on asset security and the widest possible risk diversification.
Charity
The entrepreneur was one of the people who came up with the idea to start a charitable foundation called VMESTE SMOZHEM (TOGETHER WE CAN). In a sense, it became part of TRINFICO’s social responsibility strategy. Today, the organization provides grants to charities and NPOs that systematically fight poverty and help vulnerable population groups.
This year, the foundation has once again increased the total amount of financial assistance to non-profit organizations. Dozens of TRINFICO employees continue to participate in its activities and charity projects of other charitable and volunteer organizations. Oleg Belay himself is one the trustees of the foundation. That said, he does not like to talk about his role in its creation and, in general, is more inclined to believe that charity should not be a tool for personal and corporate PR.
However, the entrepreneur is convinced that financial support should be systematic. That is why the grants are always won by charitable foundations and NPOs with projects that create precedents, set trends, and most importantly change the life of society for the better.
