Ukraine’s new president and billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko, popularly known as the “chocolate king” because he made his fortune in the candy industry, and now is worth US$1.2 billion, according to a Wealth-X report.
The soft-spoken pro-European oligarch, who built his business empire out of the ashes of Ukraine’s post-Soviet economy, claimed a commanding victory in Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25.
Final results will not be announced until later on Monday, but runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko, who captured only 13 percent of the vote, made it clear she would concede.
Poroshenko, 48, takes the office once held by pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after anti-government protests. He was the only oligarch to play a prominent role in the protests, standing alongside other protest leaders such as heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko on the Maidan, Kiev’s central square.