Pavel Grachev is an entrepreneur and a top manager. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Detsky Mir, the largest retailer of children’s products. Committed to the principles of sustainable development, he promoted a responsible attitude to the environment among the customers and employees of the chain.
Pavel Grachev: Key facts about personal life and career; development milestones of the Detsky Mir chain
Pavel Grachev is an entrepreneur and a top manager. In his career, he held senior positions in several large international and Russian companies. Among other things, he was a member of the Board of Directors at Detsky Mir, a supplier of children’s products. He pays special attention to environmental issues and implementing sustainable development projects.
Education and Early Career
Pavel Grachev was born in Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) in 1973. In 1997, he graduated from the University of Trieste (Italy) with a law degree; in 1998, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the St. Petersburg State University.
Pavel Grachev started his career while he was still completing his degree. He worked in various business areas and headed the Moscow branch of the Pavia e Ansaldo law firm (Italy) from 1997-2005. From 2010-2013, he held the top executive position at OAO Uralkali. Between 2014 and 2022, Pavel Grachev was the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of PAO Polyus, the largest Russian gold mining company.
Detsky Mir
For Pavel Grachev, Detsky Mir was one of his success stories. His key area of interest was creating a sustainable development strategy for the retailer. During his years, the number of chain stores and the company’s net revenue grew rapidly. Detsky Mir is the largest chain of children’s products in Russia and the CIS.
Pavel Grachev built the core of Detsky Mir’s development strategy, incorporating programs and measures to mitigate the negative impact of the business on the environment. The company fosters environmental awareness and respect for nature in children. According to Mr. Grachev, society’s demand for responsible business conduct will only intensify.
Ambitions of both Pavel Grachev and Detsky Mir were aimed at reducing the negative impact on the ecology and promoting environmental consciousness in the community. The businessman is positive that the trend towards sustainability is among the most important these days.
At Detsky Mir, Mr. Grachev introduced multiple environmental programs. One involved collecting and disposing of unwanted clothes, shoes, paper and other waste. The company runs routine promotional campaigns and sends waste for recycling, whereas the customers receive a nice bonus – a discount on the children’s products in the chain stores. The Detsky Mir stores install containers to collect old batteries, which are handed over for recycling.
Detsky Mir is actively involved in the promotion of eco-friendly paper packaging and reusable bags. In 2021, the total sales of sustainable packaging products amounted to more than 840,000 pieces.
Reducing consumption is another challenge Pavel Grachev paid attention to. Detsky Mir introduces energy-efficient technologies and takes measures to reduce the consumption of natural resources. For example, the company effectively switched to internal electronic document management, which made it possible to minimize the number of printed documents and save living trees.
