Ruslan Kogan

Ruslan Kogan was born to Belarusian parents, and moved with his sister Svetlana and parents to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1989. to golfers at Elsternwick Golf Course on Saturday mornings. Kogan was interested in technology from an early age, building his first computer at the age of nine. He has started approximately twenty businesses since the age of ten, with Kogan.com being his most recent and most successful venture. Kogan attended Brighton Secondary College and Melbourne High School ==Career==

By the age of 23, Kogan had worked at the IT departments of Bosch, GE, Telstra, and was a management consultant at Accenture, until 2006. Kogan.com Kogan started Kogan.com in his parents' Melbourne garage in 2006, aged 23 years. The company rapidly expanded to a broader range of products such as Digital Radios, GPS devices, netbooks, tablets, and video cameras, and in September 2011 began selling complementary products from a range of brands including Apple, Canon, Nikon, Samsung, Motorola and others. Kogan achieved 3 million in sales in its third year, followed by 8 million in year four, 22 million in year five, 70 million in year six, and over 200 million in the seventh year. In 2013 The Wall Street Journal speculated that Kogan was worth over 400 million. More than two million products were delivered by Kogan.com, with daily sales of more than 1 million. Open source Kogan has been a strong believer in open-source solutions for many years, telling Computerworld: "We are huge believers in cloud computing and open-source software. The reasons are simple: open-source software is usually faster, better and has more features." Kogan believes that open-source tablets like Android present a significant challenge to the Apple iPad's dominance of the tablet market, and was the first to launch an open-source tablet in the UK for under £100. In Australia, he launched a laptop running the open-source version of Google's ChromeOS before multinationals like Samsung and Acer could launch their own products. Criticism Kogan is known for using social media to take a swipe at his competitors and has been accused of making 'outlandish statements' through his company's blog about giant retailers like JB Hi-Fi. At Kickstart Forum 2008, in Gold Coast Australia, Kogan was called a 'loudmouthed punk', when he said the future of retail was heading online. On International Transgender Day of Visibility in 2018, Kogan was asked to apologise after a transphobic tweet referencing the 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal and Caitlyn Jenner. == Personal life ==

Kogan and his wife, Anastasia, reside in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. == Wealth ==

Kogan was the first Australian to register as a passenger on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic sub-orbital spaceflight, having paid a deposit on the 200,000 ticket. Kogan's net worth was estimated to be 575 million, listed on the Financial Review 2020 Rich List. During the first semester of 2025, Kogan shares were off 32.6%. ==Achievement lists==

Kogan and his company Kogan.com have been listed on the following: • The Age Top 100 most influential people in 2008 • BRW 2009 Fast Starters list at rank 37 • BRW 2010 Fast 100 at rank 15 • BRW 2010 Fast Starters list at rank 17 • Charter Security Retail Innovator of the Year 2010 • Anthill Top 30 under 30 entrepreneurs for 2010 • The Age Top 100 most influential people in 2011 • BRW 2011 Fast 100 at rank 27 • SmartCompany 2011 Hot 30 Under 30 in 2011 • Virgin Australia Top Guns in Tech in 2011 • BRW 2012 Fast 100 at rank 14, valued at A$75.2M • Men's Style Magazine 2012 Men of Influence • Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Southern Region Winner • Deloitte Technology Fast 50 - 4th fastest growing technology company in Australia in 2012 • BRW Fast 100 2012 - Ranked 14 • Top 50 Most Influential People in Tech in 2012. He joined Mark Zuckerberg and Mike Cannon-Brookes as the only Gen Ys on the list • SmartCompany Hot 30 Under 30 CEOs in 2012 • The Australian Top 5 Young Chief Executives in 2012 == Notes ==