About Andrey Yakunin
Andrey Yakunin is a British–Russian investor and entrepreneur with a portfolio spanning finance, hospitality and real estate. With more than 30 years of experience, he has built a career focused on identifying and developing underperforming or overlooked assets, often in complex operating environments.
Across all his projects, Andrey’s main priority was establishing and building long-term partnerships with key industry players. His emphasis has been on detailed redevelopment, respect for historical context and alignment with international design and operational standards.
Andrey approaches investment as both a creative and a technical process, balancing financial discipline with architectural creativity and cultural sensitivity.
Career and Experience
Andrey began his career in consulting while completing his PhD at Saint Petersburg State University in the late 1990s. During this period, when consumer economy was rapidly evolving, he identified hospitality and tourism as a significant long-term opportunity.
His early experience combined operational and strategic roles, beginning with an internship at an international hospitality group in Edinburgh in 1998 where he trained at Rocco Forte’s New Hotel Group’s The Balmoral. This opportunity provided him with an insight into modern top-tier hotel operations and also introduced him to the assets’ side of the business as RF Hotels were just at the start of their expansion that would become an envious case through the 2000s.
This early chapter of his career culminated in the sale of Pribaltiyskaya Hotel to the Norwegian investor Wenaasgruppen, then aggressively expanding in the market and later building a regional portfolio of over 4,000 rooms.
The deal required the turnaround of an underperforming behemoth, designed and built by Swedish Skanska, into an efficient modern hospitality and entertainment complex, featuring one of the largest indoor water parks in Eastern and Northern Europe.
The five years at Pribaltiyskaya gave Andrey not only an intimate understanding of every aspect of hotel operations but also the seed capital to launch his own investment firm.
Investment Platform
In 2006, while completing his Executive MBA at London Business School, Andrey co-founded VIYM, a private equity firm focused on acquiring and repositioning undervalued assets through redevelopment. London-headquartered VIYM has partnered with leading international hospitality groups. Its properties have included Courtyard by Marriott, Four Seasons, Hard Rock, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Meininger, Park Inn, Radisson Blu and Six Senses assets.
In 2012, looking to further extend their business, Andrey established a company in Luxembourg. Four years later, the CSSF, Luxembourg supervisory authority, granted them an AIFM license with authorization to manage private equity and real estate strategies in alignment with the European Union regulatory framework under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
Selected Projects
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Park Inn branded lettering appears on top of the iconic Pribaltiyskya Hotel (2006) as Wenaasgruppen acquires the property from Andrey.
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Four Seasons Lion Palace St. Petersburg (2013) opens its doors to the public after Andrey personally oversaw the 7-year renovation of the former mansion of Lobanov-Rostovsky into a leading European Hotel.
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Holiday Inn Express Voronezh (2014) joins the brand’s family of Andrey’s Regional Hotel Chain with the signature opening of a 145-rooms hotel erected fully from prefabricated modules, a first room-out-of-the-box project in Russia.
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Radisson Blu Schoenbrun (2019) is divested by Andrey after a rapid sell-out of the city’s first branded apartments project at the property.
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Six Senses Antognolla (2025) Resort and Residences is acquired by the founder of EMMAR, Mohamed Allabar, from Andrey in a deal that saw a commitment of further EUR200M into developing this 500ha property stewarded by Andrey for over 5 years.
Position and Personal Profile
In 2022, Andrey was one the first in the international Russian business community to speak out publicly against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and he subsequently exited all his remaining positions and engagements linked to Russian entities.
He is married with two grown children and divides his time between London, Vareze and his sailing expeditions exploring the polar regions.
To learn more about Andrey’s career path, please continue here.