????這是我首次與一位俄羅斯億萬富翁會面。地點是在紐約喜來登酒店（Sheraton New York Hotel）一間毫無特色的會議室，在由兩排會議室組成的一個長走廊的盡頭。俄羅斯鋼鐵富豪、謝韋爾鋼鐵公司（Severstal）（2011年收入為150億美元）的首席執行官阿列克謝?莫爾達索夫正在該酒店出席一個鋼鐵行業會議，他也是俄羅斯在美國的最大投資者之一。莫爾達索夫的公關人員提醒我說，他與其他惹人注目的俄羅斯行業寡頭截然相反。他不收藏游艇，也不買美國棒球隊，他支持的是家鄉切列波韋茨當地的一支曲棍球隊，他的父母曾在切列波韋茨的一家大型鋼鐵廠工作，如今該廠已被謝韋爾鋼鐵公司納入旗下。

????莫爾達索夫的助手說，在他難得不提到數字、戰略或業務時，也會展現出另一種激情，即興吟誦幾句爛熟于胸的俄羅斯詩歌。

????莫爾達索夫出現時身穿藍色西服套裝，打著一條松散的藍色領帶，用有力的握手來迎接我。他說著流利但有濃重口音的英語，這是他在英國諾森比亞大學（Northumbria University）讀商科時學到的。46歲的莫爾達索夫身材修長，一頭棕發干凈利落，看起來很年輕。事實上他從低級財務經理起步，到1996年30歲時就已掌管謝韋爾鋼鐵，通過收購鋼鐵、采礦和煤炭公司構建起了一個集團企業。據報道，他的個人凈資產值已超過180億美元。

????2004年，莫爾達索夫成為率先在美國投資的俄羅斯大公司之一：謝韋爾鋼鐵收購了位于密西根州迪爾伯恩、具有傳奇歷史的Rouge鋼鐵廠。“當時美國鋼鐵廠的狀況還不如經過技改的俄羅斯鋼鐵廠。”莫爾達索夫說，“許多技術已有150年的歷史。這些鋼鐵廠存在投資不足的問題已有很多年。”另外，和高爐年久失修一樣嚴重的問題還有工人士氣低落。“人們都以為Rouge會破產，因此有很多焦慮情緒。企業文化甚至比俄羅斯還糟。同時，工作條例也問題多多。”

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????It was my first encounter with a Russian billionaire. The setting was a nondescript meeting room, down a long, bland hallway of meeting rooms, at the Sheraton New York Hotel, where Alexey Mordashov was attending a steel industry conference. His press people had cautioned that Mordashov, Russia's leading steel magnate as chief of Severstal (2011 revenues: $15 billion) and one of his nation's biggest investors in the U.S., is the antithesis of the flamboyant Russian oligarch. He eschews collecting yachts or U.S. basketball franchises, and instead supports the local hockey team in his hometown of Cherepovets, where his parents labored in the giant steel mill Severstal now owns.

????On an infrequent break from talking numbers, strategy and business, his lieutenants say, Mordashov displays another passion by breaking into a recital of the Russian poems he knows by heart.

????Mordashov, attired in a blue suit and loosely-knotted blue tie, greets me with a crunching handshake worthy of a welder. He speaks fluent if heavily accented English learned as a business student at Northumbria University in Britain. At 46, Mordashov is trim and youthful-looking with neatly-cropped brown hair. Indeed, after starting as a low-level finance manager, he rose to head Severstal in 1996 at age 30, building a conglomerate by purchasing steel, mining and coal companies. His net worth reportedly exceeds $18 billion.

????Mordashov became the one of the first major Russian investors in the U.S. when Severstal purchased the legendary Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2004. "Steel plants in the U.S. were in worse shape than the Russian plants we renovated," says Mordashov. "A lot of the technology was 150 years old. They'd suffered from under-investment for many years." Worker morale, he adds, was as big a problem as decaying furnaces. "People were expecting Rouge to go bankrupt, so there was a lot of anxiety. The corporate culture problem was even worse than in Russia. And at the same time, the work rules were more difficult."