NEW YORK— Alex Rovt, the president of fertilizer company IBE Trade Corporation, is a towering man with a thick mustache and a net worth of $1.1 billion. His New York office is decorated with photographs of himself with important figures such as Andrew Cuomo, and an autographed photo of Barack and Michelle Obama.
On the side of the room nearest his desk hang photos of his family, along with a photo of the Grand Rabbi Moshe Leib Rabinovich, the rabbi of Hungarian Hasidic Jews.
Rovt, 61, is a self-made man—a Ukrainian-American businessman and real estate investor who made it to the top in the former Soviet Union through the trade and manufacture of fertilizer.
For each of Rovt’s decisions, no matter how big or small or strange, family has been the basis for each choice.
To Rovt, one of the most important actions one can take to protect one’s family and honor is not to be in debt. Hence, Rovt pays all his mortgages up front—in cash—regardless of the amount. In 2012 he paid $303 million for a majority stake in a 1 million-square foot office building on Wall Street, in cash.
“I don’t do things like everybody else,” he explained in a heavy eastern European accent. “Even if it is more difficult, I do what I think is right. If you have debt, then it’s like having something over your head that can club you,” he said.
Even though he has the money to risk, he has never played the stock exchange. “I don’t want to be the richest man in the world,” he said. “You can’t eat with two spoons.”
One of the most influential figures in his life is a little old woman, an Auschwitz survivor: his mother. Although she never went to college, it is from her that this billionaire developed a visceral understanding and sense for money.
“Even at 80-years-old, my mother gives me advice,” he said.
He recalled how recently, as they drove past the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel to take his mother to her open heart surgery, she pointed to a house and said vehemently, “Listen, Alex, this is a beautiful house, you should buy it.”
