Valentyn Symonenko

Symonenko was born on 4 July 1940 in the city of Odesa, which was then part of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.^[2] According to later interviews, he stated that his life in Odesa post-World War II consisted of extreme hunger, but led him to develop a desire to "build and create".^[3] In 1962, he graduated from the Odesa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture.^[2] Afterwords, he was sent to work on the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant as a foreman, before returning to Odesa to work at Odesa Film Studio and Ukrdiprohydroliz and then at the Illichivsk Reinforced Concrete Structures Plant as head of the technical department.^[2] By 1973, he was head of the production department of Plant No. 3 "Odessazalizobeton".^[2]

In 1973, he became Head of the Department of Construction for the Odesa City Committee until 1976, when he was promoted to First Secretary of the Pimorsky District Committee of Odesa.^[2] His last post before becoming Mayor was as Second Secretary of the Odesa City Committee.^[2] Finally, from 1983 to 1992, he served as Mayor of Odesa (de jure Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Odesa City Council).^[2] His period as mayor was marked by a construction boom, and he was also appointed as Representative of the President of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast.^[2]

He then became First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine in the Fokin government, and for period of 10 days in October 1992 (2–12 October) ex officio acted as a Prime Minister of Ukraine upon the resignation of Vitold Fokin and the appointment of Leonid Kuchma to the office. Symonenko became the first "acting Prime Minister".

Symonenko has been elected to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) for three sequential terms (11, 12(1), and 13(2) convocations).

In 1996 he was elected as the Chairman of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine. In 2003 he was re-elected for the second 7-year term. The Accounting Chamber executes control over revenues and expenditures of the State Budget of Ukraine on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada.

Since his retirement from politics, he has worked as a professor at Kyiv National Economic University within the Department of Financial Audits and Analysis.^[4] He was elected a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2006.^[4]

• Government of Ukraine
• Prime Minister of Ukraine