It was only last December when Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin became the CEO of Norilsk Nickel. He said he would only remain in the job for at most two years. Now a year after, heading a turnaround for the company, he said he had no plans of resigning as CEO for the largest mining firm of nickel and palladium in the world.

In an interview over tea with Reuters UK at a London hotel last Friday, he said, "I don't like deadlines. For a rich and reasonably successful guy, it is impossible not to enjoy your job, otherwise why would you spend so much time and effort doing it? I am a great fan of Norilisk and I like this kind of challenge."

He added he may leave after he develops the Norilsk management into a world class team, which is years away from today. He had been a long-standing major shareholder in Norilsk. He was able to secure 30% of the stocks in the firm after securing the lot at a low price during the loans for shares privatization following the collapse of the then Soviet Union. He started his USD14 billion wealth in the Russian banking sector.