Vladimir Fekula

Vladimir Fekula (also known as "Walter" or "Wally Fekula") was born in New York City on 25 May, 1936. His mother was born in Moscow and after the Russian Revolution of 1917 grew up in Riga, Latvia. His father, the son of a Russian Orthodox priest of Lemko descent, was born in Canada and grew up in the United States. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island, where, with several other Russian families, founded the Our Lady of Kazan Russian Orthodox Church.

He has been the President and C. E. O. of the Russian Children's Welfare Society in New York since 2000. He is also a member of the American Friends of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Board of Directors, and was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Tolstoy Foundation and the Pearl Theatre Company.

He earned a Bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and after serving in the United States Marine Corps, he spent his career on Wall Street. He established the Credit Review Department at Salomon Brothers and was Manager of the Credit and Market Risk Department at Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation and its predecessor First Boston Corporation. On December 6, 1994, signed a letter terminating and liquidating $2,614,218,000 in securities of Orange County for failure to pay monies owed representing the largest amount ever liquidated on a loan.

Fekula is active in organizing fundraisers on behalf of charities he is on the Board of and has presented artists including Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Helene Grimaud, Lang Lang, Irina Mishura,Diana Vishneva, Veronika Part, Maria Guleghina, Rolando Villazon, Nina Kotova, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Elena Obraztsova, Elina Garancha, Paul Groves, Matthew Polenzani, Anna Alkhimova, Andre Emelianov,Anna Polonsky, Eteri Andjaparidze and Natasha Paremski, among others.

An accomplished photographer, his photographs have appeared in "Connoisseur" magazine. In 1989, he was illustrator/photographer of a book published by the Office of the University Publisher, Harvard University which won first prize in "Professional Illustrated" books at the New England Book Show.

Vladimir Fekula appeared as the character "Boris" in the 1996 novel "Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream" by John Derbyshire.