Mikhail Gutseriev was born 1958 in Russia. He began his career as a porter, while taking night courses at Dzhambulsky Technological Institute, majoring in chemical engineering. Later, he got degrees from the Finance Academy and the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, and graduate degrees from Saint Petersburg Law Institute, including a Ph.D. from the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. He holds degrees in law and a Ph.D. in economics.
From 1976 to 1992 he worked his way up from labourer to General Director in the Grozny Industrial Association. Gutseriev was a pioneer in the private banking sector in the Soviet Union—in the late 1980s he founded one of the first cooperative banks in the country.
In 1992 he started B.I.N. Bank, an industrial-financial company, in Moscow, bringing together industrial enterprises, trading companies, and financial institutions.
He became administrative head of the Ingushetia Economic Aid Zone, a Russian Federation government appointment in 1994. In 1995 he was elected deputy to the State Duma, where he acted as a Deputy Chairman. Once again he was elected to the State Duma in 2000, this time as an independent candidate.
On January 14, 2000 Gutseriev was elected President of NGK Slavneft OAO at a shareholders meeting and further he became Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in 2001.
In September 2002 Mikhail Gutseriev founded and headed the oil and gas company RussNeft until 2007.
Between 2007 and 2010 Gutseriev lived and worked in Great Britain and implemented successfully a number of large-scale oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and different African countries.
Since June 2010 he is President of OAO NK RussNeft.
For widespread charitable aid to religious organizations, international war veterans, orphanages, educational and cultural organizations Mikhail Gutseriev has been awarded with order signs, diplomas and letters of gratitude by religious, governmental and public institutions.