Victor Serebriakoff

Traits

British Mensan, the Chairman of Mensan International. British executive born to Russian émigrés in London. He had no formal education and was a woodworker before joining the army in WW II. The army found his IQ so high that they assigned him to the Education Corp. After the war, he managed a group of woodworking companies and served on the British Standards Institution Committee for Timber Standards. Victor joined Mensa on 1/13/1950 and served as secretary in 1953. He worked tirelessly for Mensa, helping develop it from the small British group where it started into an international society of over 100,000 members by 2000. In 1961, he traveled to the U.S. to help set up American Mensa. It was he who hired Margot Seitelman as Executive Director, where she served for the following 30 years. An international speaker, Victor wrote several books about Mensa, a strong advocate for educational needs of gifted children. He also continued to write on sawmills and the timber industry. He was Honorary President of Mensa International from July 1982 until his death on 1/01/2000.