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Matvei 1 Matthew (Matvei) Mikhailavich Kolodesh (born July 18 1962) is a Russian-American entrepreneur who lived the American Dream by going from an immigrant working in a lunch truck to a successful businessman and executive.
Kolodesh was born in Tbilisi, Georgia to Mikhail Benzionavh Kolodesh (Bucharest, Romania) and Lucy Cherchek (Odessa, Ukraine) and has an older brother named Benjamin Kolodesh. Lucy and Mikhail met in Georgia after escaping persecution in their respective countries during World War II. Lucy was a headmaster of a kindergarten in Georgia and Mikhail was the head engineer of the largest shoe factory in the former USSR called Isani. This is where Kolodesh first got his entrepreneurial interests despite the strict Soviet regime. He showed keen business acumen from a young age, selling gum and other things to his friends at age six and grew a fond interest for the American Dream and particularly in Philadelphia after reading Financier by Theodre Drieser.
In his early 20’s Kolodesh started a bar that was very successful but after marrying and having his first child Kolodesh decided to start a new venture that was more family friendly. In 1993 the Civil unrest in Georgia was becoming immensely dangerous and after several business ventures Kolodesh and his wife decided to pursue the American Dream and moving to the United States.
On the second day after arriving in the States Kolodesh began working in downtown Philadelphia lunch truck. Realizing that he must support his family in a better way, Kolodesh realized the need for a Russian language newspaper to serve the needs of burgeoning Russian immigrant community in North East Philadelphia. With his wife Malvina, who was a professional journalist in Georgia, they launched Philadelphia News a Russian language newspaper for the Philadelphia community in 1995. Under the business leadership of Kolodesh, the business grew rapidly and by 1998 Kolodesh was the first in the Russian community to open a home health care agency called Community Home Health. Foreseeing the rising health care industry the business was very successful. In 2005 Kolodesh diversified his portfolio to the furniture business and within two years achieved $1 million in annual sales.
Kolodesh has been married to Malvina Yakobashvili for 24 years and is the loving father of Mike (Mikhail) Kolodesh born in 1988 and Daniela Kolodesh born in 1993.