Chairman
Erkinbek Kasybekov has been the Program Manager of the UNDP Democratic Governance Program in Kyrgyzstan since January 2008. Before that assignment he was Senior Institutional Development Adviser, National Area Based Development Program, UNDP Afghanistan. Until 2006 he was Country Team Leader of the Counterpart International branch office in the Kyrgyz Republic, and he has been working for Counterpart International in Bishkek since 1995. He oversaw Counterpart’s localization strategy and all civil society development programs in the Kyrgyz Republic. He has published more than 50 articles in the fields of biology and civil society development.
Mr.Kasybekov was born in 1963 and grew up in Bishkek. He graduated from the Kyrgyz State University in 1985. Mr. Kasybekov worked as Junior/Senior Researcher in the Biological Institute of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences. He defended his PhD thesis in biology in 1990 in Novosibirsk and obtained his Doctoral Degree in Biological Sciences in 2001 in Bishkek. Mr. Kasybekov is married with two children. He speaks fluent English and Russian, as well as native Kyrgyz.
Marat Aitmagambetov is the Director of Counterpart Consortium and prior to that he used to be the President of Yerzhan Tatishev Foundation. He has multi-year experience of managing projects financed by international organizations. For several years he held various positions in Counterpart International in Kazakhstan and Afganistan, designing and implementing projects on the development of civil society in Central Asia, and conducting training sessions and consultations for nongovernmental organizations. Besides this, Mr. Aitmagambetov took part in conducting large-scale research for USAID and World Bank.
Prior to it he worked as a senior research officer in the Republican Center of Mother and Infant Health Protection. Mr. Aitmagambetov holds a Candidate Degree of Medical Sciences of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute; in addition to it, he is the author of over 20 scientific works.
Mr. Beebe-Center joined Eurasia Foundation in 1993 as its first field officer, managing the Moscow Regional Office for two years and worked to establish the Foundation’s first field offices in the region. Mr. Beebe-Center returned to the United States 1995 to serve as the Vice President for Projects and Development before becoming Executive Vice President. He became EF President in 2006.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Beebe-Center worked for several years in U.S.-Soviet projects ranging from intergovernmental technical exchanges to commercial joint ventures. Mr. Beebe-Center holds a B.A. in Soviet Studies from Brown University and M.A. in Russian Studies from Harvard University.
He is married to Stephanie Slewka, and they have a daughter.
Jan Kalicki joined Chevron Corporation as Counselor for International Strategy in 200. In this capacity, he acts as advisor to Chevron’s Chairman, Vice Chairman, and other senior executives on regional strategies, international business opportunities and negotiations, and government relations. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Kalicki served in the Clinton Administration as Counselor to the U.S. Department of Commerce and as the White House’s Ombudsman for Energy and Commercial Relations with the New Independent States.
Mr. Kalicki comes from an extensive background in the government, financial, and academic worlds.In government, he previously served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, a member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff under Secretaries Kissinger and Vance, and Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In finance, he served as Vice President and then Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers in New.In academia, he has taught at LSE, Harvard, Georgetown, Princeton, as well as at Brown University, where he also served as Executive Director of the Center for Foreign Policy Development and as Assistant to the President.
Mr. Kalicki has authored a book and numerous publications on China, Russia, international energy and U.S. foreign, national security and international economic policies. Mr. Kalicki was born in London, England in 1948.He earned his A.B. with honors from Columbia College in 1968 and his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1971.He is married and has three sons.
Sally Warren is an independent banking consultant with 35 years of international experience. Since 1994, she has served as a professional corporate director of six financial institutions and one corporate in the capacity of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s nominee, including major commercial banks in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Romania. She served as a Senior Staff Consultant on the Financial Institutions Team of the EBRD from 1992-2000 and as an external EBRD consultant for a further four years. From 1981-1992, Warren engaged in a variety of financial advisory and consulting work.
From 1977-1981 she served in New York as Vice President, International Sales, for Salomon Brothers specializing in central bank reserve management clients. Warren served as a trustee of the newly established American University in Bulgaria from 1993-2001 and served on the board of Swarthmore College from 1988-1991. She holds an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College, where she is past President of the Alumni Association, and she holds an MA from Stanford University.
Mr. Sharipov has been the Director General for Tethys Services Tajikistan Limited and the Director of the Representative Office of Kulob Petroleum since December 2007. He has also been the Director of the Representative Office of Tethys Tajikistan Limited since September 2007. Prior to his employment in the oil industry, Mr. Sharipov was a career foreign officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Tajikistan, serving in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the US from 1996 to 2007. His final position in the Tajikistan MFA was Head of the Department of Diplomatic Service.He is Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Tajikistan; a member of the Tajikistan Support Center of Japan; and a former elected member of the Majlis of People’s Representatives in the local parliament of the Sougd Region, Tajikistan. He is also an honorary citizen of Lincoln City, Nebraska and of the State of Nebraska, US.
Mr. Sharipov attended Khujand State University School of Tajik-Persian Literature and Journalism and the Tajik Mining Institute, Oil & Gas School. He has also taken professional diplomatic courses, attending The Netherlands, Institute of International Relations at The Hague as well as the Diplomatic Academy of MFA of Russia in Moscow. He is currently pursuing an MBA through the University of Montana School of Business distance learning program. He speaks Tajik, English, Russian, Persian, Uzbek and Arabic. He is married with three children. He is a citizen of Tajikistan.
Oraz Zhandosov is an advisor to the board of the National Economic Chamber (NEC) of Kazakhstan, “Atameken,” the chairman of the board of trustees of Kazakhstan Association of Economists and the Director of the Center for Economic Analysis “Rakurs.”
Fifty year-old Mr Zhandosov has extensive experience in different financial organizations, national companies and state bodies in Kazakhstan. Previously he was the head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, First Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Investments, Deputy Prime Minister and later Minister of Finance. In 1999, he was appointed the head of Joint Stock Company “KEGOC” (“Management Company for Kazakhstan’s Electricity Grid”), after which the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister. In 2001 he became chairman of the board of the Association of Financiers of the Republic of Kazakhstan and in early 2003 he was appointed Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on economic and financial issues. He has also worked as chairman of the Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies and Protection of Competition.
Andrzej Witak has been a self-employed consultant in the area of banking and finance since 2007. Before that, since 1992 he worked in EBRD; initially in Financial Institutions Team, form 1999 in Corporate Recovery Team and from 2004 he was head of Representative Office in Tashkent. Before joining EBRD he worked as manager in Polish banks and as CFO of private companies in Poland.
Mr. Witak was born in 1951 in Poland. He holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the Silesian University in Katowice, where he worked as a lecturer from 1973-1983. In 1975-1976 he completed accountancy training organized by Association of Polish Chartered Accountants.
Joerg Stahlhut started his current work with UNDP as Peace and Development Advisor in June 2010 following the ethnic violence in the South. Before this he worked 3 years as Country Director for the BBC World Service Trust in Nairobi, managing media and communications projects to reach mass audiences affected by conflict & emergencies in Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. In 2005/2006 he worked in Afghanistan as Country Coordinator of UNHCR’s Coexistence Initiative, aiming at strengthening peaceful relationships between returning refugees/ IDPs and their host communities. In Afghanistan he was also seconded by the German Development Service to support the local Afghan NGO Sanayee Development Organization as Peacebuilding Advisor. Working with the local Indian NGO Janvikas in 2003/ 2004 he contributed to reconciliation, justice and recovery programs after sectarian violence in Gujarat. As Junior Expert with the GTZ in Djibouti at the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) he worked on the establishment of the Conflict Early Warning & Response Mechanism.
Mr. Stahlhut was born in 1971, grew up in Germany and is now living with his wife in Bishkek. He holds a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Bielefeld with a focus on Sociology of Development.
Tahmina Qodiri joined the regional consulting company “AITEN Group” as a partner in 2006, and from 2008-2010 was General Director in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. She currently works as an independent management consultant for several large international companies in Tajikistan. Ms Qodiri has 12 years’ experience in the oil and gas extraction, banking and investment sectors, implementing several successful business projects in Tajikistan. She also has experience working in the Central Asia region in human resource management and marketing.
Tahmina Qodiri is one of the founders of the international student organization “SIFE” in Tajikistan, and serves on the Board of this organization. She has been a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyrgyzstan since 2008, and more recently in Tajikistan. Since January 2012 she has been involved in developing entrepreneurial projects areas such as tourism and building the capacity of youth. She holds a masters degree in finance and is studying for a law degree. In 2006, she attended training in financial programming and policy at the Joint Vienna Institute with IMF support. Ms Qodiri is fluent in Tajik, Russian and English, and speaks basic Spanish.
Daulet Akhmetov is the Governmental Affairs Director with AES Group of Companies in Kazakhstan and the head of AES Representative Office in Astana since 2004. Earlier, Daulet Akhmetov worked as Generel Director of “AES Shulbinsk HPP” and Financial Director at “AES Semipalatinsk HHP”.
Daulet Akhmetov was born in 1974 in Eastern Kazakhstan. He graduated from Eastern-Kazakhstani State University with major in economics and management in 1996. In 1997 Daulet Akhmetov has received MBA Degree from Hall University in Great Britain.
Zamzagul Bekova was appointed Manager, Payables & Risk Management in Tengizchevroil (TCO) Finance on June 1, 2009. TCO is a Kazakhstani joint venture between Chevron, KazMunaiGas, Exxon and LukArco which performs oil and gas exploration and production with a daily production capacity of approximately 75,000 metric tonnes (600,000 barrels) of crude oil. As of year-end 2011, TCO contributions to Kazakhstan had exceeded $60 billion since 1993 from royalties and other payments.
Bekova began her career with TCO in 1996. During her 16-year career she has held various roles of increasing scope and responsibility, both in finance and planning. Prior being named to her current position, Bekova was selected for the Chevron Global Finance Development Program which include a two-year assignment in San Ramon, Calif. Bekova served in Upstream & Gas Strategic Planning, Downstream international Consolidation & Reporting, Corporate Internal Controls, Strategic Business Units Support and Corporate Treasury. She is recognized for her accounting and reporting experience, demonstration of leadership acumen and proven ability to manage a heavy workload, while prioritizing projects and meeting demanding deadlines. Bekova is a native of Atyrau, Kazakhstan. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting in 1996 from Kazakh Chemical-Technology University, South Kazakhstan.