Kazakhstan

Head of the Department of Contemporary Art, National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Roza Abenova has been working at the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan since its establishment in 2014. Today she is the head of the Department of Contemporary Art working with two categories of arts – visual arts (painting, sculpture, graphic art) and contemporary art (installation art, performance art, video art, etc.).

The department has organized over 100 exhibitions and thematic events, including the recent Moldakul Narymbetov exhibition “Black Tornadoes on a Dark Blue or Green Blue Background,” Yerkin Mergenov’s exhibition “Feel the Time,” “Fifty Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century from the Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery” (jointly with the Tretyakov Gallery from Russia), and “Paul Sérusier and Brittany: The Magic of Legends” jointly with RMN-Grand Palais from France.

Creative producer, founder of Qazaq Indie

Qazaq Indie is a project that aims at developing and promoting the independent stage for music in Kazakhstan. The project was launched in 2016 as a public account in the VK social network where musicians and bands could publish their songs for public’s judgment. 

In late 2017, the project started organising its own musical performances and promoting several bands that had become the basis for establishing the future label of indie music. Currently, the Qazaq Indie label includes Remedios Inmortales from Semey, Yes/No/Not Sure from Karaganda, 1917 from Almaty, Qaroma from Astana, Aigul from Almaty, Genesis ’84 from Almaty, Me and My Invisible Orchestra from Uralsk and Aru Azimova from Bishkek.

Head of the Department of Tourism Infrastructure Development, Astana Convention Bureau 

Sayat Kussainov works as a Head of the Department of Tourism Infrastructure Development of Astana Convention Bureau LLP. He is primarily engaged in organising and conducting events for the implementation of tourism development programmes in Astana, organising events related to ensuring comfort stay of tourists in Astana, preparing the city’s infrastructure to accept tourists, collecting, processing and analysing information related to the operations of Kazakhstan and international tourism organisations.

Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and International Affairs of Narxoz University

Viktoriya Tsay holds a Master degree in Business Administration from Maastricht School of Management and Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School.

In more than 25 years of her professional career, she worked in public and private companies, both international and local. She currently works as Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and International Affairs of Narxoz University, the largest economic university in Kazakhstan. 

Trainer, facilitator

Zakhira Begaliyeva has ten years of experience as a trainer and facilitator with over 40 training, coaching and facilitation sessions on different topics. She also works on the research and development of training modules. Since 2017 she has been participating in the WeAlmaty project that deals with involving the citizens of Almaty into city initiatives. Zakhira conducts workshops and mentor sessions aiming at making people more active in the life of the city and improving the quality of their lives.

Zakhira is Advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan on inclusive education.

Director of the Institute of Continuing Education, Advisor of the Art Management programme, Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts 

Zhamilya Jumadilova is the developer of an art management educational programme, a teacher of social and psychological cycle courses, a trainer for personal development and creating career development for art managers. She is also a trainer and facilitator for workshops and roundtables on competency-based education issues in arts, methodology for designing educational programmes, management in education and arts for the Academy’s faculty and top managers of cultural and creative sector organisations in the regions of Kazakhstan.

In 2018, Zhamilya Jumadilova won the grant of the Creative Spark programme aimed at developing creative entrepreneurship in universities and colleges.

Head of the working group on developing the culture and creative sectors, commissioned by the Department for Investment and Development in Astana, and managing director of Friends Media Group

Zhuldyz holds a master’s degree in languages and a bachelor’s degree in economics. She is a creative producer of media projects and a creator, concept developer and tutor for the School for Diplomacy programmes, Kazakhstan Kids Fashion Show, Eggheads’ Forum and PechaKucha Teens, among others. Her company Friends Media Group provided media support for the ASTEX–2013 and ASTEX–2014 International Smart Technology Exhibitions and Conferences, part of the Astana Economic Forum.

A journalist and literary editor, Zhuldyz has been editor-in-chief of two newspapers, Astana and Friends; a concept developer for the children’s newspaper i-Bala (2012-2015); and a commissioning editor and correspondent at Tengrinews.kz.

Co-founder, SREDALAB studio

Zinaida Pak is a serial entrepreneur and has over 13 years of experience in marketing and project management. She is a co-owner of the TAKITA agency and a co-founder of the SREDALAB studio.

Pak worked as a co-organiser of various entrepreneurship events such as Global Entrepreneurship Week Kazakhstan from 2011-2015,  Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Kazakhstan in 2016, and more.

Pak is a member of the marketing and PR group of the civic organisation under the Almaty City Council that works on improving the operations of the Almaty Zoo, is a jury member of the award.kz National Internet Award’s working group on marketing potential, and a member of the Global Shapers Community, a global network started by the World Economic Forum in 2011.