Assel Yeszhanova, Almaty

Founder and Head of the Urban Forum Almaty Project.

Assel Yeszhanova is an architect, co-founder of the Nedelka independent arts space project, curator of exhibitions and art projects.

In addition to the creation of the permanent Urban Forum Almaty platform, Assel has been the head the Almaty representative office and partner of the Atomik Architecture British-Kazakhstan studio for three years.

In 2006, Assel was invited to join the team of architects in the London office of Aedas, the largest international company of its kind. She took part in projects for the Middle East, Europe and North America.

After her work in London ended, Assel entered a Master's programme in architecture at the Pratt School of Art in New York City. The topic of the final thesis was a library project, a reflection on the future of the printing industry in view of the total digitalisation of information.

Assel has lived in Almaty since 2011.

Bibigul Makazhanova, Karaganda

Head of Marketing and Communications, Nazarbayev University Research and Innovation System.

Bibigul Makazhanova has been working in design and marketing for more than ten years. In 2006 she received the qualification of the Designer of Mass Media and Communications at the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University. She has published a number of scientific works, including on the design of Kazakh periodicals. She is a member of the Society for News Design (USA) since 2009.

In 2007 Bibigul founded Univer Design Studio (Moscow). Since 2013 she has headed the Communications and Marketing Department at the Nazarbayev University Research and Innovation System. She participated in the launch of the Media Laboratory based in the Nazarbayev University Technopark. MediaLab is a creative laboratory for producing media artefacts and the first co-working space for designers in Astana.

Bibigul Shagiyeva, Oskemen

A.S. Pushkin East Kazakhstan Regional Library.

Bibigul Zhambylovna Shagiyeva was born on 24 December 1960 in a large family in the village of Voznesenovka (now Birlik), Zharminsk district, Semipalatinsk Oblast (now the East Kazakhstan Region).

In 1967‒1977, she studied in secondary school, in 1978‒1984, in the Altai State University (Barnaul, Russia), majoring in Philology with teacher qualification.

Her career spans 37 years, including 32 years in the cultural sector. She has worked in the A.S. Pushkin East Kazakhstan Regional Library for more than 20 years, including 11 years in the position of Deputy Director.

Bibigul participated in the development and implementation of projects intended to introduce information technologies into library activities and expand access to information, along with the development of services to support electronic literacy and additional education for various groups of the population.

Dias Murzabekov, Almaty

Founder and director of the Almaty Print Club and Almaty Design School.

Dias was born in 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. From 2003 to 2005 he studied at the Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, specialising in easel painting. In 2006 Dias went to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where he studied graphic design. He worked as a graphic designer at Central Asia Production from 2010 to 2014.

Dias has worked on projects as diverse as Abai 45 (creating an audio version of the works of Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbayev), Beatles Go Baroque (a concert by the chamber music ensemble Kazakhstan Camerata) and Bazar Zhoq (an exhibition of modern graphic art in Almaty). Dias also created the design for the international modern art festival ArtbatFest-2013.

Dinara Ryskulbekova, Astana

Philosophy lecturer at the Eurasian National University.

According to her parents, in childhood Dinara was a social butterfly and dreamed of becoming a doctor, as her parents were doctors. In her school years, she diligently studied mathematics and history, and learned to play the violin. Having achieved good results, Dinara was able to apply for a grant from the Eurasian National University to study Philosophy.

Dinara stated that the most important lesson from her parents was that you need to finish what you have started. That is why she continued postgraduate studies at the Eurasian National University on Master’s degree and Ph.D. programmes. She believes that the Ph.D. degree will help her create a better tomorrow.

Dinara believes that today creativity is an important attribute necessary to achieve success in the modern society.

Ekaterina Gorshkova, Pavlodar

Director of the Eurasian Art Space Support Fund.

Ekaterina began her career as a designing engineer at a design institute. In 2004, she became a teacher at the Pavlodar Music College. Since 2012, she has been the director of the Eurasian Art Space Support Fund.

Ekaterina Gorshkova led the implementation of the following projects:

  • promoting musical culture in Central Asia through regional cooperation, integration and development of international relations;
  • creating the Central Asian Youth Orchestra (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan);
  • producing operas: Donizetti’s The Night Bell, Pergolesi’s The Servant Turned Mistress, and Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne; 
  • performing a concert for the diplomatic corps in Astana dedicated to the 200th anniversary G. Verdi; performing concerts in the CIS countries, Italy, and Belgium;
  • running international forums.

Fatima Dzhumagulova, Almaty

Deputy Director of Camerata Kazakhstan.

Fatima Dzhumagulova was born in 1965 in Kyrgyzstan. From 1986 to 1991, Fatima studied at the Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State Pedagogical Institute (Ukraine), majoring in teaching Russian Language and Literature. From 1997 to 1998, she took a course in Business Administration at the Meksa International German-Turkish Fund. Fatima was bestowed with honorary citizenship of Istanbul.

She was the project coordinator for: the 2nd International Chamber Music Festival Camerata Tempo in 2017; the 1st International Chamber Music Festival of Contemporary Composers from the CIS and Turkic speaking countries Camerata Tempo in 2012; the musical performance programmes Beatles go Baroque, Tugan Zher, and Melody of Nomads; Olzhas, a documentary film produced with VM-Studio, Moscow (dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov); and many others.

Gulnara Baymakhambetova, Almaty

Head of the Art Management Department at the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory.

In 1999, Gulnara defended her PhD dissertation titled Managing Processing Enterprises in the Agricultural Sector of Kazakhstan under the specialty Economics and Management of the National Economy (by industry and field of activity). In 2010, she defended her doctoral dissertation The National Crisis Management Model: Key Problems and Approaches to Their Solution, under the same specialty.

She is the author of more than 70 scientific works, including Business Zhospar (guidebook in Kazakh), Crisis Management: Cycles in the Development of Financial Institutions in the Republic of Kazakhstan (monograph, Almaty, 2008, 10 pp), Management Theory and Practice (textbook, co-authored, 45 pp), Russian-English-Kazakh Dictionary for Managers (co-authored, 25 pp), and a publication in Thomson Reuters in 2012.

Larissa Park, Almaty

Organiser of TEDxAlmaty.

Since 2010, Larissa has been the organiser of TEDxAlmaty, a non-commercial initiative aimed at spreading ideas from different areas of science, technology, art and education. Since 2016, she has been a TEDx Ambassador in Kazakhstan.

Larissa began her career in 2001, in the position of Public Relations Director at an international exhibitions company. In 2004, she began work as the Public Relations Manager at Philip Morris Kazakhstan. In 2006‒2007, Larissa was the general director of the Eurasian Media Forum.

During this time, from 2003 to 2007, she also worked at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research as lecturer on the Introduction to PR, Media Relations, and Public Relation Campaigns.

In 2007, she became Managing Director at Kaspi Bank and was responsible for marketing and corporate communications, a position she held until 2014.