CONNECT.KG Discover the Next IT Hub of Central Asia

Aurora is a Partner Manager for Greater China and Central Asia at Facebook.  She has spent more than a decade in the field of digital developments, including in partnership and marketing positions for Google, Ogilvy, and Baidu, among others. At Facebook, Aurora has helped to train thousands of policymakers, candidates, diplomats, leaders of non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders in both the public and private sectors about how to take the best use of social media to maximize their influence and stay connected with the world.  She is a true believer in marketing as a force to make the world a better place through positively impacting behavior.

Tilek is the CEO and Co-Founder of Outtalent - a career accelerator that supports engineers from emerging markets to land jobs at top tech companies abroad. For the last 11 years, Tilek worked in engineering, business, and project management roles at Google. He spent 4 years at Google X as a program manager focused on stratospheric balloons that provide Internet to remote areas in emerging markets as well as a lead of a machine learning business. Tilek’s Central Asia background inspired many evening and weekend projects at Google - he helped launch Google Translate in Kyrgyz and Kazakh languages, Google Street View in Kyrgyzstan, local Google Developer Groups, Google Elections, infrastructure solutions for faster YouTube and interface localization for Central Asian languages for most Google’s multiple products.

Esen is the co-founder and CEO of Peaksoft, a Bishkek-based software solution and development service provider serving U.S. companies. Originally from Batken region, in the south-west of the Kyrgyz Republic, Esen has been working in IT for 10 years. In 2011, he moved to the United States, where he studied computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He started his career in the IT industry at Chase Bank, after which he worked as an executive director at Cybertek, Chicago. Esen also founded Muras Club in Chicago which has trained hundreds of aspiring Kyrgyz-American IT programmers.

⠀

Dina is the Founder and Managing Director of the Codify Group (Codify Academy, Codify Consulting and Codify LMS) in Bishkek. In 2020, Dina was named Chairwoman of the Kyrgyz Software and Services Developers Association. She previously led Project Development at Zensoft, one of the largest software services companies in the Kyrgyz Republic, building technical teams to solve complex problems and create innovative software. With an MBA from the University of Lincoln in California and a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems, Dina has gained extensive experience and exceptional ability to connect clients with their development teams.  She has taught Project and Product Management, System Specifications at INAI and Ala Too Universities for MBA students for the past 3 years.

Ouali is the Founder and Organizer of WebCongress events — a digital marketing platform, helping the world leverage today’s digital opportunities through events, trainings and services in the United States, Latin American and Europe in over 16 countries.  Since 2020, Ouali has participated in the Global Entrepreneur Network, mentoring startups of all stages to leverage their digital efforts, plan, analyze and optimize their marketing and data analytics He has been a featured expert on digital marketing for startups hosted by the PEAK Bishkek Business Development and Innovation Center. 

Aikanysh is the General Manager of Glovo in the Kyrgyz Republic -- a Barcelona-based delivery startup operating in Europe, Africa and Asia.  She is the co-founder, and former president of the E-commerce Association of the Kyrgyz Republic, which aims to enhance cross-border e-commerce, and to become a platform for dialogue between the online business community, with the government, and international partners.  She has been a consultant on the country’s national eCommerce strategy.  Aikanysh received her master’s degree in e-business management at the University of Warwick, UK. 

Aman is the founder and Managing Partner of “Tech Farm”, an IT Incubator, which has been developing innovative projects in the Central Asian and Caucasus regions since 2005. Most notably the Namba Group, which encompasses a number of IT related companies including Namba One (SuperApp), Namba Market, Namba Pay, Namba Media, Namba Taxi and Namba Food. Aman is a Managing Partner in Avanta Capital, a Venture Growth company specialising in investments in Agricultural and Infrastructure in Central Asia and also the founded Aiten Consulting Group in Central Asia. In the past 15 years, Aman has also managed a number of investment projects in Georgia and Central Asia specifically focusing on Telecommunications, Property Development and Banking.

Aibek has over 15 years of experience in business, e-commerce, and telecommunications. He has been a regulatory policy consultant for e-commerce, telecommunications, banking, information security, and the development of a digital transformation and management strategy.

Nikita is the co-founder and CEO of FitJab, a pioneering fitness mobile app for Muslim women.  Born and raised in the Kyrgyz Republic, Nikita has over 11 years of experience in business development and marketing in Kyiv, Ukraine and New York.  Nikita holds a BS degree in Software Engineering and he is a graduate of New York Film Academy and Juilliard School of Music.  Nikita is also an IronMan 70.3 World Championship Finalist.

Lily Liu began her career in 2007 working for local government on a variety of topics ranging from civic engagement, educational funding, and innovative technology projects. She spent time working for the Transportation Security Administration, the City of Long Beach, California, and Mayor Bloomberg's Special Projects and Analytics team. Inspired by serving local communities for 5+years, she founded PublicStuff in 2009, which is a civic engagement platform designed to promote communication between local government and residents. To this day, PublicStuff is utilized in small to large cities across the world, including Palo Alto, Philadelphia and New York City. As CEO of Piñata, Lily has brought to life her vision of creating financial equality for renters. In 2017, she was recognized as Forbes’ 30 under 30 Top Entrepreneurs and Business Insiders’ People to Watch. Lily received her Master of Science from Carnegie Mellon University, is an avid surfer, and a lover of the arts. Learn more about her at www.lily-liu.com

Sergei is the head of storage, platforms and solutions division for Dell Technologies - North-Eastern Europe.  Sergei has a successful track history at leading international companies as Intel and Cisco in the different regional roles mostly focused on business development. From 2016 Sergei became a board member of Estonian Government Cloud and is active on various digital transformation initiatives. Sergei has graduated from Tallinn Technical University and is fluent in Estonian, English and Russian languages.

Caroline joined AWS in 2019 to form a new digital team helping governments with their digital transformation through open source technology and shared best practices. She went on to launch Open Government Solutions, which showcases open source and public resources published by government agencies and other public sector organizations around the world. Reusing what others have found to work enables governments to realize the benefits of open source solutions, such as increased agility and innovation, reduced costs, and improved efficiency. She also established the Executive Education Course in Digital Transformation as an international virtual course with renowned speakers, attended by hundreds of public sector leaders around the world in 2020. Caroline previously worked in the UK Government’s Cabinet Office as Head of Digital (Race Disparity Unit) and Digital Marketplace Service Manager (Government Digital Service). In the private sector, she held a variety of roles which included Head of Music Product for Vodafone Global, Director of Technology at Sony Pictures and Director of Product in a UK crowdfunding start up.

Uluk is a senior policy advisor at the Future Growth Initiative, specializing in regulatory reform, economic development, and startup consulting. He is the co-founder of the Blockchain Network of Central Asia, a non-profit platform for professionals, experts and government bodies dedicated to the promotion and spread of blockchain technology in the CA region.

Murad has over 20 years of experience within customer operations and e-commerce space. Murad previously worked at Expedia as a Senior Director, building online products for sales and support. He has led multibillion dollar businesses at Amazon and was involved in building Amazon Fresh which is online grocery delivery service. Currently, Murad works at LinkedIn as a Director whose team drives product quality for all of LinkedIn. Throughout his career, Murad has been focused on identifying customer needs and building products and services to delight them. He has also been an active volunteer with AKDN and has served in a variety of economic and education institutions. 

Chubak plays one of the key roles in the development and support of the IT-industry development in the Kyrgyz Republic. His goal in HTP is recruiting international and local IT companies and expanding the global markets of HTP resident companies.

He has more than 5 years of experience in the IT sector, in addition to 3-year sales and consultancy experience. He earned his bachelors degree in Business Administration from AUCA and MS degree in Operations and Logistics Management from the University of East Anglia