In January 2018, Kazakhstan's Forbes determined the winner in the nomination “Businessman of the Year”. No sensations or discoveries. It was Kulibaev Timur Askarovich. Billionaire, top manager, owner, curator, member of several boards of directors - regalia is more than respectable. And the list goes on. But there are many skeptics about recognizing his business qualities: Timur Askarovich Kulibayev is the son-in-law of the president of a large Asian oil-bearing country. And this says it all, you can not continue. And you can continue to follow the career of “son-in-law No. 1” and make sure that high family ties, managerial talent and strategic thinking are not mutually exclusive things at all.
A boy from a good family
Timur Kulibayev was born in Alma-Ata in 1966 in a real "ministerial" family. His father held high positions during the time of the Kazakh SSR, and ended his career as a minister for the construction of independent Kazakhstan. An important fact in the Kazakhstan context is that the Kulibaev family belongs to the senior zhuz (clan) - a real incubator of the country's top leaders. The education in the biography of Timur Askarovich Kulibayev is brilliant: these were the best options for studying in Soviet times. The legendary Republican School of Physics and Mathematics in Alma-Ata, then the Economics Department of Moscow State University.
The marriage of the presidential daughter Dinara Nazarbayeva brought Timur Askarovich to the crest of fame and extremely bright prospects. There are many cases in history when senior relatives have not been able to use such opportunities to the full. Timur Kulibayev could.
How it all began
He was incredibly lucky. The independence of Kazakhstan with the restructuring of political and economic principles coincided over the years with the beginning of its professional path. Actually, it was not a road, but a wide avenue. From the very beginning, in order: Gosplan, new Fund for scientific and technical development, Altyn-Alma concern (trade), ATF-Bank.
A few years later, Timur Askarovich Kulibayev was already engaged in serious activities: he led the evaluation of projects in the State Committee on Investments. Ten years of invaluable experience in companies of various profiles, coupled with excellent education, have made Timur Kulibayev a valuable newcomer to the oil and gas sector of Kazakhstan, who has just begun to stand on its own tracks. The Ph.D. thesis was already completely "oil": "Improving the organizational and economic mechanism of enterprise management in a market based on the example of the oil industry."
Oil prince
Kazakhoil, KazTransOil, National Oil and Gas Transport Company, KazEnergy is an incomplete list of companies established and headed by Timur Kulibayev.
But the names speak for themselves. The main issue of all the work of that period was the conditions for the export of oil and gas from Kazakhstan. The late 90s and early 00s are considered the time of scandals, corruption revelations and wild capitalism. But these same years were a search for the best options for economic development with trial and error, a struggle for power and minds, where the most powerful and persistent won.
Timur Kulibayev had an excellent team of like-minded and business associates - they followed him and trusted him. He became the first serious lobbyist in the Republic of Kazakhstan: within the framework of the activities of the KazEnergy Association, he successfully established contacts between the newly created commercial sector of the country and government officials of a very conservative (Soviet) school. The task was incredibly difficult, but Timur Kulibayev was the most suitable figure for this kind of communication.
Reforms in the country's energy sector
Timur Kulibayev began to be regarded as the real leader in the oil and gas and energy sectors in Kazakhstan. According to business publications, his degree of influence was higher than even that of the prime minister. As Chairman, he headed the boards of directors of the largest companies in the country: KazMunayGas (oil and gas sector), Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (railway), Kazatomprom (nuclear), Kegoc (electric power).
Reforms in management, innovation, investment policy are far from a complete list of issues that Timur Kulibaev dealt with during this period.
Fund
“Samruk-Kazyna” - words for the ear are unusual, and they sound somehow not serious. Meanwhile, this is one of the most important and most interesting initiatives in Kazakhstan. The Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund was established in 2008.
It is often compared to Singapore's Temasek, where the main starting task was to modernize the country's economy. NWF Samruk-Kazyna is a joint stock company owning shares of all key companies in Kazakhstan. At its core, it is an investment holding company with huge opportunities and powers.
Kulibaev Timur Askarovich became one of the main creators of the project. Moreover, having occupied key positions in the main “daughters” of the fund in different years, it contributed to the emergence and development of a completely new way for companies to exist in the country - corporate governance. That sounds easy.
In fact, everything went with incredible complexity. Shaking the old leaders of the Soviet school to accept and fulfill the requirements of transparency, accountability and obey the advice of independent directors - all this seemed unrealistic in Kazakhstan at that time. Timur Kulibayev succeeded.
Gazprom and Russian-Kazakh gas agreements
In the post-Soviet space, few understand the nuances of corporate governance and the principles of operation of its most important component - the board of directors. Kulibaev Timur Askarovich and Gazprom are an excellent example of a modern business partnership. Here Kulibaev has been acting as an independent member of the board of directors since 2011.
The Russian-Kazakh agreements in the oil and gas sector were implemented more than ten years ago. The struggle for influence in Central Asia is one of the critical moments of Gazprom’s activity in the region. This range of issues is a priority in Timur Kulibayev’s expert competence in his activities for the largest Russian partner in the oil and gas sector.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the personal life of Timur Askarovich Kulibayev, the facts of which are presented in the first lines of the search engines when mentioning his name, is not as interesting and rich as his professional activity. It is extremely interesting to observe the parallels of the life of a boy from a good family and the development of a young independent country.