VI INTERNATIONAL BANKING FORUM

Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chairman

Graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, and Department of Public Administration. In 1996, Çakar started to work as an Assistant Auditor in our Bank, served as Auditor and Department Manager and was appointed as Regional Director-in-chief in 2005.

Çakar, became the Head of Department in September 2007, served as Executive Vice President for Retail Banking, Executive Vice President for Operations, Executive Vice President for Consumer Banking and Executive Vice President for Retail Banking, he served as Executive Vice President for Distribution Channels Management between January 2016-July 2017, Executive Vice President for Payment Systems between July 2017-June 2018, Executive Vice President for Retail Banking-2 between June 2018-March 2021.

He served as member of the Board of Directors/member of the Audit Board of Ziraat Leasing, Bileşim Alternatif Dağıtım Kanalları Ödeme Sistemi A.Ş., Ziraat Life & Pension, Ziraat Insurance, Credit Registry Bureau, Ziraat Bank (Moscow) JSC, Turkmen Turkish Joint Stock Commercial Bank, Ziraat Technology, Interbank Card Center, Ziraat Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş. (Ziraat REIT), Ziraat Bank (Moscow) JSC, respectively, between the years of 2003-2019.

Çakar has been serving as the CEO and member of Board of Ziraat Bank since March 2021. He is the Chairman of the Credit Committee since March 2021. He has been the Chairman of The Banks Association of Türkiye since April 2021. He is member to the Board of Türkiye Wealth Fund since May, 2021. He has been carrying out the duty as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Participation Bank since February 2022.

Orkhan Mammadov was born in 1984 in Baku.

2005 - graduated from the Baku State University, Faculty of International Relations.

2005 - studied at the Regent’s University London on the International Business and Finance Program.

2009 - received master's degree on Business Administration, 2012 – second higher education on Finance and Credit at the Azerbaijan State Economic University.

Held various positions at the Ministry of Industry and Energy, Ministry of Economy.

Since February 27, 2018 - has been appointed as the Chairman of the Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Foreign languages - English, Russian and Turkish.

Tahir Mirkishili was born on June 7, 1977 in Hamzali village of Gubadli district. He graduated from the Faculty of International Economic Relations of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics. Above that, he has studied at Oxford University on the special program "Economics and Politics". He has got a Ph.D. in economic sciences. Right now, he is working Chairman of the Committee on Economic policy of the Azerbaijan Parliament.

After graduating from the secondary school he was admitted to the department of “Accounting” at Azerbaijan State Economic University and completed the full course on the speciality of “Economist” in 1981. Zakir Nuriyev started his labour activity as Leading Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1981.

 Zakir Nuriyev did his military service during 1981-1983. He worked in the capacity of Accountant – Inspector, Chief Inspector and Deputy Chief Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic from July, 1983 until January, 1989 after having served in the military.

 He was appointed to the post of Manager of the “Control and Accounting” division at “Regional Communication” Production Association of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1989. Zakir Nuriyev worked in the capacity of Chairman of the Management Board at “Rabitabank” Joint-Stock Commercial Bank during 1993-1998 and has been acting as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at “Rabitabank” Open Joint-Stock Company since 1998 up to date. He was elected President of the Azerbaijan Banks Association in 1996 and worked in that capacity until 2006. He has been member of the Presidium at Azerbaijan Banks Association from 2006 till 2015. He was re-elected President of Azerbaijan Banks Association in 2015.

Born on April 7, 1975, in Imishli region of Azerbaijan Republic.

Education:

In 1992 he was admitted to the Azerbaijan State Economic University with the largest score and graduated from high school in 1997 and received his second higher education in the Journalism profession of the Georgian Institute of Public Relations in 2004. In 2009, he defended his PhD in economics and in 2017 he defended his doctorate in economics.

Prof. Dr. Vusal Gasimli was awarded a certificate of completion for the "Leading Economic Growth" Program, [February-May/2021], John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education.

In 2022-2023 Vusal Gasimli completed the University of Oxford's Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Strategy and Innovation.

In 2013 Vusal Gasimli was given the title of associate professor.

V.Gasimli was engaged in pedagogical activity in the UNEC Special Talented Group and MBA program in 2010-2014.

V.Gasimli read public lectures at Washington University, California University, Cairo University, Warsaw University, Seoul Hanyany and Hankuk University, and Rio de Janeiro University.

Vusal Gasimli got the award of Astana Economic Forum for outstanding research achievements in 2012.

Worked as a guest scientist at Korea International Economic Policy Institute in 2013.

He has 10 books and about 500 scientific and publicist articles in Azerbaijani, Russian, Korean and English.

Vusal Gasimli is professor at the Azerbaijan Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2021.

Labor Activity:

During the 12.05.2000-06.12.2003, the economic consultant in Express newspaper edition,

15.02.2005-19.11.2005, Economic Reviewer at ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

19.11.2005-30.04.2007, President of ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

09.02.2009-11.05.2011, Deputy of head of the Department at Azerbaijan-Public-Political University,

In 2007-2011, he worked on projects implemented by the European Union, the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and several international organizations.

In 2011-2016, he worked as Head of the Department for Economic Analysis and Globalization of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In 2015, he represented Azerbaijan at the T20 platform of brain centers of the G20.

From 10.05.2016 to present he is the executive director of theCenter for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He was awarded the Progress Medal in 2018.

Vusal Gasimli was appointed Focal Point of UNESCAP in 2021.

Married, has three children.

After graduating from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, the new Mastercard Turkiye and Azerbaijan General Manager Avshar Gurdal, received an MBA degree from the Koc University. He has been working at Mastercard since 2015.

Gurdal took the first steps of his career at the Unilever company and further worked at the PRG and Value Partners companies until his joining Mastercard Advisors in 2015. In 2016, Gurdal was appointed the Customer Relations Director at the company and was promoted to the Mastercard Turkey Vice-President role in 2019. With his new position, Gurdal is now responsible for conducting market management policies of Mastercard in Turkiye and Azerbaijan.

Namig Aliyev was born in 1977 in Baku. He is a graduate of Baku State University. During his student years, he worked on a number of periodical publications. In 1999-2000 he worked in the Republican Scientific and Technical Library and in 2001-2003 in the Main Department of Cultural Education of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a leading specialist. As of 2004, he worked as a correspondent, leading correspondent, assistant editor, editor at the Free Azerbaijan Broadcasting Company "Azad Azərbaycan".

He started working in the Communication Department of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan in May 2010. Since July 2011, he has been the Head of the Public Relations Division of aforementioned department. He is the presenter of "Economic News" program  at Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting Closed Joint-Stock Company (AZTV).

Adviser to the Management Board of Kapital Bank, Azerbaijan, mainly responsible for managing bank’s relationships with strategic foreign financial institutions and international organizations.

Prior to Kapital Bank, Vugar took various leadership positions in PASHA Bank, Azerbaijan, covering such issues like FIs, TF, corporate and private banking. He has a special focus on Ethics and Integrity.

Oguz Aslan has been working as an director of “Advisors Business Development” at Mastercard Turkey since 2019. He has graduated from “Bogazici University” in “Computer Engineering” in 2014. Before his current position, he held various positions in Mastercard Turkey. He is fluent in English, Turkish language. 

Kirill Ovsiannikov is a technology communicator, banktech expert and marketer with 10 years’ experience. Since 2017 he has been responsible for building and performing a promotional strategy for BS/2 software products for banking and retail. Kirill’s extensive media background helps him to popularize innovations and explain sophisticated IT things in layman’s terms.

Guliev Farid Fuad was born in Baku in 1986. He is an economist. He started his professional career in 2007 in the finance industry and from 2012 he held a position in board of directors of different financial organizations.

Since February 2018 he is appointed to the post of Head director of “Azəricard” LLC.

Alexander Arabey is a Business Development Director at Qulix.

Seasoned executive with 20+ years in Fintech and Banking/Neobanking.

Since 2000, Alexander is one of the Qulix Group Co-Founders, launching the business with three of his friends, who continuously work at the top management positions until the present moment with a team of 500+ employees. Co-founder of startups in digital remittance and money transfer, portfolio & asset management.

Since 2008 has been involved into start-up of a new Fin-tech division within Qulix.

In 2021, he founded MintWhale - a new–age AI–based financial service.

Alexander is an experienced speaker at international industry events: conferences, meetups, exhibitions, and seminars. He is always open to new business opportunities, sharing expertise and exchanging useful insights.

Pavel graduated from the Belarusian State Economic University with a degree in economics (Faculty of Finance and Banking).

From 2011 to 2016, he worked in the banks of the Republic of Belarus (Pavel was engaged both in customer service for individuals and held the position of a leading economist in the department of international and documentary operations of legal entities in CJSC Alfa-Bank, Belarus).

In 2016, Pavel began working at SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES JLLC as a business analyst. From 2018 to 2020, he held the position of Lead Business Analyst, was responsible for market research, evaluation of new company projects, recruitment and training of new employees. Since 2020, Pavel has been holding the position of Digital Banking Project Manager.

She has been working at Bank 131 since its foundation in 2019, developing new payment methods for the partners of Bank 131, as well as supervising relations with payment systems and banks. She successfully implemented projects to connect to SWIFT, VISA and Mastercard international payment systems, as well as the MIR payment system. Participated in the development of core products of Bank 131. Before Bank 131 worked at Yandex.Money, where she launched WeChat payments in Russia, was responsible for the development of payment channels for many years at QIWI Bank, launched the RS Express payment system at Russian Standard Bank, and developed infrastructure projects. She graduated with honors from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

Agil Abdullayev has been providing legal support to a series of IFC’s advisory projects from 2008 and currently works for Electronic and Digital Financial Services and Azerbaijan Investment Climate and Agribusiness Competitiveness Projects. He has master degree from Baku State University and graduated from ABA (American Bankers Association) National Graduate School of Banking in 2010. Furthermore, he studied in the School of American law for Azerbaijan (Chicago-Kent College of Law) in 2017-2018. 

Over 10 years of experience in information technologies, from software development to managing IT projects in the financial sector.

Project manager of the Blockchain-based platform in Azerbaijan, aiming to implement Digital Identification System in order to develop trusted, secured and transparent banking services for individuals and legal entities. Responsible for developing a strategy for introducing innovative solutions in the financial sector and plan to introduce new initiatives.

Before joining Mastercard, Mehmet was a Partner at EY Consulting, where he co-led the Business Transformation & Innovation practice in Turkey. During his role he served to Governments, Financial Institutions, Fintechs, Telcos where he led large strategy, innovation & transformation projects. Along with his partnership role, Mehmet also led the Business Development Operations at EY from 2013 and held a leadership role in EY Consulting’s Markets and Innovation since 2018. Mehmet gained extensive management and execution experience from his leadership roles in national organizations such as TFF and MUYORBIR.

In his role, Mehmet is responsible for further growing Mastercard Advisors business in Turkey & Azerbaijan Clusters by diversifying the market mix, products, and segments through innovations and partnerships.

Mehmet holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Labor Economics from Marmara University. He is also a Business Model Innovation Coach by Strategyzer and Design Thinking Coach from MIT.

Sergey Evtushenko, Deputy head of professional services, DIS Group with over 15 years of experience in IT project management. His expertise includes MDM, ETL and ERP solutions, of the corporate digital infrastructure. Sergey has headed Data Management and Digital Transformation projects at major CIS companies, including those in the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy and mining industries.

Pavel joined Russian Electronic Money and Remittance Association REMA in 2011, after graduating from the School of international relations of the Saint-Petersburg State University. Now his responsibilities include the on-going research of the new payment methods, regulation of the market and latest technological developments.

Since 2017 he is engaged as a consultant for the International Finance Corporation on the development of financial regulation. Pavel has been involved in the launch of e-KYC, regulatory sandboxes and other reforms in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Mozambique, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Seychelles, Maldives, and other countries. He is also a Consultant for the Alliance for Financial Inclusion and an author of the AFI’s Policy Model on Development of National Financial Inclusion Strategies as well as Guidelines on incorporating digital financial services considerations into National Financial Inclusion Strategies.

Pavel has been providing his expertise on the latest development in AML/CFT efforts, financial inclusion issues and regulation of financial innovations as well as cryptocurrencies speaking at specialized events and giving lectures for the private and public sector worldwide.

Pavel holds a PhD degree in Political Science and an Associate Professor at Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics

H. Alper Memis is the Co-founder and CEO of Picus Security, award-winning Complete Security Validation Platform. With more than 20 years of international business development and finance experience, Alper is responsible for running efficient operations, building a strong company culture and managing overseas growth. Prior to Picus Security, Alper played important roles in strategy, risk management and treasury management in government institutions and global organizations.

Alper holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics and an MBA degree from Boston University. Alper is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and he has academic studies in treasury management that have been published by respected publications. 

Teymur Aghakishiyev is a Deputy Chief Executive Officer at “Expressbank”. He has 16 years of experience in banking sector and has enjoyed many executive positions throughout his career in product development and management, product sales, strategy, digital payments, payments and cards infrastructure, treasury, settlements and cash management.

He loves to dig into customer problems and solve them with modern technology and puts the customer at the center of all that he do.

Teymur Aghakishiyev holds MBA degree in Banking from Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

He is a professional trainer in banking.

Born in Trabzon, Turkey on 1981, graduate of Istanbul University Business Management Faculty and has a 17 years experience on Financial Institutions. After working more than 11 years in Finansbank, Murat K. has shifted his career path towards fin-techs. Currently, Murat K. is acting as Head of International Partnerships and Executive Vice President of Turkey’s first licensed money transfer company – UPT Ödeme Hizmetleri ve Elektronik Para A.Ş. Murat K. is managing partnerships with more than 142 companies globally and running Operations in 12 network countries where UPT brand is actively conducting business directly.

Akim is a Business Development Manager for Central Asia at Software Group (SoftwareGroup.com), a global technology company specialized in digitalization and integration solutions for financial service providers. He brings a diverse experience of 15+ years in the fintech, telecom, digital technology and banking sectors across EMEA and CIS. His expertise is in growing sales channels, partner account management and new business development through technology.

In 2010 graduated from the Russian State Technological University named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky, chair of Information Systems and Technologies (nanotechnology). Over 10 years he worked with key clients of IT companies.

Current position: Head of Key Account Management of RDTEX, area of responsibility: Financial Solutions Center, one of the key focuses of company activities.

Mr. Solovyev is a regular participant of many specialized banking conferences and forums held in Russia and CIS countries. He frequently speaks on the effective use of information technology in financial companies, highlighting the problems of choosing software and building the clear relationship between solution providers and business.

Mr. Ramil Mahmudov is a Chief of the National payment system development division at Central Bank of Azerbaijan Republic. He is responsible for development of cashless payments in Azerbaijan and for regulating its activities in accordance with the legislation. He is an experienced professional in payment systems, electronic banking, mobile banking, card business, e-money, e-payments and retail banking. As an co-author of several regulations and recommendations for banks and other stakeholders, he also familiar with regulations, recommendations and experience of ECB, EU, CIS, BIS about payments systems ecosystem and payment instruments and also with risk management, fraud management, chargeback procedures of Visa and Master Card.

Mr. Mahmudov holds Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Luxembourg School of Finance, University of Luxembourg and Master’s degree in Finance from Azerbaijan State Economic University. He received Certificate on “Management Development Program” from Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in 2014 and Executive education Certificate from New York University Stern School of Business in 2015. He received a numerous training certificates in the field of cashless payments and management in Europe and Asia.

Doctorate of the Economic Reforms Research Institute under the the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rustamov Tamerlan has worked in the field of development and control of payment systems at the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Financial Market Supervisory Authority in different years.

Currently, he is Deputy Director of Payment Systems Department of Bank of Baku OJSC. He is also the head of the Expert Group on Payment Systems and Digital Banking at the Azerbaijan Banks Association, and the project manager at the Azerbaijan Fintex Association.

During these years of career, he was closely involved in the formation of the digital payment ecosystem in the country, the creation of a regulatory legal framework in this area, the application of innovative payment tools and technologies.

He is the co-author of the "Digital Payments and Electronic Banking Services" textbook, published for the first time in the field of digital payments in the country. He is the author of more than 10 scientific articles and many publicist articles in the field of digital transformation and digital payments.

In 2000, entered the "Economic Management" faculty of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics and in 2004 received a bachelor's degree from the said faculty.

In 2004, entered the "Finance" faculty within the MBA program of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics, and in 2006, received a master's degree in the same faculty and completed higher education.

Started working as an accountant in "Azeragrosıgorta" insurance organization in 2000.

From March 2002 to June 2007, worked as a financier and leading financier in the Finance Department of the "Agrarian Science" center under the Ministry of Agriculture.

From June 2007 to September 2009, worked as an accountant at the Narimanov branch of Kapital Bank, from September 2009 to April 2010, a specialist and leading specialist in the "Card Printing" department of the Retail department at the Head Office of Kapital Bank, from April 2010 to January 2014, worked as leading specialist in the "Social projects department" of the Retail department at the Head Office of Kapital Bank, from January 2014 to July 2014, at the Head Office of Kapital Bank, Head of the Social Department of the Acquiring Department, from June 2014 to January 2018 at the head office of Kapital Bank; Head of the Acquiring Department of the Payment Cards Department, from January 2018 to September 2021.Worked at Kapital Bank in 2007-2021 as the head of the "POS-terminal network" department of the Bank's Head Office, Partner Business Department.

Since September 2021, has been working as a deputy director at NBA Technologies International.

I, Mammadov Fuad Israfil, was born on February 3, 1982 in Baku. In 1989, I went to the 1st grade of secondary school No. 285 in Baku and graduated from that school in 1998. In 1999, I entered the 1st course of the Faculty of International Economic Relations of Baku University of Economics and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2004.

In 2003-2004, I completed active military service of the Armed Forces.

In 2005-2006, I started working on marketing at Mono.az advertising agency

From 2006 to 2007, we opened a flour products production company together with a partner

In 2008-2009, I worked at Mega Service company.

I worked at PASHA Bank in 2010-2018.

I have been working at NBA Technologies International since 2019.

Sefa Karabulut is working as Audit and Compliance Manager in Cyberwise and before he has worked as auditor and IT specialist in major banks of Turkey with a total experience over 13 years. He holds PCI QSA, PCI ASV, CISA and CISM certifications.

He has completed several PCI DSS projects including many Payment Processors, Banks, E-Commerce and Airline Companies.

Sefa is skilled in Payment Security, Enterprise Risk Management, Data Privacy, Security Incident Management, Business Continuity, Information Security Standards (PCI DSS, 27001, SANS, NIST, COBIT etc.), IT Audit and Ethical Hacking. He is holding BSc from Erciyes University and Graduate Degree from Gazi University.

Mustafa Duran is working at IQ Money (Payment Services and Electronic Money Inc.) as a Chairman of the Board.  Financial technology Fintech continues to grow rapidly in Turkey as in the rest of the world. For that reason, IQ Money is specialized to do online services faster, better and at lower costs. Morever, unusual developments and growth in technology also increase the quality and diversity of financial services, and thanks to Fintech, customer needs can be met more easily.

Above that, Mustafa Duran has graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science/ Economics.

Gökçe Gence is a senior professional with 15+ years of experience, specialized in pre-sales, solution design and project management in the computer software, information technology & services and financial services. Gence has her MBA and BSc degrees in Computer Science and Engineering. She is the Director of Solution and Project department at Fineksus, a member of the executive board and the single point of contact for all communications within portfolios.

Ali Karim participated as an IT business analyst in many public and commercial projects. He has been one of the man responsible for implementing Instant Payments system, ISO 20022 standards and Open Banking functionality in the country. Currently, he is working as a senior IT business analyst at the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CBAR).

Zeynal Karimzada was born in 1986 in Baku.

He received his secondary education at school No. 138 in Baku.

In 2004-2008 he studied Management at the “Engineering Economics and Management” faculty of Azerbaijan Technical University..

He started his career in 2006 as a specialist in the IT department of Kochbank Azerbaijan CJSC.

In 2007-2008, he worked as a sales manager at BestComp Group.

In 2008-2010, he worked as a specialist, leading specialist, chief specialist in the Bank Cards Department of Bank Respublika OJSC.

In 2010-2013, he worked as an acquiring expert at PASHA Bank OJSC.

In 2013-2016, he worked as the head of Shuvalan Business Center at PASHA Bank OJSC.

In 2016-2018, he was the Head of the Service Quality Assurance and Service Channel Management Departments at PASHA Bank OJSC.

In 2018-2020, he worked as the Head of the Bank Cards Department at PASHA Bank OJSC.

Since 2021, he has been the head of Global Innovations LLC and DataPay CJSC.

Since 2022, he has been working as a consultant in the Special Projects department at Azercell Telekom LLC.

At the international "Take Off Baku" Startup Summit held in Azerbaijan in 2022, the "Epoint.az" project took 2nd place and became the only winner from Azerbaijan.

Since November 2022, Zeynal Karimzada is a participant of the 500 Global international acceleration center with the Epoint project.

Internationally certified Chief Auditor of Quality Management System (IRCA, SGS).

Ms. Prokhorova is an international consultant for “Enhancing the Socioeconomic Benefits of Remittances” project, implemented by the Mission of the UN Migration Agency – International Migration Organization in the Republic of Azerbaijan, in cooperation with the State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan and with funding from the IOM Development Fund.

She is migration and remittances data and policy analyst focusing on post-Soviet countries with over 10 years of experience. In 2021, co-authored IOM publication on digital remittance uptake in Russia and Central Asia countries after the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, Ms. Prokhorova worked on various research projects related to migration and remittances for World Bank, UNECE, UN Women, UNESCAP and other international organizations.

Holds an MA degree in sociology from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and a PhD in political sciences (ABD) from the European University in St. Petersburg.    

Afgan Bakhishov is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer of "Unibank", a member of the Executive, Risk Management and Credit Committees. At the same time, he is a member of the Azerbaijan Bar Association (ABA) and head of the Financial Law Group of the Association.

Currently, he is also a member of the internal audit unit of the AHK Azerbaijan. Represents the Bank in the Legal Group of the ABA.

He worked in various positions in the Ministry of Justice in 2003-2008. In 2008-2016, he worked as a head of divition and deputy-director in the Legal Department of the Central Bank. In 2017-2019, was a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Attestation and the Appeal Commissions of FİMSA.

He was a member of the delegation on cooperation between the European Union and Azerbaijan and the Commission of preparation for Azerbaijan's membership in the WTO.

Afgan Bakhishov won the "Chevening" scholarship of the British government, won the "Alumni Awards-2018" in the nomination "Professional Achievement" in Azerbaijan in 2018, and in Wider Europe in 2018 and 2019.

He received his bachelor's degree and first master's degree at Baku State University, and his second master's degree at Manchester University. He is currently a PhD candidate. In 2015-2017, he taught legal aspects of economic regulation at the UNEC. Currently, he also gives lectures in the field of law at ADA University.

He is a professional trainer in banking, corporate governance law, civil law and leadership.

Murat Durmaz graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Istanbul’s Bogazici University. Durmaz has started his career as a management consultant at Peppers and Rogers Group. He moved to TEB Bank, BNP Paribas JV, thanks to his experience in financial institutions while consulting. He has 18 years of experience in consultancy and financial sector.

Murat has started to work with Mastercard as a subject matter expert and a freelance consultant in various projects. In 2019 he has joined Mastercard as core products director. Since early 2022 he leads card products in Eastern Europe region, looking after 10 countries.

Olga is Director of Governmental Relations in Russia and CIS for Binance. Until joining Binance in January she worked in the Central Bank of Russia as a Director of the Reports Processing Department, responsible for leading a number of digital transformation projects for the Russian market, including elaboration of fintech concept for all companies under supervision of Central Bank and reforming of Credit Bureaus focused on new approaches to credit ratings. In 2021, as representative from the Central bank of Russia she participated in BIS IH working groups related to Open APIs and CBDC’s. Olga was also a member of the Supervisory Board of XBRL International. Olga previously worked for UniCredit Bank and Ernst & Young.

Alexander Nam has more than 15 years of financial markets experience with focus on research and digital product development using innovative technologies such as blockchain, openAPI and cloud.

Alexander is responsible for R&D of DLT and digital assets based on Sber blockchain platform. Before joining Sber he had been working in senior fintech product and business development roles at Digital Horizon VC, Moscow Exchange Group and SWIFT.

Mr. Nam graduated from University of Manchester and received an MBA degree Alliance Manchester Business School.

Vusal Khalilov has more than 15 years of experience in IT and digitalization. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of Baku State University with a master's degree, and morever he has the Organizational Change Management (OCM) certificate of the Oracle company. Above that Vusal Khalilov has got the MBA program from ADA University. He is a professional who implements the latest technological solutions and new approaches to improve business results.

Vusal Khalilov led strategic functions such as creation of products and services and digital engineering department at Azercell Telecom and PASHA Bank. Currently, he is working as the General director of Technologies Unit of PASHA Bank.

“Shafiq Amiri is the chief operating officer and the lead blockchain consultant of FARI Solutions. Amiri leads the firm’s operations and all projects related to distributed ledger technology. He represents FARI Solutions as a speaker in global finance and technology conferences and serves government and enterprise clients. Amiri is a CBDC expert with the Digital Euro Association (DEA) and a researcher of blockchain utility for enterprise. He further holds advisory and board positions for multiple finance and technology start-ups and is an active angel investor.”

As Head of Russia CIS, Matthieu de Heering leads a team spread out across Swift’s HQ in Belgium, and other EU locations, covering 9 countries including Russia, Caucasus, and Central Asia.

Prior to his current assignment, de Heering was senior director in SWIFT’s Capital Markets Strategy team, engaging with the key clients, national user communities, and industry groups, on Swift’s long-term role in the tokenized assets space; and on extending our successful financial crime compliance portfolio to securities markets.

Between 2006 and 2020, de Heering held numerous responsibilities in SWIFT Standards, including Project Manager for Target2-Securities, representing SWIFT on ECB and 4CB working groups from 2010 to 2012. He joined SWIFT from the Bank of New York’s Global Custody hub in November 2006 where he was Head of Management Information and Statistics.

de Heering is holds a master’s degree in business and technology from the Institut Catholique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Brussels and has completed marketing and leadership modules at Wharton and IESE business schools. He is fluent in English, French, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. He is married and the father of two sons.

Having graduated from Ankara University – Faculty of Political Science, Department of Economics in 1998, she started her career as an MT in Emlak Bank and later joined Treasury Department at the same Bank. Following the merge of Emlak Bank and Ziraat Bank in 2001, she was assigned as Treasury Specialist at Ziraat Bank and covered several positions in Treasury until 2018 and has an extensive background in FX desk, money market and cash management fields. She has been running FI Team since 2018 and Investor Relations was added to her coverage in 2021. She is now working as Head of FI and IR in Ziraat Bank Head Office.

Cihat Takunyaci is the Chief Representative of The Bank of New York Mellon’s Istanbul Representative Office covering Turkiye and Azerbaijan. He also represents BNY Mellon as the board member at Turkish Investor Relations Society (TUYID) and as an individual member at Turkish Corporate Governance Association (TKYD).

Educated at Bogazici University with BSc at Mechanical Engineering and Istanbul University for post-graduate certificate program in Business Administration, Cihat has been with BNY Mellon since 1997. Prior to this, he began his career in investment banking and capital markets in various roles, including corporate finance, asset management and M&A’s in the Turkish market.

Ivan Zamprianov joined BNY Mellon in 2008 and has worked in various roles across multiple areas of the bank including Depositary Receipts, Global Client Management, Pershing Ltd, Clearing and Collateral Management covering Financial Institutions in the EMEA region.

For the last five years, Ivan has been part of the Treasury Services Relationship Management and Business Development team initially supporting the sales needs in the MEA & CIS regions and more recently having responsibility for the coverage of Turkiye and Azerbaijan as well as foreign banks operating in Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Ivan grew up in Greece and graduated from Northumbria University in Newcastle in 2007 with a degree in Marketing Management and German Language.

Born Bulgarian Elitza moved to Austria 1994 and studied macroeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Later on she accomplished as well her Master of Law at the Kepler University of Linz, Austria. She started her career at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria AG in the Trade Finance area 1999 and joined few years later the Financial Institutions team, covering as a Senior the SEE region, originating across the whole commercial and capital markets/IB product universe for banks and non-bank FIs. 2008 Elitza took over the lead of the FI team for CEE, managing the portfolio successfully through the financial crisis and beyond. Since 2019 Elitza is heading the Institutional Clients East team of RBI AG covering CEE, CIS, SEE and Turkey. Apart from a strong focus on correspondent banking and Trade and Export Finance, Elitza has been part of a core team designing a groundbreaking business compliance framework of RBI in 2019, which is a cutting-edge tool for managing correspondent banking portfolio of Raiffeisen Bank International AG.

Ms. Eristavi was appointed as Head of Correspondent and Custody Relations, Global Banking Business Direction of JSC Bank of Georgia in January 2020, prior to which she served as a Head of Custody and Settlement Unit, since May 2018.

Ms. Eristavi has around 16 years of experience in financial services. She joined the Bank in 2006 and has held various positions, including Deputy Head of Custody Unit and Head of Correspondent and Documentation unit.

Ms. Eristavi also served as Deputy Head of Back office at Galt and Taggart, Investment arm of Bank of Georgia (2007-2012).

Ms. Eristavi received her undergraduate and MBA degree in Computer Science, Informational technologies from Georgian Technical University and currently is a MBA candidate from Grenoble Graduate School of Business.

She also holds a CAMS Certificate - CAMS is recognized as the gold standard in AML certifications by institutions governments and regulators worldwide.

CAMBOC Certificate issued by the House of Training Luxembourg and ICMA.

IFIQ and IPMQ Certificate from ICMA.

For the period of 2006 – 2013 he has been working as Senior IT Auditor and Head IT Audit division at Central Bank of Azerbaijan Republic. From 2013 to 2017 he worked for Group of Companies as Head of Management Assurance and Director of Information Security divisions. From 2017 to 2021 Ilgar held CIO position for Port of Baku. Now he is founder and CEO of BISA LLC (Business Information Security Assurance). Currently he is Deputy Chair of ABA IT and Information Security Committee. He supervised and implemented number of audits and consulting projects for Central and Commercial Banks, telecommunication, energy, and manufacturing companies. Ilgar has wide experience on Digital transformation, information security design and implementation, internal control system and cyber-security improvement, operational risk management and assessment. He is member of International ISACA association since 2007. Member of PECB as international certified trainer since 2018.

Elvin Shahverdiyev is Head of Information and cyber security division at the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Mr. Shahverdiyev has over 15 years of experience working in Information Technology and Information Security. He conducts the creation of an information security management system at the Central Bank and manages in accordance with advanced standards and information security policies.

I'm sales executive with a good combination both business and presales experience, with proven competences in selling software, computing and data storage solution. I've the ability to find, organized and lead teams of professionals to new levels of success in a highly competitive software business area and fast-paced environments. I've strong technical and business qualifications with an impressive track record of more than 20 years of hands-on experience in business development, strategic planning, organizational development, and marketing communications. Proven ability to analyze an organization's critical business requirements, identify deficiencies and potential opportunities, and develop innovative cost-effective solutions for enhancing competitiveness, and increasing revenues and business value.

Gokberk holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from Yildiz Technical University and MSc in Engineering Management from Marmara University.

Working in payment industry all throughout his career, Gokberk first started as a software developer at a Turkish Bank. Later, he transitioned to a consultancy company, and continued working as a technology consultant at several Turkish Banks focusing mostly on payment related programs. He then moved to United States and continued to work in digital payments for non-financial institutions. As of 2020, he joined Mastercard, where he was first responsible of cybersecurity and intelligence products in Turkey and Azerbaijan markets. He now holds the role of Cybersecurity Product Management for EEMEA region.

Ali Yılmaz works as Senior Solutions Architect at Picus. He has over 15 years of computer networking and cyber security experience. He received his bachelor's degree in 2004 and his master's degree in 2007 from METU. Between 2004-2010, he worked as a research assistant and CISCO Instructor during his master's and doctoral studies at METU. Between 2010 and 2016, he managed different consultancy projects for the public interest as Project Manager and IT Unit Manager at TUBITAK. He worked as a Security Engineer at Check Point company between 2016-2021. He has been involved in pre-sales technical processes at Picus since 2021.

Edgar Abdullayev is EMBA Graduate of Yeidtepe University of Turkey.

He has 14 years of experience in Managing people. His corporate life has been divided in to different periods as 11 years of Telecommunications, 2 years of Transportation and travel, 4 years of Banking and Financial Technologies. During his corporate life periods in Telecommunications and Banking, Edgar has been a part of very important and decision-making teams which affected directly customer experience in financial transactions, financial technologies and banking experience.

Right now, he is Managing Director of United Payment LLC and adding value to the “Digital Payment Strategy” of country.

More than 12 years of experience in Technology and more than 5 years of experience in Information Security area in the banking field. During his career Akif have an experience in practical implementation of international security requirements mainly focusing on PCI DSS, CIS, NIST frameworks. As master degree of International Economic Relations Akif can easily understand business processes, make the right security assessment and provide solution. As a manager he always tries to be a mentor for his direct reporters, sticks to the “people are first” strategy and ready to share his knowledges and experience to rise security culture and awareness in all spheres where applicable also for the ones who is interested in becoming a specialist in this area.

Akif believes that it is necessary to enjoy your hobbies such as reading literature, exercising, traveling and cooking. He also believes that spending time with family is very important, especially if you have a one-and-a-half-year-old son who can make a mess in the house if left without a minute of attention.

Volodymyr Ilibman has been working in information/cyber security for about 22 years. Work experience at Cisco is more than 16 years. Volodymyr is responsible for Cisco Security business in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. During his practice, he has been involved in advising, developing, and implementing the largest cybersecurity projects for banks, government agencies and telecom operators in the region. In 2021 Volodymyr took a part in the development and delivery of the Mini MBA program for bankers "Digital Finance 4.0" in the part of “Cyber security in the era of open banking” module.  He passed multiple industry certifications and trainings for Cyber Security and ISMS (CISSP, CCSP, ISO/IEC 27001 auditor). 

In 2022 Volodymyr received a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration from Heriot-Watt University with a focus on finance and economics.

Chief expert of Cyber Security Service under Ministry of Digital Development and Transport  which is the state body responsible for cybersecurity and personal data protection in country. She has a expert knowledge of information security and personal data protection. She contributed the new draft law “On Personal Data” of the Republic of Azerbaijan. She is OC member of international organization – Cybersecurity Alliance for Mutual Progress.