SESSION 4
SUSTAINABLE WATER FOR CENTRAL ASIA
Daniel Rosenblum
U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan
Daniel Rosenblum was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan on May 9, 2019. From July 2014 until July 2018, Mr. Rosenblum served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. His responsibilities included managing U.S. policy and diplomatic relations with the five Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. He directed State Department support for six diplomatic missions in the region, helped set policy and programmatic priorities, and frequently served as public spokesperson. During his last year in this position, Mr. Rosenblum also oversaw all the Bureau’s regional and public diplomacy activities, including transnational economic and security issues, educational and cultural exchanges, and outreach to the media in both South and Central Asia.
From 2008-2014, Mr. Rosenblum was Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, responsible for ensuring the strategic and efficient allocation and spending of foreign aid budgets averaging over $1 billion annually. He and his team coordinated the efforts of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies working in more than 30 countries, supporting economic reform, the development of democratic institutions and rule of law, building the capacity of security sector institutions, and relieving human suffering through humanitarian aid. He also served as the primary U.S. government liaison with other international donors, including the European Union and multilateral development banks.
Mr. Rosenblum has a BA in History from Yale University and an MA in Soviet Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is married and has a son, age 20 and a daughter, age 16.
Alexandr Nikolayenko
Senior Regional Adviser, GIZ Green Central Asia: Regional Initiative on Climate and Security in Central Asia
Alexandr Nikolayenko has 24 years of institutional, water and environmental experience in Central Asia. Since 1997 Head of the Analysis and Data processing Department of the IESD in Kazakhstan, including team leadership in some UNDP Aral see region project and USGS/California University “CO2 flux assimilation by deserts and semi-deserts of Central Asia” project, regional team of GIS and spatial analysis. From 2002 till 2005 Information Program manager of the CAREC.
From 2005 till 2008 UNDP Project Manager, UNDP Kazakhstan/ “National Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Water Efficiency Plans for Kazakhstan”. From 2008 till 2009 CAREC Water Initiative Support Program Manager. From 2009 till 2020 the GIZ Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia Program (TWMP CA), Regional Adviser. Since 2020 the GIZ Green Central Asia: Regional Initiative on Climate and Security in Central Asia and Afghanistan, Senior Regional Adviser.
Annette Huber-Lee
Senior Scientist Stockholm Environment Institute, USA
Dr. Huber-Lee has more than 25 years of professional experience in international planning and management of water, with a focus on increasing the resilience of livelihoods and ecosystems. Climate change is a central component of her work, as it affects every aspect of human and ecosystem sustainability. She currently leads three major programs of work at the intersection of water, energy, agriculture, and the environment using robust decision support techniques in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East to understand how to plan for resilience in the face of climate change. She received her PhD from Harvard University, her MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her BS from Cornell University.
Barbara Janusz-Pawletta
Vice-Rector for International Cooperation, UNESCO Chairholder for Water Resources Management at the Kazakh-German University (DKU)
Since 2011, Dr. Janusz-Pawletta on behalf of DAAD is building up and supervising the regional MA Program on Integrated Water Management in Central Asia at the Kazakh-German University (DKU) in Almaty. Since 2016, she is a UNESCO Chairholder for water management in Central Asia. Since 2004, she has on hers account more than 35 research publications in various sources, including foreign ones.
Currently, Dr. Janusz-Pawletta is also a Vice-Rector on International Cooperation at the DKU and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Central Asian Journal of Water Research (CAJWR). She has a membership at the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and at International Law Association within the Committee ”Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development”. Dr. Janusz-Pawletta is also a Legal Research Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL).
Ekaterina Strikeleva
Capacity Development and Education Lead, USAID Regional Water and Vulnerable Environment Activity, Kazakhstan
Ekaterina is PhD candidate, Master of Physical Geography, and has over 18 years of experience in management and implementation of environmental and water programs in Central Asian region. From 2010 to 2020 worked at the Central Asian Regional Environmental Centre (CAREC) as a manager of the Water Initiatives Support Program. She managed a project portfolio of over 10 regional projects with a total budget of over 15 million USD, for a wide variety of donors including USAID, EU, Norway, GIZ, UNECE. The regional projects were focused on integrated water resources management, basin planning, ecosystem services, nexus approach for water, food and energy, sustainable water management and stakeholders’ engagement in Central Asia, water quality and WASH.
She developed several regional and national reports, handbooks on basin planning and basin councils for the Central Asian region and Afghanistan and a set of supported training modules.
Ekaterina is highly experienced in working with different stakeholder groups, including donors (EU, USAID, Norway, GIZ, UNECE and etc.), regional organizations (IFAS, ICSD, ICWC), national and local governments, national and international experts, water users, environmental NGOs, farmers, and others.
Iskandar Abdullaev
Deputy Director II, Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Institute
Dr. Iskandar Abdullaev holds MSc and PhD degrees from Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agriculture Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME), Uzbekistan. Part of his PhD work Dr. Abdullaev conducted at Iowa State University (ISU), Iowa, USA. Dr. Abdullaev have intensive training and education programmes in Israel (1996-1997), USA (1999) and the Netherlands, (2000), Switzerland (2002). Dr. Iskandar Abdullaev has over 25 years of experience in water management, water institutions, environmental activities in Afghanistan and five Central Asian countries.
Dr. Iskandar Abdullaev joined Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Institute as Deputy Director in June 2019. From 2013-2019 Dr. Abdullaev worked as an Executive Director of Regional Environmental Center (CAREC) for Central Asia. Prior joining of CAREC in 2009-2013, Dr. Abdullaev worked as Regional advisor for Germany’s Berlin Initiative- Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia (Programme) at the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).
During 2007-2009, he worked in position of Senior Researcher at ZEF Centre for Development Research University of Bonn (Germany) and conducted research in Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Stefan Uhlenbrook
International Water Management Institute, (IWMI), Program Director of the CGIAR Research Program Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Strategic Program Director – Water, Land and Ecosystems at IWMI
Dr. Stefan Uhlenbrook’s main expertise includes water and environmental sustainability, water resources management, and hydrological process research with a focus on developing solutions for pressing global challenges. He is a renowned academic and frequently invited speaker at conferences and high-level meetings worldwide. He has led many integrated research for development (R4D) projects that have demonstrated the impact of global changes on water cycle dynamics in different hydro-climatic regions worldwide, and they provided effective solutions to address these challenges. He is experienced in translating science-based knowledge to effective policies and strategies that contribute to environmental, economic and societal sustainability (i.e. Agenda 2030 and SDGs). Since 2019, he has focused his interest on water and food systems transformation to provide healthy and nutritious food for all.
Stefan is the Strategic Program Director – Water, Food and Ecosystems at IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka, and he is the Program Director of the CGIAR Research Program Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Before he joined IWMI and the CGIAR, Stefan was the Coordinator of the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and the Director of the UNESCO Programme Office on Global Water Assessment in Perugia, Italy (2015-2019). He previously worked at the UNESCO Institute for Water Education (now IHE Delft), as Professor of Hydrology (2005-2020), Deputy Director (Vice-Rector) for Academic and Student Affairs (2000-2014) and Director a.i. (acting Rector; 2014-2015). Stefan obtained his PhD (1999) and habilitation (2003) in Hydrology at the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Sulton Rahimzoda
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving Aral Sea (EC IFAS)
Mr. Rahimzoda is widely recognized as a reformer who initiated a process of water sector transformation in Tajikistan in 2016 by advocating and lobbying for development and approval of a number of strategic policy and legislative documents: Water Sector Reform Programme, Tajikistan‘s National Water Strategy 2030, the Law on Drinking Water and Sanitation, the new edition of the Water Code and others.
Mr. Rahimzoda is also an esteemed water diplomat actively promoting and advocating water issues at global level. He was a member of the International Steering Committee of the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit held in Beppu, Japan (2007), served as a Special Envoy to the President of the Republic of Tajikistan to the High-Level Panel on Water during 2016-2018 and has been recently appointed as a Special Envoy to the President Republic of Tajikistan to the High-Level Panel on Water and Climate Coalition.
Since January 2021, Mr. Rahimzoda has been assigned as a Co-Chair of the International Advisory Committee of the Dushanbe Water Process tasked to facilitate preparation of the Dushanbe Process. In all these roles, Mr. Rahimzoda was able to champion a comprehensive, inclusive and collaborative dialogue on developing and managing water resources, and improving water and sanitation related services.
SESSION 5
ELECTRICITY TRADE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN CENTRAL ASIA
Dr. Allen Eisendrath
Energy advisor | Tetra Tech ESI. Inc., USA
Allen Eisendrath serves as an energy advisor with Tetra Tech ESI. With more than 35 years of experience across 25 countries, he specializes generation procurement, auction design, grid integration and large-scale deployment of renewable energy.
His background includes 15 years in the private sector working on privatization, restructuring and procurement for large power and water utilities, and 14 years as Energy & Infrastructure and Global Climate Change Office Director with USAID/Washington. During his career, he designed a national renewable integration program in India, advised the designers of the first renewable auctions in Kazakhstan and Pakistan, and supported the restructuring and privatization of multiple electricity distribution companies. He holds an MIA from Columbia University and a PhD from University of Wisconsin.
Bayan Abylkairova
Deputy Chief of Party, The USAID Power Central Asia Activity
Ms. Bayan Abylkairova has 17 years of experience working with national governments and international development institutions as head of the legal department in national tax authorities, a legal and institutional expert, and project manager for national and regional projects financed by the EU, UNDP, EBRD and ADB in the areas of renewable energy (RE), energy efficiency and sustainable development. Under The USAID Power Central Asia Activity, Ms. Abylkairova leads work on RE auctions and RE legal and regulatory framework improvement in Central Asia, and helps in creation of an enabling environment for RE private investments. She also leads gender and education activities.
Ms. Abylkairova was a member of parliamentary and government working groups on green economy, energy efficiency and RE legislation. She graduated from the Kazakh National Law Academy in Almaty and received her Master of Law (LLM) degree from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Armen Arzumanyan
Chief of Party | The USAID Power the Future and Central Asia Regional Electricity Market Activities, Kazakhstan
Armen Arzumanyan has served as Chief of Party (COP) or Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) or Resident Project Manager on multiple USAID funded projects, where he has led large teams of local and foreign professionals, successfully negotiating large reform programs with national governments and implementing regional integration projects.
Mr. Arzumanyan has played a key role in developing legal and regulatory frameworks conducive to development of small hydro, wind, solar and small heat-and-power generation. He specializes in large power systems stability and synchronous operations, energy sector reform, focusing on energy policy, power system design and engineering, utility operations and regulations.
Mr. Arzumanyan has experience developing and negotiating with national governments large restructuring programs and multi-national regional power integration and cooperation programs. He has managed utility commercialization programs, including the implementation of business improvement strategies in areas such as internal controls, anti-corruption, metering, billing and collections, and loss reduction in distribution and transmission. He worked in Armenia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.
Bakytzhan Ilyas
Chairman of the Board | KOREM JSC, Kazakhstan
From 25.10.2019 to the present, Chairman of the Board of JSC “Kazakhstan Operator of the Market of Eclectic Energy and Power”. The company’s activities: single operator of centralized trading in eclectic energy and capacity, as well as auction trading for the selection of renewable energy projects.
In 2000, Mr. Bakytzhan Ilyas graduated from the Shymkent College of Economics and Law, Shymkent with a major in Tax Finance. In 2004, he graduated from the Kazakhstan University of Humanities and Law in Almaty with a Bachelor of Law degree. In 2008, he graduated from the higher school of international business of the Russian Presidential academy of national economy and public administration in Moscow with a master’s degree.
Work experience includes: German Academy of Management in Lower Saxony (DMAN), “Strategic Management and Innovation Management” (2008), Export Academy of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (EABW), “Energy Efficient Technologies in the German Energy Industry” (2017. ), LLP “Astana Power Sales Company” (2016-2018).
Dr. Pramod Jain
President | Innovative Wind Energy, Inc., USA
Pramod is the President of Innovative Wind Energy, Inc. and the author of a book titled Wind Energy Engineering, published by McGraw-Hill, New York in April 2016.
Pramod has over 20 years of experience in renewable energy, energy storage and digitization. He has consulted in more than 20 countries on technical, policy and financial aspects of renewable energy projects. His current projects are with USAID, Asian Development Bank (ADB), USEA and the private sector. Pramod has been working in Central Asia since 2017 on The USAID Power the Future Activity, primarily in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with a focus on grid integration of variable renewable energy (VRE), RE zones, and power markets. He is also working on The USAID Power Central Asia Activity in the areas of Demand Response and Smart Grid.
Pramod holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.
Sergey Yelkin
Project Coordinator | USAID Central Asia, Kazakhstan
Sergey Yelkin has been the coordinator of USAID energy projects in Central Asia for twenty years. He participated in the development of various regional projects and holding tenders for programs on the regional electricity market, energy interconnections and development of electricity generation from renewable sources. He was also engaged in monitoring projects’ successful implementation in the field of energy saving, energy efficiency, the introduction of renewable energy facilities, and climate change measures and environmental protection. Mr. Yelkin has over 35 years of experience in research and production in the oil and gas sector and industrial enterprises in Russia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. He worked at the UN Office in Kazakhstan on energy saving and renewable energy projects. He has a background in engineering and holds a master’s degree in economics.
SESSION 6
A DIGITAL FUTURE - THE TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS DIMENSION
Timur Ospanov
Industry Expert – Air Cargo & Logistics
Timur represents one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Kazakhstan and brings with him over 12 years of logistics experience. Timur currently leads several projects in T&L in the region including creation of a cargo hub near Almaty, construction of a grain terminal on Caspian, and he also advises various local business groups on border trade and logistics projects. Over his career, Timur has built up a wealth of investment banking, strategic logistics, warehousing and air cargo knowledge, working in Singapore, Russia and Kazakhstan. Timur holds MBA degree from Yokohama National University, Japan.
Amar More
CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions
Amar is an accomplished professional with over 25 years of experience in supply chain, consulting and technology industries. He is appointed as the Domain Controller of Cross Border Domain at United Nations CEFACT and serves on the panel of trade facilitation experts at UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission of Europe).
Amar has been elected to represent the technology domain in the air cargo industry on the Board of Directors of “The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA)”, USA. He is on the panel of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and National Committee on Logistics for Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s (FICCI) Task Force for Ease of Doing Business. Amar is also on the executive committee on International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA) headquartered in the United Kingdom. He also assists several governments on conceptualizing trade facilitation initiatives to usher in “Ease of Doing Business” using digital technology.
Antonio Nunez
Program Leader for Infrastructure in Central Asia, World Bank
Antonio Nunez is the Program Leader for Infrastructure in Central Asia, covering Energy, Transport, Digital and IPG, his mission is to develop an infrastructure program that responds to the development program of each of the five Central Asia countries.
Prior to this assignment, Antonio was a Senior Transport Specialist covering Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. Antonio has been particularly involved activities dealing with railway sector reforms, transport SOE governance, urban mobility and regional connectivity, leading also the dialogue and collaboration between the WB and the EU institutions in transport connectivity and reform agenda.
Prior to joining the WB in 2014, Antonio worked in a variety of infrastructure projects worldwide ranging from road concessions in France to the preparation of the national transport master plan in Namibia. Antonio holds a MSc in Transport Planning from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and a PhD in Economics from the University of Lyon.
David Cross
The Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport
David Cross is an intermodal professional who has been involved in all aspects of this sector since 1978. He has grown up with containerization.
He has experience of working in and running offices concerned with liner shipping, port management, rail operations and most recently with consultancy assignments. As well as working in the UK he has extensive overseas experience having worked and lived in Singapore, Malta, Dubai and South Africa. And has worked for P&O, Deutschebahn, CMA CGM as well as being a former MD of Tilbury Container Services.
In more recent years he has been involved in the development of the China- Europe rail services and the development of inland container terminals in UK.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and plays an active part in that organization in the UK.
Jan Steenberg
Head of Europe & APAC at Tata Consultancy Services, Supply Chain Practice, The Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport
Jan is a highly experienced Supply Chain Executive with more than 25 years end-to-end International supply chain experience in Pharmaceutical, FMCG, CPG, High Tech and Steel Manufacturing. His current work focuses predominantly on large scale transformation programmes utilizing the latest technology, such as Blockchain, AI and Process Automation in Supply Chain.
Jan’s specialisms include integrated business planning, sales & operations planning, production scheduling, purchasing, procurement and SRM, customer service and CRM, logistics, distribution network design, warehousing and materials management.
Jan has been a member of CILT since 1995 and is currently the Honorary Secretary of CILT International, and Chair of the International Education Standards committee. During his extensive career in supply chain management, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport has been an invaluable partner on his own learning journey, keeping him up to speed with the latest thinking and standards.
Khalizan bin Mohamed Khalid
Accountant
Khalizan Bin Mohamed Halid is an accountant with over 30 years of experience in Finance, Accounting and IT. He was involved in the privatisation of Kumpulan FIMA Berhad at the age of 24 years and the setting up of a new stockbroking group Capitalcorp Securities. He then supported start-up companies and financial exercises including the capitalisation and development of modular card technologies.
Khalizan has extensive experience in the development and strategic operations of businesses in the banking, insurance, investment, manufacturing, plantation, education, e-commerce and telecommunications sectors. He has also written strategic plans for the Malaysian government, and as an expert in digitalisation and trade, Khalizan was also appointed as Fintech Advisor to a major telecom provider.
He was listed as one of the top 100 LinkedIn influencers in Malaysia (2020) by the Marketing in Asia magazine with over 29,000 followers on Linkedin, 12,000 on Twitter and is a key moderator on Facebook’s largest Economics group with over 170,000 worldwide members. He passionately champions the cause of eradicating economic inequity and establishing economic inclusivity and empowerment.
Konstantin Aushev
IT & Digital Advisory Director, KPMG Kazakhstan and Central Asia
Konstantin Aushev is a Director of KPMG Information Technology Consulting Group in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Konstantin has worked in several projects on transforming IT architecture, selecting target technologies, evaluating the effectiveness of IT controls, SOC certification (ISAE 3000, ISAE 3402, SSAE 16), evaluating and developing BCP / DRP approaches. Prior to joining KPMG, Konstantin worked in the field of IT development and IT testing. Konstantin is a member of several interdepartmental working groups in the field of digital technologies development, an author of publications for professional publications in Russia and Kazakhstan. Konstantin has over 10 experienced professional experience in IT Governance, Data Management, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, Cyber Security, Business Continuity, Innovation Management with a portfolio of 50+ advisory and IT implementation projects for clients in banking, financial, aviation, transport and logistics, regulatory, public services, metals and mining, oil and gas sectors.
Manas Usserbayev
Director of Logistics at Kagazy Recycling, Central Asia
Manas has over 20 years of experience in logistics and supply chain management, mainly in large-scale production companies including Philip Morris Kazakhstan, BASF Central Asia and Kazakhstan Kagazy.
He is a Certified expert (Yellow belt) in “LEAN Kaizen” and has detailed experience in the field of logistics processes. He is a certified expert in international road transportation of dangerous goods (ADR), and a certified Business Support Advisor for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport providing expert support across the Central Asia region.
Most recently Manas held the position of Director of Logistics at Kagazy Recycling, where he led a team of more than 140 employee and was responsible for the whole spectrum of logistics operations for the biggest Central Asian producer of paper, carton and packaging materials.
He is committed to training and development and supports CILT in the development of its learning programmes and key research services in Central Asia.
Tatiana Proskuryakova
Regional Director for Central Asia, World Bank
Tatiana Proskuryakova is the World Bank’s Regional Director for the Central Asia region that encompasses five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Country Manager for Romania and Hungary during 2017-2021, Country Manager in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro based in Sarajevo since 2015, Country Manager in North Macedonia during 2013-14, and Country Operations Adviser for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay during 2010-13.
Tatiana joined the World Bank in 1992 and throughout her career she has held various positions both in headquarters and in field offices, including operations (Europe/Central Asia Region, Latin America and Caribbean Region), portfolio management and corporate strategy. Previously she was Senior Advisor representing the Russian Federation at the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. Tatiana holds an M.Sc. in Economics/Political Economy from the Moscow State University and an M. Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK.
