BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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DAVID LAKHDHIR CHAIR - BOARD OF TRUSTEES DAVID LAKHDHIR, a partner in the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP for over 30 years, was co-head of his firm鈥檚 office in London for nearly 20 years and in the 1990s the partner-in-charge of its office in Tokyo. He has particular expertise in cross-border corporate acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures. He is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, teaching a course on international business.听听 Mr. Lakhdhir also serves as a Director of Human Rights Watch, Inc. and of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and as a member of the advisory Council of JUSTICE, a U.K. legal reform organization. He is a past Chair of the International Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and currently serves on its Council on International Affairs.听 An honors graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he served as a Teaching Fellow in the Government Department and as a Law Tutor at Harvard, and after graduation, spent a year as a Visiting Scholar at the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi.听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b147 |
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AIJAN CHYNYBAEVA BOARD MEMBER AIJAN CHYNYBAEVA has over 15 years of business career and international exposure. Mrs. Chynybaeva is the member and former President of the Rotary Club of Bishkek charitable organization (2007), a member of the Non-governmental Organization Women鈥檚 Forum 鈥淜urak鈥� (2011), and the Chairman of the Public Association of Women of Kyrgyzstan 鈥淜urak鈥� (2017). She actively promotes positive thinking and motivation as well as supports youth startup projects as a member of the Council of the Association of Social Entrepreneurship, a mentor of the ASP School, mentor and trainer of the 鈥淚 Invest in Kyrgyzstan鈥� Republican Youth Project, and the initiator of the movement 鈥淭aza Issyk-Kul鈥�. Mrs. Chynybaeva is also the founder of the Eco-Demi Public Fund which has carried out the most global cleaning campaigns throughout the country since 2015. She serves as the Ambassador of the international movement 鈥淟et鈥檚 Do it World鈥� in Kyrgyzstan when Mrs. Chynybaeva became representative of the International Organization 鈥淟et鈥檚 Do it World鈥� in Central Asia in 2021. And she also holds membership in other local and international organizations, including
In April 2019, Mrs. Chynybaeva was awarded the Excellent听Leadership听Award and recognized听as an example of outstanding leadership at the Women Economic Forum in Delhi, India.听In 2019, she received the state award from Prime Minister Mr. Abylgaziev for her contributions to women empowerment in business and received an appreciation letter for creating and supplying with medicine local hospitals fighting against COVID-19. Under the leadership of Mrs. Chynybaeva Kyrgyzstan was announced as the winner (1st place) of the World Clean Up day among 150 countries. She has served on the board of AUCA since 2012. 听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b150 |
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ALMAS CHUKIN BOARD MEMBER ALMAS CHUKIN is a Partner at Visor Kazakhstan, one of Central Asia鈥檚 largest private investment companies. Mr. Chukin brings extensive experience in banking and investment, having held top executive roles in Kazakhstan鈥檚 financial sector. Since 2008, he has overseen Visor鈥檚 investments across various industries, including telecommunications, mining, logistics, retail, and more recently, with a primary focus on renewable energy development. Before transitioning to the private sector in 1997, Mr. Chukin held senior positions within the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He served as Charg茅 d鈥橝ffaires at the Kyrgyz Embassy in the United States. He began his career as an Associate Professor of Political Economy at Kyrgyz State 蜜桃直播, following the completion of his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Moscow State 蜜桃直播. Since its founding in 1998 - when the Kyrgyz-American Department of the National 蜜桃直播 evolved into the independent American 蜜桃直播 in Kyrgyzstan, later renamed the 蜜桃直播鈥擬r. Chukin has been a member of the AUCA Board of Trustees. He remains a key supporter of AUCA鈥檚 campus development projects and has served on the AUCA Board since 2000. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b91 |
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ASSET ABDUALIYEV BOARD MEMBER ASSET ABDUALIYEV is an international management consultant. He worked as an advisor to Almaty鈥檚 mayor on innovation and urban development. He identified and supported over 200 innovative projects and startups as part of Central Asia鈥檚 first 鈥渟mart city鈥� project. He also coordinated the launch and design of five major public spaces in Almaty. Previously, he held leadership roles with the organizing committee of the 2017 Almaty Winter Universiade. Mr. Abdualiyev graduated with an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and an MSc in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b240 |
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GRAHAM O鈥橠ONOGHUE BOARD MEMBER GRAHAM O鈥橠ONOGHUE is an entrepreneur and lawyer with experience in government, commercial and public law, logistics operations, and commodities trading. From 2013 to 2015, he served as President and CEO for Mina Group and was responsible for all global operations. Previously, he has served as a lawyer and consultant advising multi-national companies, family offices, emerging enterprises, and entrepreneurs across a broad range of industry sectors and geographies. He has also served as a board director and officer for portfolio companies of his venture capital clients, operating in a range of industries from telecommunications security to luxury goods and commodities trading.听 Previously, Mr. O鈥橠onoghue was an attorney at the New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he specialized in complex commercial litigation and transnational disputes. From 2007 to 2009, he served in The White House as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States and, previously, Deputy Associate Counsel. In that capacity, Mr. O鈥橠onoghue represented the White House in numerous investigations and other sensitive matters before the U.S. Congress and other federal government agencies. He also provided legal counsel to the White House staff on a range of matters. He served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. O鈥橠onoghue holds a law degree from Columbia Law School and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Philosophy from Harvard 蜜桃直播. Mr. O鈥橠onoghue also sits on the board of the New Generation Academy at the 蜜桃直播, which offers promising high school graduates from Central Asia the opportunity to prepare for university admission through an intensive one-year curriculum. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b205 |
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HARRY BHADESHIA BOARD MEMBER HARRY BHADESHIA is a Professor of Metallurgy at Queen Mary 蜜桃直播 of London, and Emeritus TATA Steel Professor at the 蜜桃直播 of Cambridge.听His research focuses on the theory of solid-state phase changes, and he is also deeply committed to teaching all facets of materials science. His听contributions to his field have been recognized with fellowships from both the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b1229 |
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JONATHAN BECKER BOARD MEMBER JONATHAN BECKER is Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bard College as well as the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Professor of Political Studies. He also serves as Vice Chancellor of the Open Society 蜜桃直播 Network. Through Bard, Dr. Becker provides support to several of Bard鈥檚 international partner universities including Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences/ Smolny College (St. Petersburg, Russia), Al-Quds 蜜桃直播 (Palestine), and AUCA, where he has served on the board since 2008. He is the author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (1999, 2002) and articles and chapters in a variety of publications, including the European Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, and the Globalist, among others.听 Previously, he served as Assistant Vice President of the Central European 蜜桃直播 in Budapest and the European Director of the Civic Education Project.听He has also served as co-chair of the Higher Education Group of the US/Russian Civil Society Partnership Program and as a consultant to the National Intelligence Council on its Global Trends 2020 project.听 Dr. Becker earned his BA from McGill 蜜桃直播 and his D. Phil from St. Antony鈥檚 College, Oxford. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b90 |
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LEONARD BENARDO BOARD MEMBER LEONARD BENARDO is the Senior Vice President for the Open Society Foundations. Programmatically, he directs the Ideas Workshop that seeks to promote and inspire heterodox thinking and cultural imagination; he is also integrally involved in OSF鈥檚 commitments in higher education. Benardo was formerly vice president of the Open Society Foundations, regional director for Eurasia, and director of the Open Society Fellowship Program. He began his work with the Open Society Foundations at the Soros Foundation Moscow and was the founding director of the Open Society Fellowship Program. Benardo sits on the boards of the Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Central European 蜜桃直播, Hungary, the 蜜桃直播, Kyrgyzstan, and the European Humanities 蜜桃直播, Lithuania.听 Benardo holds a BA in history from the 蜜桃直播 of Michigan and a graduate degree in political science from Columbia 蜜桃直播. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the International Herald Tribune, Bookforum, the American Prospect, Project Syndicate, and Prospect. He is the co-author, with his wife Jennifer Weiss, of two books: Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names, and Citizen-in-Chief: The Second Lives of the American Presidents. He has served on the AUCA Board since 2017.听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b480 |
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LIVIU MATEI BOARD MEMBER LIVIU MATEI is the Head of the King's School of Education, Communication & Society. Prior to joining the King鈥檚 School in March 2022, he was Professor of Higher Education Policy at the Central European 蜜桃直播 (CEU), where he directed the Yehuda Elkana Center for Higher Education, a collaborative academic initiative promoting applied policy research and professional training in higher education. Dr. Matei established the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities and the Global Teaching Fellowship Programme, and founded the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, which is supported by the Open Society 蜜桃直播 Network and the Open Society Research Platform, in 2021. He served on the Steering Committee of CIVICA - The European 蜜桃直播 of Social Sciences. In addition to teaching at universities in Europe and the US, Dr Matei has consulted in the area of higher education policy and conducted applied policy research projects for the World Bank, UNESCO, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and other international organisations (intergovernmental and non-governmental), national authorities and universities from Europe and Asia. He serves on the editorial boards of the Internationalisation of Higher Education Journal and the European Journal of Higher Education. After studying philosophy, psychology, and sociology, Dr Matei completed his PhD at Bucharest 蜜桃直播, Romania. He received fellowships to study at the Institut Sup茅rieur de Formation Sociale et de Communication, Bruxelles, The New School 蜜桃直播, New York, Universit茅 Paris X Nanterre, Universit茅 de Savoie, the Salzburg Seminar, and the Maison des Sciences de l鈥橦omme Paris. He has served on the AUCA Board since 2013.听 听Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b204 |
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NAZIRA BEISHENALIEVA BOARD MEMBER NAZIRA BEISHENALIEVA is a dynamic leader with extensive experience in banking, regional connectivity, and fintech. In key roles such as Chairperson of the Board of Directors at CJSC Bank of Asia and the former Chairwoman of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Kyrgyz Republic, she drives strategic direction, oversees operations, and fosters economic growth and business relationships.听 As the former Official Representative of the Astana International Financial Centre in the Kyrgyz Republic and Senior Advisor to the Chairperson of the AIFC Board for Central Asia, Nazira facilitated financial cooperation and provided strategic guidance for successful initiatives in the region. Her education spans Journalism, Law, and Accounting, and she holds certificates from prestigious programs at Harvard Business School and Tsinghua 蜜桃直播 School of Finance.听 Impact:听
Overall, Nazira Beishenalieva's exceptional leadership, strategic thinking, and commitment to driving regional connectivity and innovation make her a trusted figure in the financial industry, capable of significant impact. She has served on the AUCA Board since 2015.听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b367 |
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SAMANTHA SMIDT BOARD MEMBER SAMANTHA SMIDT is a Professor of Higher Education and Academic Director, King's Academy at King's College London. She has worked with a wide range of universities across the world. Sam is a physicist by background and continues to work with the Institute of Physics degree accreditation team. She has many years of experience in capacity-building initiatives focused on online and distance learning, and has participated in projects and consultancies across Central Asia, Russia, and Bangladesh. She is especially interested in program design and in helping academics adopt a comprehensive approach to learning design. She has designed and developed MOOCs on the FutureLearn platform and developed a number of short courses for staff and students on UCL鈥檚 externally facing Moodle platform, eXtend. Sam is a principal fellow of the HEA and is a member of AdvanceHE鈥檚 Fellowship and Accreditation Expert Advisory Group. She started serving on the AUCA Board in February 2025.听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b1230 |
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SCOTT HORTON BOARD MEMBER SCOTT HORTON is a Contributing Editor of Harper's Magazine, writes for a number of other publications, and has served as a legal affairs commentator for CBS News, NBC, ZDF, and several other broadcasters. A New York attorney known for his work in emerging markets and international law, especially human rights law and the law of armed conflict, Horton lectures at Columbia Law School. A life-long human rights advocate, Horton served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet Union. Horton recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City Bar Association, where he has chaired several committees, including, most recently, the Committee on International Law.听 Scott Horton is the honorary vice president of the American Branch of the International Law Association, general counsel of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, and a director of the World Bee Project.听 He received the 2011 National Magazine Award (the 鈥淓llie鈥�) for his legal affairs reporting for Harper鈥檚. Scott is the author of five books, including most recently The Lords of Secrecy, a discussion of America鈥檚 obsession with secrecy and its consequences for democratic institutions. He has served on the AUCA Board since 1999.听 Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b92 |
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STANISLAV KARPOVICH BOARD MEMBER STANISLAV KARPOVICH was in the first graduating class of AUCA in 1997. Since then, he has excelled in business as a top manager in several consulting and investment companies. Currently, he is the General Director of Silk Road Investments and Deputy Managing Director, FNT Consultants. Mr. Karpovich is the Chairman of the Board of Enactus Kyrgyzstan , as well as the Past-President of the Rotary Club of Bishkek . He has served on the board of AUCA since 2004. Link to this block: /en/trustees/#b93 |
