Dr. Kairat Kelimbetov was the Founding Governor of Astana International Financial Center (AIFC).Dr. Kelimbetov founded AIFC after 20 years in senior leadership positions in government, ministries, central bank, sovereign wealth fund, and regional and international initiatives of Kazakhstan. His career spans a broad range of responsibilities from initiation and execution of crucial development reforms, the transformation of macroeconomic and fiscal policies, founding and management of significant institutions, improvement of regulatory and investment climate, designing and implementation of nation-wide investment strategies and regional development policies, structuring and restructuring major state and corporate transactions including listing and raising equity through capital markets, debt and bond issuances, strategic and tactical allocation of state assets, public-private partnerships. Dr. Kelimbetov started his career in 1993 as a Researcher of applied sciences at Kazakh National University and later joined President’s Economic Advisory Council as a senior associate. Over the next five years, he participated in groundbreaking economic development reforms, including Kazakhstan’s National 2030 Strategy holding various leading positions in the President’s office of Kazakhstan. In 2001, he was appointed as the First Deputy Minister of Finance and later became the Minister of Economy of Kazakhstan, where he served for over four years. In 2006, he founded the Kazyna state development institution, which later merged with Samruk to become the largest state development enterprise ‘Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund’ which he successfully led as a CEO until 2011. During and after the financial crisis, Dr. Kelimbetov was a leading member of the government of Kazakhstan in the execution of the anti- crisis program as the Chief of Staff of the President’s Office, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and Deputy Prime Minister. In 2013, he was appointed governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, where he initiated and executed significant reforms related to the pension asset management system, fiscal and currency regime, strategic allocation and investment policies of state financial assets, and restructuring of banks and their loan portfolios. In particular, under his management, the National Bank of Kazakhstan adopted a new monetary policy regime of inflation targeting. In 2015, Dr. Kelimbetov was appointed as the Governor of AIFC. He read Applied Mathematics at Moscow State University (1993) and completed Pew Economic Freedom Fellows Program at Georgetown University in 1999. He earned Ph.D. at the Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University, a Doctor of International Relations from the Geneva School of Diplomacy in 2009, and a Master of Studies from Wolfson College from the University of Cambridge in 2017. Dr. Kelimbetov authored dozens of articles, including the co-authorship of The Perfect Storm book on sustainable development. He is an honorary professor and academic council member at Eurasian National University, Tsing Hua University, and Beijing University of International Business and Economics.