About me

I was born on November 16, 1967 in Leninsk (Baikonur), the famous space harbor of the Soviet Union. My parents were regular workers. My father worked as a communications engineer, and my mother was a cashier at the station.

From 1975 to 1985 I studied at the secondary school No. 245, which I finished with good marks and being the leader of the Komsomol organization. Since early age I was an active, energetic child and participated in all public events.

Due to the fact that the cosmodrome was directly subordinated to Moscow, and the fact that the best specialists of the space industry from all over the Soviet Union lived and worked here, the teachers in our schools were top-level. I think that only thanks to them I got a good primary education, which became the foundation for further growth.

In 1985, after school, I entered the law faculty at Kazakh State University named after Kirov (present-day KazSU named after Al-Farabi). All our course was lucky. It was the year of Perestroika, all the corrupt officials in the universities were frightened and did not demand any bribes. Many children have entered the university thanks to their real knowledge. Therefore, our course gave way to a lot of well-educated and successful people.

After the first year of education, I, like almost all my fellow students, joined the Army and honestly had my “730 days in army boots” (1986-1988). I served in the communications forces near Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). There I was active, too, and made it to the senior sergeant.

While still students, my friends and I, inspired by Perestroika and the opportunities opening in front of us, organized our first private company “Barikon”. We were engaged in trade, transported goods from Russia and abroad, and organized the first auction in Alma-Ata. In many ways, we were among the first. It was then that we earned our first capital, bought our apartments, cars and so on.

In that period I entered the Kazakh Academy of Management and got a second higher education – this time in Economics.

Until 1999 I was the head of our company “Barikon”. Then I was invited by my friends, former business colleagues, to the civil service (at that time there was no current system of personnel selection, and it was possible to get to the civil service off the street). I decided to show my patriotic feelings and devote part of my life to serving the Motherland (however pathetic it may sound).

In 1999, I took office as Deputy Chairman of the Kostanai Territorial Committee for State Property and Privatization. Then I became its chairman, conducted its transformation into the Kostanay regional department of state property and state procurement. In this organization we were engaged in the privatization of state property, although by that time there was very little left. The first wave of privatization had taken place long before that. Capitalism marched across the country with triupmh.

In 2004, I moved to Astana and became a deputy akim of the capital. This period of my life I remember as the most difficult and stressful, but at the same time it was the most interesting and active one. I was in charge of issues of land relations, transport system, external design, as well as (quite unexpectedly) cultural issues. I’m proud that in Astana our team was the first to introduce the auction method of distribution of free land. Then these provisions were included in the Land Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and spread throughout the country.

In 2006, I temporarily left the civil service and went into business again. At that period, the stock market of Kazakhstan (in that truncated form, as it is) was rapidly developing, so my team and I actively joined this direction. We created an asset management company and tried ourselves in this direction.

In 2007, I was again invited to work for the state. This time – to create new structures in our economy – Social-entrepreneurship corporations. We vigorously got down to business, and in October 2007 “National company SEC “Tobol” JSC was registered in Kostanay region, where I moved again. The corporation’s task was to attract investments to the region and make the most efficient use of state assets. It seems to me that I managed to create a good team, which is still successfully working for the benefit of Kostanay region.

In 2010, I took a timeout again and returned to business. During this period, the main type of my activity was real estate transactions in the city of Astana.

In 2011, the Motherland again called me to work as a state official. I was appointed vice-minister of agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It was quite unexpected for me, but I was attracted by a new direction of activity. I was tasked with developing market relations in the country’s agricultural sector. As you know, rural communities are the most conservative field of business, so it was not easy, but I did my best to fulfill the task.

In 2013, I realized that I did everything I could to bring something new into the agricultural sector of the country. Then the routine began, which I was not attracted to. I decided to leave the civil service.

Starting from 2014, I began focusing on my own business and became what is commonly called a serial entrepreneur. I generated ideas (mostly in the IT sector), built teams around them, allocated budgets, and sent them off to operate independently. According to the classic rules of the startup industry, about 90 percent of the projects I launched failed. At that point, I realized one fundamental thing: the teams I hired did not have the same level of motivation and commitment to the project as the business owners themselves.

So I changed my strategy and became a business angel. I started investing my money, knowledge, and experience into startups led by passionate founders. Later, I realized it was better to do this not alone. That is why I brought together strong experts and created the company Activat VC. Now we professionally select startups and invest in them. Today I lead the company and remain actively involved in its activities. I do what truly interests me and brings me joy.

I consider this a great happiness.

Moreover, I am still active in social life. I’m worried about many issues of our society: morality, spirituality, responsibility. I’m trying to make our society more progressive, free and developed. Therefore, I speak in social networks, in the media. I believe it helps.