Ex-head of AIFC Kelimbetov joins board of directors of Freedom Holding Corp.

Kairat Kelimbetov, a former head of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) from 2015 to 2023, has joined the board of directors of Freedom Holding Corp., the company said in a statement.

«Freedom Holding Corp. is confirming that the board of directors has been expanded to seven people. There are three new independent directors: Andrew Gamble, Philippe Vogeleer and Kairat Kelimbetov,» the holding reported.

The company has also created a new position of chief legal officer. Jason Kerr, a former member of the board of directors, has been appointed to the new position. He is going to be responsible for establishing a unified legal structure across the enterprise and improving the coordination of the multi-jurisdictional legal affairs of the company.

«As we continue to expand our global footprint in jurisdictions with diverse regulatory, compliance, and operational policies, the board of directors felt it was in the best interest of all stakeholders to augment the expertise of our existing board with new board members who have diverse international enterprise leadership experience, deep and varied global operational and governance knowledge, and worldwide strategic positioning know-how to help Freedom further develop its current operations, as well as establish new business frontiers. We expect that our new board makeup will contribute significantly to the company’s long-term success,» said CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. Timur Turlov.

Andrew Gamble’s nearly 50-year legal and advisory career includes tenures in Asia, Africa, South America and Europe, and he has led teams that have acted for the governments of Sierra Leone, Guyana, Mozambique and Ethiopia. As a partner in the international American-British law firm Hogan Lovells, his legal career has involved advising banks and structuring financings for numerous international entities in the Middle East and CIS, including Kazakhstan.

He has deep financial sector expertise and was retained by the British Government to advise on the securitization of over £2 billion in loans to the higher education sector in the United Kingdom. Mr. Gamble currently works as an independent consultant on corporate, legal and finance matters, which includes serving as an independent director on several boards. He is on the board of Africa Credit Opportunities Limited, and recently stepped down from the board of Zenith Bank (UK) Limited.

Philippe Vogeleer specializes in creating partnerships between corporations, governments and international organizations. He has lived in ten countries and worked in over 100. He has managed teams ranging in size from one to over 3,000, with corresponding profit and loss responsibility. Vogeleer started his career advising companies such as Telenor, Bertelsmann and Orange for Deloitte before moving to various operational roles in mobile operators for Orange and Ooredoo in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

He joined Vodafone Group in early 2012, where he originally handled negotiations as a corporate diplomat before advancing to work on investment partnerships with large multi-national corporations; global mobile network operators; public authorities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and with international organizations such as British International Investment, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank Group, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Recent successes include various European transactions; new mobile licenses in the Middle East and Africa; obtaining significant public subsidies to support the creation of R&D centers in Spain and Germany; the largest win for Vodafone in emerging markets in 25 years; and the largest deal between Vodafone and the World Bank Group ever. He now advises a small number of companies as a non-executive, teaches MBA students and supports the work of various international charities including Global Citizen.

Kelimbetov earned a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge, a Ph.D. in Economics and a BSc in Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics from Moscow State University. He attended the National Higher School of Public Administration in Almaty, Kazakhstan and he has an Executive Certificate and Pew Economic Freedom Fellowship from the Harvard Kennedy School and the E. Walsh School of Foreign Services at Georgetown University, respectively. He holds honorary professorships from Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists Association in Kazakhstan, and he was given an honorary Doctorate of International Relations from the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

With nearly three decades of founding and leading high-performing organizations, occupying senior-level government office positions and serving on numerous boards, Kelimbetov’s experience includes: being a Chairman of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms, Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan; Minister of Economic Development and Trade; Minister of Economy and Budget Planning; Chief of Staff to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; CEO of the Samruk Kazyna Sustainable Development Fund and CEO of the Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Freedom Holding Corp. is a diversified financial services holding company conducting retail securities brokerage, securities trading, investment research, investment counseling, investment banking and underwriting services, mortgages and insurance. Through its subsidiaries, Freedom Holding Corp. employs more than 6,000 people. Freedom Holding Corp. is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and has operations and subsidiaries in 19 countries, including Kazakhstan, the United States, Cyprus, Poland, Spain, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, among others. Freedom Holding Corp.’s common shares are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and are traded under the symbol FRHC on the Nasdaq Capital Market.