Eldar Abdrazakov

Eldar Abdrazakov is the founder and Chief Executive of Centras Capital, a leading non-bank financial services group of Kazakhstan. He chairs the boards of the group’s principal subsidiaries in insurance, capital markets, and private equity. Centras, through its two insurance subsidiaries, commands the number three combined position in retail insurance in Kazakhstan. Centras Securities is the largest private-sector shareholder in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and is ranked #1 in equity, bonds, and mutual funds. In private equity, Centras runs two government-sponsored venture funds. It was the first local team to raise an international buyout fund with EBRD and Britain’s CDC Group in 2007.

Prior to founding Centras in 2004, Abdrazakov worked at Kazkommertsbank’s group for nine years. Eldar was a partner at Meridian Capital, an industrial holdings arm of Kazkommertsbank’s group, and served as CEO of Kazkommerts Securities, an investment banking subsidiary of Kazkommertsbank. He was on the Bank’s Management Board overseeing investments, subsidiaries, project finance, financial institutions, and treasury.

Abdrazakov chairs the Kazakhstan Competiveness Council and YPO’s Kazakhstan Chapter. He served on the Board of Directors of EXPO2017, Kazakhtelecom, Tele2 Kazakhstan, ABN Amro Asset Management, Kazkommerts Policy, and UlarUmit Pension Fund. He is Brazil’s Honorary Consul. He is the founder of Professionalize Kazakhstan, a private-sector social initiative (“K-Pro”). Structured as a summer program, the initiative seeks to educate, connect, and inspire the country’s youth leadership. Collaborating with the world’s top management consultants, corporate universities, and Kazakh professionals working abroad, K-Pro focuses on developing new 21st-century competences for 200 college teachers, young professionals, and university graduates every summer. Abdrazakov holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in international economic relations (Ablay-Khan Scholar) from Yassawi University, Kazakhstan. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s General Management Program (GMP8).