Almaty, January 20, 2024, the Kazakhstan’s Entrepreneur of the Year National Award winners have been announced by Ernst&Young. The Centras Group’s founder Eldar Abdrazakov was been named the Entrepreneur of The Year Winner.
An independent jury of international experts and local EOY winners stated that The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has honored and elevated the audacious entrepreneur who thinks big and act boldly to professionalize Kazakhstan and transform the commodity-based economy. Centras has become the country’s entrepreneurship enablement platform by providing growth capital, professional services and integration capabilities. The Kazakhstan Growth Forum launched by Centras as a national CEO summit in 2011 has become a learning platform with professional conferences and workshops in the fields of management, finance, talent management, marketing, technologies. In 2016, Centras introduced Professionalize Kazakhstan! executive education platform for young professionals (Mini-Harvard).
The founder of Centras has been also received the Corporate Leader Award. Having grown up from the financial services, Centras aggressively expands on professional and consumer services. The internal synthetic team composition enables it capture new growth in agile and high-reliance businesses.
Eldar Abdrazakov stated that this award celebrates not so much his personal achievements, but the achievements of the entire Centras team, which develops iniatives every day: “Together we strive to professionalize the operating environment, give young leaders new opportunities and bring Kazakhstan to a higher level. It is important for us to follow the principles of Triple Win – to become good professionals, to be excellent partners, to act for the good of the country. We seek to empower the new growth in Kazakhstan by educating, enabling and equiping”.
The Jury’s Chairman, the Founder of Resmi Group and the EOY2007 National Winner Kairat Mazhibayev noted, the main prize of the competition is given to an entrepreneur who has sound business achievements and exemplary leadership qualities. “Eldar’s contribution to the life of society is significant. He is the role model for young entrepreneurs”,– Kairat Mazhibayev emphasized.
“Our competition is for entrepreneurs who are focused not only on achieving financial stability, but also strive to change the world for the better. And we are excited to recognize the impact of such entrepreneurs like Eldar”, said Erlan Dossymbekov, Managing Partner of EY in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The Entrepreneur of the Year program has been a leading position among international competitions for the business community for more than 35 years. The competition has been held in Kazakhstan since 2007 and allows to identify outstanding entrepreneurs of the country. Over the years, more than 800 representatives of various business sectors from different parts of Kazakhstan have participated in the project. According to international standards, the participants of the competition are strictly selected by an independent jury. The key evaluation criteria are aspects such as entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, financial success of the company, development dynamics, etc.
Eldar Abdrazakov will represent Kazakhstan at the world competition “Entrepreneur of the Year”, which will be held in Monaco in June 2024. National winners will meet there not only to compete for the main title, but also to share experiences and network with each other.
