FINTEX SUMMIT 2025 - FINANCE AND TECHNOLOGIES EXPO

Namig Aliyev was born in 1977 in Baku. He is a graduate of Baku State University. During his student years, he worked on a number of periodical publications. In 1999-2000 he worked in the Republican Scientific and Technical Library and in 2001-2003 in the Main Department of Cultural Education of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a leading specialist. As of 2004, he worked as a correspondent, leading correspondent, assistant editor, editor at the Free Azerbaijan Broadcasting Company "Azad Azərbaycan".

He started working in the Communication Department of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan in May 2010. Since July 2011, he has been the Head of the Public Relations Division of aforementioned department. He is the presenter of "Economic News" program  at Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting Closed Joint-Stock Company (AZTV).

Born on April 7, 1975, in Imishli region of Azerbaijan Republic.

Education:

In 1992 he was admitted to the Azerbaijan State Economic University with the largest score and graduated from high school in 1997 and received his second higher education in the Journalism profession of the Georgian Institute of Public Relations in 2004. In 2009, he defended his PhD in economics and in 2017 he defended his doctorate in economics.

Prof. Dr. Vusal Gasimli was awarded a certificate of completion for the "Leading Economic Growth" Program, [February-May/2021], John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education.

In 2022-2023 Vusal Gasimli completed the University of Oxford's Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Strategy and Innovation.

In 2013 Vusal Gasimli was given the title of associate professor.

V.Gasimli was engaged in pedagogical activity in the UNEC Special Talented Group and MBA program in 2010-2014.

V.Gasimli read public lectures at Washington University, California University, Cairo University, Warsaw University, Seoul Hanyany and Hankuk University, and Rio de Janeiro University.

Vusal Gasimli got the award of Astana Economic Forum for outstanding research achievements in 2012.

Worked as a guest scientist at Korea International Economic Policy Institute in 2013.

He has 10 books and about 500 scientific and publicist articles in Azerbaijani, Russian, Korean and English.

Vusal Gasimli is professor at the Azerbaijan Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2021.

Labor Activity:

During the 12.05.2000-06.12.2003, the economic consultant in Express newspaper edition,

15.02.2005-19.11.2005, Economic Reviewer at ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

19.11.2005-30.04.2007, President of ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

09.02.2009-11.05.2011, Deputy of head of the Department at Azerbaijan-Public-Political University,

In 2007-2011, he worked on projects implemented by the European Union, the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and several international organizations.

In 2011-2016, he worked as Head of the Department for Economic Analysis and Globalization of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In 2015, he represented Azerbaijan at the T20 platform of brain centers of the G20.

From 10.05.2016 to present he is the executive director of theCenter for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He was awarded the Progress Medal in 2018.

Vusal Gasimli was appointed Focal Point of UNESCAP in 2021.

Married, has three children.

After graduating from the secondary school he was admitted to the department of “Accounting” at Azerbaijan State Economic University and completed the full course on the speciality of “Economist” in 1981. Zakir Nuriyev started his labour activity as Leading Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1981.

 Zakir Nuriyev did his military service during 1981-1983. He worked in the capacity of Accountant – Inspector, Chief Inspector and Deputy Chief Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic from July, 1983 until January, 1989 after having served in the military.

 He was appointed to the post of Manager of the “Control and Accounting” division at “Regional Communication” Production Association of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1989. Zakir Nuriyev worked in the capacity of Chairman of the Management Board at “Rabitabank” Joint-Stock Commercial Bank during 1993-1998 and has been acting as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at “Rabitabank” Open Joint-Stock Company since 1998 up to date. He was elected President of the Azerbaijan Banks Association in 1996 and worked in that capacity until 2006. He has been member of the Presidium at Azerbaijan Banks Association from 2006 till 2015. He was re-elected President of Azerbaijan Banks Association in 2015.

He graduated from the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan with Bachelor's degree (Public Administration) with honors (1998-2002) and received a Master's degree (Public Administration) with honors (2002-2004). 

He received Ph.D. in Economics (oil/chemical industry economics, 2005 – 2009) from the Institute of Economics of the Azerbaijan National Academy of the Sciences, and got an MBA degree (2010 – 2011) from Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK.

From 2002 to 2021, he held senior positions in various public and private institutions in the banking and financial sectors. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Fintech Association.

Cristina Doros is a Senior Vice President, and Group Country Manager for Visa in the CISSEE region.

Cristina leads Visa's operations and strategy in 17 countries across Southern and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova.

Prior to the current position, Cristina was holding the role of a Regional Manager for Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Visa. In this role, Cristina was managing overall Visa business in these markets focusing on strategy development and implementation, business development, technology, and innovations.

Before moving to Central Asia, Cristina was managing Caucasus cluster at Visa.

She has more than 25 years of experience in retail banking, information technology, innovations, cards, and mobile payments. Cristina joined Visa in 2016 to lead regional Core Products team overseeing Core products (Debit, Credit and Premium), loyalty platform development, digital solutions, and push payments.

Cristina holds a Master’s Degree with Honors in Economics from IEDC-Bled School of Business, Slovenia.  

Nurlan joined Visa in 2013 bringing 9 years of experience in banking, marketing, business development and payment cards to the team. Prior to joining Visa, he was Head of Payment Cards at DemirBank (Azerbaijan), responsible for acquiring payment products, payment card risk and digital channel development. Prior to joining DemirBank, Nurlan worked at UniBank, where he was in charge of marketing and business development.

Since 2022, Nurlan Hajiyev has been appointed to the position of Senior Director, Regional Manager in Azerbaijan, based in Baku.

 In this role, Nurlan continued his work on business development in Azerbaijan, ensuring local team’s integration and alignment. With nine years’ experience at Visa, Nurlan initially joined as business development manager being a single representative of Visa in Azerbaijan for 6 years, contributing to the team's recent growth. Throughout this time, Nurlan has been a valuable member of the Visa CISSEE team, building strong client relationships, driving business development, strategy and its implementation in the market. Nurlan has greatly contributed to such milestones in the Azerbaijan market as implementation of VTS and launching Apple Pay, launching first in CEMEA B2B Connect along with other key achievements

Edgar Abdullayev is EMBA Graduate of Yeditepe University of Turkey.

He has 15 years of experience in Managing people. His corporate life has been divided in to different periods as 11 years of Telecommunications, 2 years of Transportation and travel, 5 years of Banking and Financial Technologies. During his corporate life periods in Telecommunications and Banking, Edgar has been a part of very important and decision-making teams which affected directly customer experience in financial transactions, financial technologies and banking experience.

Right now, he is Managing Director of United Payment LLC and adding value to the “Digital Payment Strategy” of country.

Mr. Ramil Mahmudov is a Deputy Director of the Payment systems and settlements department at Central Bank of Azerbaijan Republic. He is an experienced professional in payment systems, e-banking, card business, digital payments with more than 20 years at central banking. As co-author of several regulations and recommendations for payment institutions and Fintech, he also familiar with international experience about payments systems ecosystem and payment instruments and also with risk management, fraud management, chargeback rules.

Mr. Mahmudov holds Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from University of Luxembourg and Master’s degree in Finance from Azerbaijan State Economic University. He received Executive education diploma from New York University Stern School of Business and numerous training certificates in the field of payments and management in Europe and Asia.

Teymur Aghakishiyev is a Chief Operating Officer at “AccessBank”. He has 16 years of experience in banking sector and has enjoyed many executive positions throughout his career in product development and management, product sales, strategy, digital payments, payments and cards infrastructure, treasury, settlements and cash management.

He loves to dig into customer problems and solve them with modern technology and puts the customer at the center of all that he do.

Teymur Aghakishiyev holds MBA degree in Banking from Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

He is a professional trainer in banking.

Javidan Afandiyev is a dedicated Anti-Fraud professional with up to 10 years of experience in combating financial and non-financial fraud within Azerbaijan's banking and financial ecosystem.

His career includes key roles in banks, processing centers, and the Azerbaijan Banks Association, where he has been instrumental in developing and implementing anti-fraud strategies.

Currently, Javidan works at International Bank of Azerbaijan OJSC, focusing on enhancing fraud prevention and risk management processes.

Key areas of Javidan's expertise includes Fraud Prevention and Detection, Fraud Risk Assessment, Integration of Anti-Fraud Solutions, Fraud Analytics, Training and Awareness, Digital Payment Security, Industry Collaboration and etc.

Otabek Nasirov is a Co-founder and Partner at SBO Insights, actively shaping the landscape of fintech in Uzbekistan. He serves as a vital member of both the expert council of the Fintech Association and Cyber Park, while also contributing his expertise to the working groups of the Council of Foreign Investors under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In recent years, Otabek held the esteemed position of Deputy Chairman of the Fintech Association of Uzbekistan, playing a pivotal role in fostering the growth and development of the fintech ecosystem within the country.

He actively participates in the development of the fintech community of Uzbekistan, regulatory sandboxes and local legislation of the fintech industry, including education on blockchain technology, convergence technologies such as AI, digital assets and others.

He is also involved in creating an ecosystem of business angels and the country's venture capital market. Represents and lobbies the interests of the fintech community in government agencies of Uzbekistan.

Otabek member of the UMAY Angels Club, ICLUB by Venture Found TA Ventures and cooperates with the Uzbekistan Venture Capital Association (UzVCA), the National Venture Capital Fund (UzVC), National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP), Central Bank, Ministry of Digital Technologies and international financial institutions.

His knowledge and experience are the result of working in international and global companies such as Coca-Cola, Carlsberg Group, General Motors, Ernst & Young and SIT Learning within the Swiss International Research Institute Schaffhausen Institute of Technology and others.

Graduate of the Tashkent State Law Institute and the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo".

Otabek is an ambassador for Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), Chapter Zero Uzbekistan (Climate Governance Initiative | CGI ), EMBRAS (Employer Brand Award and Summit), Mysterious Uzbekistan (Adventure Community) and Ezgu Amal (Charity Foundation).

Hikmet Can Yilmazsoy is the Head of Türkiye, Caucasus and Central Asia at Swift, where he is overseeing the relations and engagements with key stakeholders in the financial ecosystem including central banks, financial institutions, market infrastructures and regulatory bodies. Since joining Swift in 2018, Can served as the Country Manager for Türkiye and Qatar until his current role.

Prior to his tenure at Swift, he led business development and project management activities in cash management, payment systems and digital banking areas with a leading bank in Türkiye. In addition, Can drove high-impact strategic initiatives in the customer experience management, retail banking and corporate finance areas throughout his 16 years of banking career.

He holds an MBA degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, with executive education from Columbia University and INSEAD.

Alexander has 20+ years of experience in payments and leads product development at eComCharge, the company behind the white-label SaaS platform beGateway.

Mirshahbaz Seyidli serves as the Deputy Director of the Commercial Department at “AzInTelecom” LLC. He possesses extensive professional experience in innovation, fintech product and service development. His strategic approach and leadership have played a key role in the successful implementation of pioneering projects such as the “SİMA” digital solutions platform and “AZINCLOUD” cloud services.

Mete BAYDAR, a product marketing professional with a 20-year career, held key roles in product strategy at Samsung Electronics and as Country Manager for PlayStation. Currently, he serves as the VP of Strategic Partnerships at Appcircle, focusing on mobile DevOps automation for enterprises. Mete's expertise lies in understanding the pivotal role of mobile applications in our evolving tech landscape.

Süleyman Akkum is an accomplished data and analytics leader, serving as a Board Member of Smarttech and the Founder & General Manager of Smartmind. With over 20 years of experience, he has led more than 100 successful data warehouse and business intelligence projects across finance, telecom, insurance, public sector, and healthcare domains.

Süleyman holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from Ege University and an MBA from Maltepe University. As a certified Oracle Data Integrator and Business Intelligence expert, he brings hands-on proficiency in platforms such as Oracle, MSSQL, Power BI, and Linux.

At Smartmind, he champions end-to-end data strategies—from analyzing complex source systems to designing scalable architectures and delivering high-performance reporting ecosystems. His leadership is rooted in technical excellence, mentoring, and a strong business vision that drives data-driven transformation.

Süleyman is passionate about turning data into value, building future-proof analytics teams, and guiding organizations toward intelligent decision-making.

CMO,  Leading Marketing at Collect Group Holding

Yevgen Lisnyak is Senior Director at Visa and the Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintech & Ventures in Ukraine, CIS & South-East Europe (17 markets). His key responsibilities include identifying, support and development of the high potential partnerships for Visa in new robustly growing fintech business environment driving cashless economy.

Yevgen joined Visa in 2017 as Director, Head of Innovation Solutions. In this role Yevgen successfully managed and launched transit and smart city solutions in Ukraine and CIS countries. Now Yevgen focuses on support of neobanks, mobile finance services of MNOs, digital products of traditional banks, innovative disruptive fintech companies as well as fintech ecosystem development on 17 markets.

Yevgen has deep expertize in banking, payments and Fintech, he ensured support and built Visa strategic partnerships with wide range of fintech companies in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other countries.

Yevgen Lisnyak brings to Visa 15 years of international experience in IT and consulting gained with leading international companies. Mr. Lisnyak holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Physics and Mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

Vic Omelchenko is the Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Partner at Banza, a global IT company specializing in CRM & BPM systems, and web & mobile applications. With 20 years of experience in IT, Vic is a passionate leader, venture investor, and startup mentor. Under her leadership, Banza has grown to over 200 employees across 17 countries and delivered more than 300 digital transformation projects.

Vic focuses on the synergy of no-code platforms and process optimization to simplify IT for banking, sales, logistics, manufacturing, and customer service sectors. She brings deep insight into how modern technologies can accelerate business growth and improve customer experience. At the event, Vic will share her perspective on how no-code solutions are reshaping the way businesses operate and innovate.

A. Serdar Karadayı (b. 1978) graduated from Istanbul University’s English Business Administration  program in 2001 and earned his master’s degree in Product Management and Marketing from Marmara  University in 2004.  He began his career in the maritime industry during university and joined SESTEK in 2001. Following a key  merger in 2007 and SESTEK’s acquisition by Unifonic in 2022, the company grew into a global leader in AI powered call center solutions.  With nearly 25 years of experience, Karadayı now serves as President, leading SESTEK’s global expansion  and innovation efforts. He is married with two children and passionate about travel and maritime  pursuits.

Fidan Tofidi joined the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2023 as an advisor on innovations. Since 2024, she has been leading the newly established Financial Technologies and Innovations Department.

Under her leadership, the department is engaged in key areas such as the Regulatory Sandbox, product research and development (including Open Banking and Distributed KYC platforms), and the development and coordination of the fintech ecosystem. Currently, a number of strategic projects are being implemented under her guidance in these areas, and efforts continue toward integrating financial technologies into public policy.

Before joining the Central Bank, Fidan worked at PASHA Bank, where she was responsible for managing partnerships and overseeing innovative projects. During this time, she contributed to strengthening cooperation between the financial sector and technology companies, and integrating digital solutions into banking services.

A significant milestone in Fidan’s career was her role at Azercell Telecom, where she worked at the Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. She led one of the first initiatives supporting the development of the startup ecosystem in Azerbaijan, focusing on promoting innovative ideas, advancing technological entrepreneurship, and supporting young startup founders.

He has been working at NBA Technologies International LLC for 10 years.

Elchin Mammadov started his professional career in 2010 at the State Committee for Securities of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and later occupied several roles at the central securities depository and investment firms, gaining extensive experience in various areas of the capital market. Currently he is the Head of the Business Development Department at ABB-Invest Investment Company CJSC, one of the leading investment companies in the country. In this position, he is responsible for the Company's strategic planning, marketing of investment services, application of technologies and investment portfolio management. He studied at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the Azerbaijan State University of Economics in 2004-2008 and received his bachelor’s degree. In 2013, he decided to continue his studies at Yonsei University, the leading private university of South Korea. He received master’s degree in International Trade and Finance from Yonsei University in 2015.

Akif Baghirov is Councelor to Governor at Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan with over 15 years of experience in technology and more than 8 years specializing in Information and Cybersecurity area in the banking industry. Providing strategic direction on regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, and the design of security programs that are both effective and practical within a dynamic financial environment.

During 2021-2023, he worked as the Head of the Information Security Services Division of the Security Block of PASHA Bank OJSC and spearheaded on aligning with international frameworks such as PCI DSS, NIST, and CIS.

Javid Isaev heads the Savings Center at JSC Bank CenterCredit — a strategic division responsible for the development and scaling of savings and investment solutions for retail clients. He oversees six key business areas and four matrix IT teams that handle the development and maintenance of digital products.

Under his leadership, the bank is implementing projects in the areas of deposits and current accounts, investment products (including mutual funds, bonds, and stocks through the bank’s mobile platform), foreign exchange and precious metals operations, Private Banking, Islamic banking, as well as centralized sales and bundled offerings.

Previously, Javid led the investment business at Bank CenterCredit, where he successfully launched major retail offerings: the IPO of KazMunayGas, the SPO of KEGOC, and the IPO of Air Astana — all through the bank’s mobile app.

His expertise includes digital transformation, building efficient online sales channels, and strengthening synergy within the financial group. Javid Isaev possesses deep knowledge of financial markets, customer service, and technology, and plays a key role in the transformation of Kazakhstan’s banking sector.