Chief Information Officer: Consensus & Continuity

December 23, 2014

If you are walking through the administrative offices here at the American University of Central Asia, you might be surprised to find a new nameplate. Where the Development Office used to be, is now the home of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dr. Karim Zerhouni. With experience in top multi-national firms and an extensive educational background he brings professional experience and aptitude, necessary because the office has a “nose and a foot everywhere,” (but is not nosy) in the words of Dr. Zerhouni, and he cannot do it alone. With three assistants: Aizharkyn Burkanova, Altynai Maganbetova, and Nathan Wilder, the vast breadth of work that is under the umbrella of the CIO can be accomplished.

Chief Information Officer can sound like a vague position, so what just is he responsible for? “The information office deals with how we process, manage, store, and exploit information. Because every service is based on information…[we] have a foot everywhere,” explained Dr. Zerhouni. The office works directly with President Andrew Wachtel on his own ideas, creates a flexible learning system, and energizes the business transformation of AUCA among other directives. The ultimate goal is to create an accessible virtual AUCA, and “each time I can add one little virtual brick to that house, I do it,” he added.

So just what are those bricks? Go to https://www.auca.kg/en/auca_news/1766/ for more information, but their work has been expansive: a new Wi-Max policy which will bring free Wi-Fi to AUCA community members with an active log-in profile throughout nearly the entirety of Bishkek, a universal ID card system, and a bring-your-own-device policy that includes a $300USD subsidy plan for students who meet certain requirements. There is too much to include about each of these and the vast amount of other projects that the Information Office is working on (which also includes a stated goal of 4 published papers annually, one of which has already been checked off as Dr. Zerhouni presented on the paper during a recent conference in Oman), so we talked to Dr. Zerhouni and his assistants about their work and a little about themselves. In our interview with Dr. Zerhouni, he told us that all of his assistants had a personal drive and if they were “dropped into Zimbabwe or Timbuktu,” he would hear about their successes after a few months.

Aizharkyn is the special assistant regarding business for the CIO. This includes working on logistics and developing business relationships and growth. For example, she calculated all of the numbers necessary for the universal ID card proposal, which she actually worked on while a senior at AUCA and taking a Management Consulting course, taught by Dr. Zerhouni. If you frequent the third floor at AUCA or the library, you will have also seen Zebra Coffee, of which she is the co-owner. “Partly coincidence” is how she became co-owner, “I went on exchange and traveled to Italy, and was inspired by Italian coffee shops,” she added on how the process came about. Look for more locations soon!

Altynai is the special assistant of management within the office. What this entails is mainly working with people, for example she leads trainings of AdobeConnect (an online course delivery system). Her previous work was in the banking sector; despite receiving her B.A. in Psychology from AUCA although she went on to complete her MBA also here at AUCA. When asked why she wanted to stay here to work, “Karim invited me to work here, and why not? It’s a good place,” she replied.

Nathan is the special assistant of technology, and although he has been busy with consulting calls and traveling, Dr. Zerhouni told us that he was absolutely integral to the mission of the office. With over 10 year of experience of information technology in the United States and Asia, he has worked on IT systems and infrastructure for both small groups and group as large as 40,000.

One of the skills that the CIO told us about was most important in a career in management or indeed any profession, was the ability to put together a capable team to work with. And Dr. Zerhouni has done exactly that, with brainstorming sessions among his assistants as well as Ekaterina Kombarova, Director of the IT Department, and decisions only being reached with a complete consensus. Such a collaborative environment requires strong and capable leadership, which Dr. Zerhouni amply provides.

We talked with Dr. Zerhouni about his work, his colleagues, his background, and more. Please visit his spotlight at https://auca.kg/en/p23253591/ to find out about French proverbs, private runways, Game of Thrones, and his own three pieces of personal advice on success.

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