Sport and business have a long history together, whether that’s quite directly related to the business of sports, like broadcasting rights and sponsorships, to businessmen taking their career winnings and buying their favourite local soccer club, or to retired athletes like David Beckham monetising their careers and profiles.
There’s another way that I have found sport and business to be intertwined and that’s the lessons that participating in sports teaches, that have applications in a person’s career. I wrote more about this in Finance Digest - check out the full article for more.
25 February saw the 2024 Winter Run in Almaty, Kazakhstan take place. It’s organised by the Almaty Marathon, which I co-founded in 2012, and has become the traditional season opener for the Central Asian running season. The Winter Run caters for all abilities from kids and beginners to national champion level racers, with a kids race, a Nordic walk and a 10km run. You can read about 2024’s edition here.
In December 2023, PwC Kazakhstan commended Jusan Bank as the top-ranking financial services company in Kazakhstan for ESG disclosures in 2023, and the 13th overall company in Kazakhstan. We have focused on reducing our own emissions as well as reducing our portfolio exposure to high-emission enterprises.
There’s an increasing focus on ESG and sustainable business in Kazakhstan and I’m proud that Jusan Bank is helping drive the agenda in the financial services sector.
We’ll shortly be adopting a 2024 climate strategy, which I’ll share more details on in due course.
In the meantime, you can download and read Jusan Bank’s latest Sustainability Report here.
2023 marked a decade since we set up the Shakhmardan Yessenov Science and Education Foundation to develop Kazakhstan’s intellectual potential. It’s a milestone I’m hugely proud to have reached, during which time the Foundation helped more than 27,000 young Kazakh scientists through over 50 projects.
Particular highlights have been our Scientific Internships program, in which we sponsor and support Kazakh scientists to undertake research and internships in some of the world’s leading scientific research institutes, including in the USA, and our successful English language programs.
Foundation Executive Director Aiganym Malisheva and I sat down with our colleagues from the Foundation for a conversation about the decade we’ve had, and our priorities looking to the future, which you can read here.