Taleh Kazimov

Taleh Kazimov (Taleh Kazımov, born September 11, 1983, Baku) Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Life
Taleh Kazimov was born on September 11, 1983, in Baku, Azerbaijan. He studied at the Azerbaijan Technical University during 2000-2004 and received higher education with Bachelor Degree in Automation and Computer engineering. In 2004-2006 he received an MBA degree within the joint program of Georgia State University and Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. In addition, Kazimov successfully graduated from the London Business School, UK (Executive Education Program in Business Administration) in 2012 and the Harvard University, USA (Executive Education Program in Business Administration) in 2014.

Professional career
Taleh Kazimov started his professional career during his studies and worked as an office assistant and information technology operator at ATTAS PR and European Tobacco.

His professional activity in the financial sector started in 2004. Thus, in 2004-2006, Taleh Kazimov held various positions in Bank Standard CJSC, he worked as a specialist in the Treasury and Funds division of the Finance and Accounting Department, Management and Budget Planning division of the Financial Control Department. Later he worked as a leading specialist in the Corporate Customer Lending division of the Loan Policy Department.

From 2006 to 2007, Taleh Kazimov held the position of an auditor at Ernst & Young. From January 2007 to July 2007, he worked as the General Director of Fineko Analytics and Information Agency OJSC.

PASHA Bank
Taleh Kazimov started working for PASHA Bank in July 2007. At that time, he worked as a manager of the Risk Management Department, and in 2009 he held the position of the Treasury and Money Market Department director.

On December 7, 2011, Taleh Kazimov was elected a Board member of PASHA Bank. He oversaw corporate and business banking, investment block, trade finance, financial institutions, and loan management.

From 2015 to 2022 Taleh Kazimov was appointed Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of PASHA Bank.

Under the leadership of Taleh Kazimov the PASHA Bank was awarded with the following prizes: ‘The best bank of Azerbaijan’, ‘The best bank group’, ‘The best commercial bank’, ‘Corporate social responsibility for Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS countries’, ‘Azerbaijan's best investment bank’, ‘Leading bank in contactless POS terminal infrastructure’, ‘Best private banking’ and ‘Azerbaijan's best commercial bank’.

During 2015–2022, positive changes were observed in a number of PASHA Bank's indicators:
 * The bank increased its portfolio by 281% (3.8 times), bringing the total market share to 13.9% and the market share of the corporate business portfolio to 22%.
 * The interest rate on the non-performing portfolio decreased several times from 16% to 2.1% (down by 1.8 times compared with the NPL ratio in 2022).
 * Return on equity increased from -0.3% to 11.52%.
 * The bank's net income was AZN 552 million (up by 6.8 times compared with the indicator from the date of the bank's establishment until 2015).
 * Operating expenses accounted for only 37.9% of total operating income (45.7% in 2014);
 * Despite a 2.6-fold increase in the number of employees, the marginal rate of return on employment was reduced from 1.5% to 0.7%.
 * Most of customer payments turnover went through digital channels – in 2022 digital payments reached 99.9% on SME banking and 99.7% on Corporate Banking.

Central Bank of Azerbaijan
On April 11, 2022, Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship considered the issue of electing Taleh Kazimov as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the recommendation of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The presentation of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was approved by voting at the plenary session held on April 12, 2022, and Taleh Kazimov was elected a member of the Board of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On April 13, 2022, by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Taleh Kazimov was appointed the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Memberships

 * 2015 – 2018 member of the Supervisory Board of PASHA Bank Georgia OJSC.
 * 2015–2019 member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AMCHAM).
 * 2015–2019 member of the Board of Directors of PASHA Investment Bank (Turkey).
 * Since 2019 Taleh Kazimov is a member of the Board of Directors of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC).
 * Since April 13 2022 member of the Supervisory Board of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan.Members of the Supervisory Board of SOFAZ

Awards and recognition
In 2019, Taleh Kazimov was awarded by EMEA Finance and recognized as a 'Best CEO' for Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries.