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Ilesanmi Adesida

Ilesanmi Adesida

Acting President, Provost

Professor Ilesanmi Adesida is a successful scientist and administrator in both scientific and educational circles. Prior to his appointment at Nazarbayev University, Professor Adesida served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Argin Kipshakov

Argin Kipshakov

Executive Vice President

Argin Kipshakov graduated from Moscow Machine Tool Institute and from the Institute of Market at Kazakh State Academy of Management. From 2008 to 2014, he held the position Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee of the Ministry of Finance, from 2015 to 2018 – Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance.
Kadisha Dairova

Kadisha Dairova

Vice President for Student Affairs and International Cooperation

Mrs. Dairova graduated from Almaty State Teachers’ Institute of Foreign Languages. She holds a degree of Candidate of Philological Sciences from Moscow Teachers’ Institute of Foreign Languages. Earlier, she worked as the Third Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA; and the Second Secretary of the Department of American, and European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Massimo Pignatelli

Massimo Pignatelli

Vice President for Medicine – Dean of School of Medicine

Dr. Massimo Pignatelli, MD, Ph.D., a distinguished pathologist and biomedical scientist, prior to his appointment held the position of the Dean of Nazarbayev University School of Medicine (NUSOM), which was formally established in January 2014. Before coming to NUSOM in November 2013, Dr. Pignatelli was at the University of Glasgow School of Medicine, where he served as international lead in the College of Medical, Veterinary, and Life Sciences and head of the School of Medicine, which includes the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing and Health Care. He also held the St. Mungo-Notman Chair as head of pathology. Dr. Pignatelli joined the University of Glasgow in 2011 following an academic career at Imperial College, London as senior lecturer/reader in pathology and at the University of Bristol, where he was professor of histopathology and head of clinical sciences. Dr. Pignatelli earned his MD summa cum laude from the University of Bologna, Italy, and his PhD from University College, London. He is a noted and well-published physician-scientist whose research focuses on epithelial adhesion molecules and particularly on their exploitation as biomarkers for tissue diagnosis, prognosis, and response to treatment.
Loretta O’Donnell

Loretta O’Donnell

Vice Provost, Academic Affairs

Dr. Loretta O’Donnell was appointed in 2013 as the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. She also served as Interim Provost in 2016. As the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Dr. O’Donnell coordinates with Deans to develop international quality academic systems for educational programs. She liaises with Nazarbayev University strategic partners, including Duke, National University of Singapore and University of Wisconsin-Madison to implement the academic mission of the University and to share NU experiences with local and regional universities. Dr. O’Donnell is the co-founder and co-chair of the NU/KAZGUU Annual International Academic Integrity Conference. She presents on Eurasian higher education themes at international conferences including: ASEF (Asian European Foundation) Rectors’ Conference; Eurasian Higher Education Leaders’ Forum; Times Higher Education Asian Universities Summit and University Alliance of the Silk Road and the NU Annual Gender Forum. She has over twenty years of experience in teaching Executive MBA, postgraduate and undergraduate business students in the Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales (UNSW) located in Sydney, Australia. As an elected faculty member of the UNSW Academic Board, and as Associate Dean Education, she combined academic policy development and implementation with her teaching, learning and research interests. She was Program Director for the UNSW AGSM Graduate Certificate in Change Management and for the Masters of Commerce program. Dr. O’Donnell has won awards for her teaching and for research on human capital analysis in financial markets. Previously, she consulted in organizational change for a large global firm in Sydney and Chicago, and in a boutique firm specializing in developing management systems to sustain change. Her academic qualifications include PhD in Management (Macquarie Graduate School of Management); MBA (AGSM, UNSW), Graduate Diploma in Education and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (N’cle).
Vassilios Tourassis

Vassilios Tourassis

Vice Provost for Industry Engagement and Dean of the School of Engineering and Digital Sciences

Professor Tourassis is an international higher education administrator and transformational leader with diverse experience in multi-cultural environments, in building academic programs and in enabling organizations to transition to the next level. He has been with Nazarbayev University, serving continuously in various capacities, since 2012. He has been awarded a Presidential Letter of Gratitude from the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for “personal contributions to the development of higher education” in the country. His international career spans a range of institutions and roles. He was previously a Research Fellow at Carnegie-Mellon’s Robotics Institute, a tenured Professor at the University of Rochester in New York and the Vice Rector for Finance, Research and Development at Democritus University in Greece. He holds an MSc and a PhD degree from Carnegie-Mellon University. Professor Tourassis has served in the past as an invited expert of the Council of Europe and of the Asia-Europe Foundation’s Education Hub; as a Governing Board Member of the OECD Program on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE); and as a Senior Program Evaluator for the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency. He currently serves as the only foreign Governing Board Member of the national Science Fund of Kazakhstan.
Chester Jablonski

Chester Jablonski

Associate Provost for Graduate Studies

Dr. Chester Jablonski is an experienced academic administrator in graduate education. He was appointed as Dean of Graduate Studies at Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland Canada in 1997, Dean of Graduate Studies at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates in 2008 and Associate Provost Graduate Studies at Nazarbayev University in 2018. He has chaired the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Postgraduate Scholarship Committee for Physical Sciences, served on the executive of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies. CAGS and the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) and is professionally recognized as a fellow of the Canadian Chemistry Society for his research in transition metal chiral catalysis. As Nazarbayev University Associate Provost of Graduate Studies Dr. Jablonski oversees academic and administrative support for all NU masters and doctoral students as well as post-doctoral scholars.
Luis Ramon Rojas-Solorzano

Luis Ramon Rojas-Solorzano

Associate Provost for Graduate Studies

Doctor Luis Ramon Rojas-Solórzano is a visionary, strategic and proactive academic leader who has built a successful career in higher education for more than 30 years. He got his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1997 at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Chris Handley

Chris Handley

Chief Information Officer

Chris Handley is the first Chief Information Officer of Nazarbayev University, a position he has held since October 2018. Chris is leading the digital transformation at the University by developing an IT Strategy that supports NU’s strategic goals and objectives, and also selecting an enabling technology platform for NU. Prior to joining Nazarbayev University, Chris was the first CIO at Aga Khan University and Hospitals managing IT in 6 countries across Asia, Africa and the UK for seven years. Included in his experience are IT leadership positions either both in full time or interim roles at the University of Toronto, Stanford University, the Hewlett Foundation, Washington State Community and Technical College System, Best Doctors Inc., and as a high level consultant for Coopers and Lybrand, PriceWaterhousecoopers, Information Methodologies, and the Exeter Group. As a volunteer Chris was a Board member of Women’s College Hospital for 10 years resigning as Vice-Chair and Academics Without Borders Canada for 10 years.

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