Alidar Utemuratov: My Father Gave Me and My Brother Good Upbringing and Formed Proper Attitude to Money

Last year, Bulat Utemuratov, one of the most influential businessmen in Kazakhstan according to Forbes, celebrated his 60th anniversary. However, in his country the entrepreneur is known not only as one of the richest people, diplomat, politician and philanthropist, but also as a family man. He has been married to his wife Azhar for over 40 years and raised three children, and now he has been taking part in the upbringing of his three granddaughters.

The eldest son of Bulat Utemuratov, 39 year old Alidar, has a degree in Oriental Studies upon the completion of Beijing Language and Culture University in 1998. Simultaneously, he studied Macroeconomics in the London School of Economics and graduated from European Business School in 1999. Then Alidar continued to study economics and politics at the University of Loughborough (graduated in 2002), and in 2006 went to the US to further develop his professional skills.

While studying, Alidar Utemuratov got seed money from his father and created a company that was an exclusive distributor of Thuraya satellite communications. He channeled the revenues raised to starting several other telecommunications projects, which also turned out to be successful. However, upon the graduation from the University of Loughborough, Alidar chose working in the corporate sector, starting his career as a specialist in Kazakhtelecom JSC and eventually taking up the position of vice-president.

Upon his return from the US, Alidar Utemuratov took command of the Vasilkovsky ore mining and processing enterprise and managed to make it the best gold mining enterprise in the country through the introduction of innovative processing Vasilkovsky ore technology. Despite the success achieved, Alidar Utemuratov left the position in 2012, and a year later he created his own business, establishing the Green Apple investment company. The income received from his telecommunications projects Alidar invested in retail, telecom, start-ups and everything related to the introduction of innovative technology. The launch of his own IT project under the brand DAR flew organically from this business a few years later.

Today, similar to his father, Alidar Utemuratov is a successful businessman, a happy husband and father of three daughters, as well as a philanthropist, participating in projects of a non-governmental foundation aimed to reduce the number of orphans in Kazakhstan. He also takes talented students from Kazakhstan universities under the wing of his company and helps develop hand-to-hand combat sports in the country, among other projects.