Talant Sultanov is the Policy Advocacy Advisor at the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP) for the Women in Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF) and the Co-Founder of the Internet Society Kyrgyz Chapter (ISOC.KG). Talant’s experience includes working in international organizations such as the World Bank as a Digital Development Specialist and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as the Asia Regional Coordinator. He has served in the Kyrgyz Government as the Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister and as the Director of the Government Think Tank NISI.
Previously he has worked in academia as the CFO of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek and as the Scholarship Coordinator at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, and in the private sector at Kazkommertsbank in Almaty. Additionally, he served on boards of the Kyrgyz National TV and Radio Corporation, the Business Council of the Kyrgyz Parliament, the Bank of Asia, and Humo Microcredit Foundation in Tajikistan.
Talant holds a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (2006) and a Bachelor’s degree (Summa Cum Laude) in International Relations from San Francisco State University (1999). He has also received executive education at the Harvard Kennedy School, NESA Center for Strategic Studies (2016), and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Executive Education in Technology Policy (CEE-TP).
Talant’s interests include digital development and inclusion, internet connectivity for unconnected locations, digital skills for rural communities, cybersecurity for citizens, and the application of ICT technologies for climate monitoring and disaster risk management.