Ms Shayakhmetova was appointed as Chairperson of the Management Board in January 2009. Since November 2004 Ms Shayakhmetova has been a Deputy Chairman of Halyk Bank. From 1997, she worked at ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan where she held a number of positions in structured finance before becoming Chairperson of the Management Board of ABN AMRO Asset Management in 1998 and, in 2000, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan. Ms Shayakhmetova is a graduate in economics of the University of People’s Friendship, Moscow, and holds an MBA from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.