Samruk-Kazyna to replace 30% of its managing directors

Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund may replace one third of its managing directors, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the Fund’s chairman Umirzak Shukeyev. “There are several new initiatives, including evaluation of qualification of our managing directors of departments and our managers. We understand that we need major staff reforms. The first evaluation has shown that qualifying of about 30 percent of our managers may be a problem. In this relations our consultants have asked us if we were ready for the changes. I would like to say that we are absolutely ready,” Shukeyev said at the meeting with independent directors of the Fund’s major companies. He said that the fund was attracting foreign professionals to deal with certain task and solve problems. “We are recruiting foreign experts. They will be involved in problem solving and development of directions that are significant for our company. These experts will have to play a role in implementation of the important initiatives, be vested with sufficient authorities, pass their knowledge, experience and business traditions to local employees and establish an efficient system staffed with trained people,” Shukeyev said. Managing Director of Samruk-Kazyna Peter Howes said that revamping top management was a modern approach, but continued that the reshuffles would not necessarily take place in Samruk-Kazyna. “We understand that it is necessary to change the management and the approach to become more advanced. We are result-oriented, that’s why we have to do everything to be more efficient. The top management may change, or it may not. We have hired several highly-qualified people, including risks managers for the whole group and personnel policies managers. Now it is a matter of time. I think it will take several months,” Howes said. By Baubek Konyrov