Assel Zhanassova, born in 1987 in Almaty, graduated from Zhautykov National physics and mathematics school in 2005. In 2006 she became Bolashak presidential scholarship and has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer science from Cambridge University.
She began her career in 2010 at Eurasian Natural Resources Group in London. Within 5 years she led a Cybersecurity team in the Group covering Brazil, African, Europe and Kazakhstan operations.
In 2014 she moved back to Kazakhstan as a Deputy Director of IT Department at National Bank of Kazakhstan as a lead for Financial Technology Strategy and reforms. In 2016 she was appointed as a CEO of Government digital Transformation company – National IT Holding Zerde. Within a year she developed a Digital Kazakhstan 2020 program. In 2018 Assel was invited to build a Central Asian Fintech Hub in Astana International Financial Center. Since 2020 Assel is working as a Vice Ministry of Trade and Integration covering Digital Trade direction. In 2019 she was awarded a global nomination “Woman in Fintech Powerlist 2019” by Innovate Finance.