Talant Sultanov

Talant Sultanov is the Chair and Co-Founder of the Kyrgyz Internet Society. Talant’s experience includes ‎the work at the World Bank as the Digital Development Specialist. He has served in the Kyrgyz Government ‎as the Adviser to the Prime Minister in charge of the Taza Koom Digital Transformation Strategy and as the ‎Director of Government Think Tank NISI. Previous he has worked as the CFO of the American University in ‎Bishkek and as the Scholarship Coordinator at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. 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.‎

At the Internet Society-Kyrgyz Chapter Talant promotes Internet connectivity and digital development. ‎Some of the projects include building community internet networks in rural areas and establishing the ‎Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in the Fergana Valley to lower the Internet prices, while improving the speed ‎and the quality for the people in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Another project is the ilimBox ‎‎(Knowledge-in-a-Box), which brings educational content in local languages to unconnected rural schools ‎and libraries. The Ilimbox was listed among seven worldwide digital education initiatives by Thomson ‎Reuters Foundation. This initiative has grown into an online educational platform IlimBox.kg. Finally, ‎Talant and his teammates are working on activities related to digital skills, personal data protection, and ‎cybersecurity.‎

Talant holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University (2006) and a Bachelor’s degree (Summa Cum ‎Laude) from San Francisco State University (1999). He has also received executive education at the ‎Harvard Kennedy School and NESA (2016).‎