Dr. Roman Vakulchuk is Co-Founder and Country Director for Kazakhstan at the Central Asian Development Institute, and a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo. His research interests include economic transition and regional integration, trade, infrastructure and transport, energy policy, investment climate and business culture, climate change and emerging markets. He is an author of numerous articles and a book, Kazakhstan’s Emerging Economy: Between State and Market (2014). In 2013, Dr. Vakulchuk won the prestigious Gabriel-Al Salem International Award for Excellence in Consulting in the category, “Consulting without Borders, for his contribution to the establishment of the Consortium of Consulting and Research Organizations of Kazakhstan. Dr. Vakulchuk holds a PhD in Economics from Jacobs University Bremen (2013), a MA in Peace and Security Studies from the University Hamburg in Germany (2009), an MA in International Relations from Bremen University/Jacobs University Bremen in Germany (2008) and a BA in International Relations from Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University in Bishkek (2005).