Burak Cerrahoglu is Vice President and responsible for new rating relationships in CIS region and Turkiye.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Burak was Operations/Risk Manager with European Housing Finance EHF, which is a mortgage finance company based in Istanbul and specializing in the secondary mortgage market in Turkey. Burak was previously with the Mortgage Acceptance Corp. in the U.S., while structuring MBS and mortgage whole loan sales.

Burak holds M.S. in Finance from Boston College and B.S. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Alma brings over 15 years of experience in corporate and investment banking as well as capital markets, having held senior roles at both international and regional financial institutions. Her deep understanding of the Central Asian financial landscape and her track record in building client relationships and navigating complex regulatory environments make her a fantastic fit for this role.

Young Kim is an AVP-analyst in Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, based in Singapore. He is a lead analyst, covering sovereign portfolios and multilateral development banks in the Asia Pacific and CIS region, including the Philippines, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, and other credits as well as institutions such as AIIB.

Previously, Young worked in Moody’s Financial Institutions Group, covering portfolios of nonbank financial institutions such as insurance, securities, and government-related entities in Korea and Hong Kong SAR. He also contributed to Moody’s ESG and sustainable finance team.

Before joining Moody’s, Young was a research officer at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., focusing on country risk and public finance in the Fiscal Affairs Department.

Young holds a master’s degree in international relations and international economics from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies.

Jasur Karshibaev is Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan. Prior to that he was the Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan during 2023-2024.

Moreover, he worked as a financial sector expert at MCM (DM) department of IMF in 2022-2023 and Head of Debt Management Office of Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan in 2019-2022.

Before joining the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Jasur worked at the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and academia during 2016-2018.

Jasur Karshibaev was awarded a P.h.D. degree in Economics from the Kyushu University (Japan) in 2015.

Lev is an Assistant Vice President – Analyst at Moody’s Dubai office (UAE), covering financial institutions including Insurance companies and banks in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Prior to joining Dubai office in 2022, he worked for Moody’s Financial Institutions Group in Moscow, Russia and for Moody’s Credit Policy research group in New York. Lev holds an MBA in finance from Zicklyn School of Business (New York), and BBA degree in finance from Baruch College CUNY (New York).

Ekaterina Lipatova is a Vice President – Senior Analyst at Moody’s, based in Dubai. She is responsible for ratings of corporate issuers in various sectors in CIS including oil&gas, infrastructure, consumer products, and others.

Ekaterina joined Moody’s in 2008 after working for VTB for 5 years, in Moscow, specialising in corporate lending and later in trade finance transactions. Ekaterina holds two Master degrees in Finance from the State Academy of Finance in Moscow and SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan.

Ulugbek Tavakkalov was born in 1978. In 2013, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Tashkent Financial Institute, and in 2016 he obtained a master's degree in Banking from the Tashkent State University of Economics. He started his career in the banking sector in 2003. He joined Kapitalbank JSCB at the end of 2024, and in February 2025, he took the position of Deputy Chairman of the Management Board.

Stanislav rejoined Moody’s in November 2012 and has since been working in EMEA structured finance group. Since 2019 he is in covered bond team responsible for covered bond programmes in Germany, Austria and CEE markets.

Prior to joining covered bond team, he was responsible for analyzing and rating RMBS and ABS transactions with focus on CIS and Dutch RMBS markets. Stanislav had already been on Moody’s Frankfurt RMBS team from February 2007 to September 2010.

Earlier in his career, from 2004 to 2007, Stanislav worked as Audit Senior at KPMG in Frankfurt. From October 2010 to October 2012, he worked as Business Advisor at BearingPoint GmbH, in the department Banking Operations and Applications.

Stanislav holds BSc degree in business administration from the Siberian State Aerospace University (Russia), Master degree in international economic relations and PhD in political economy from the University of Konstanz (Germany). He is trilingual, fluently speaking English, German and Russian.

Lev is an Assistant Vice President – Analyst at Moody’s Dubai office (UAE), covering financial institutions including Insurance companies and banks in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Prior to joining Dubai office in 2022, he worked for Moody’s Financial Institutions Group in Moscow, Russia and for Moody’s Credit Policy research group in New York. Lev holds an MBA in finance from Zicklyn School of Business (New York), and BBA degree in finance from Baruch College CUNY (New York).

Burak Cerrahoglu is Vice President and responsible for new rating relationships in CIS region and Turkiye.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Burak was Operations/Risk Manager with European Housing Finance EHF, which is a mortgage finance company based in Istanbul and specializing in the secondary mortgage market in Turkey. Burak was previously with the Mortgage Acceptance Corp. in the U.S., while structuring MBS and mortgage whole loan sales.

Burak holds M.S. in Finance from Boston College and B.S. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Alma brings over 15 years of experience in corporate and investment banking as well as capital markets, having held senior roles at both international and regional financial institutions. Her deep understanding of the Central Asian financial landscape and her track record in building client relationships and navigating complex regulatory environments make her a fantastic fit for this role.