A Kazakh citizen is an example of how someone can succeed with hard work and determination. 37-year-old Timur Turlov is an entrepreneur who founded Freedom Holding Corp., a financial services company that has grown into a multinational enterprise. Born in Moscow, Russia, Turlov developed an early interest in finance, monitoring stock data from his personal computer while in high school.
In 2003, while attending university, he joined World Capital Investments (WCI), an American investment company, as a junior trader, managing securities portfolios with varying risk-to-yield ratios. After earning a degree in economics, Turlov worked in the brokerage division of Uniastrum Bank, where he helped develop trading infrastructure for American stock exchanges.
Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Turlov and his colleagues at the bank’s trading division lost their jobs. Later that year, he founded his own financial firm with six former colleagues, pooling together $100,000 to launch the venture that would later become Freedom Holding Corp.
By 2012, Turlov moved the company to Kazakhstan. In 2019, he consolidated his businesses under the Freedom Holding Corp. brand and took the company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol FRHC. Since then, the company’s value has increased fivefold. Freedom Holding now provides brokerage, banking, and insurance services to over five million customers in Kazakhstan and has expanded its operations to new markets, including Europe, where it serves more than 250,000 customers across 12 countries.
With an estimated net worth of $6.1 billion, Turlov is among the world’s wealthiest individuals. In addition to his business ventures, he is actively involved in social and community initiatives. In 2023, he became president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, promoting chess education in public schools. He also co-founded the QJ League, a youth football league aimed at expanding access to soccer resources across Kazakhstan.
Turlov launched Qalam, a multimedia project dedicated to highlighting the history and contributions of Kazakh and Central Asian cultures. Under his leadership, Freedom Holding Corp. supports environmental initiatives, including the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. He is also a columnist for Forbes’ American edition.