Rauan Kenzhekhanuly

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Rauan, and not as Kenzhekhanuly.

Rauan Kenjehanūly
Рауан Кенжеханұлы
Rauan in 2024
Born (1979-05-01) 1 May 1979
East Kazakhstan Region, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
Education
Occupations
  • Wikipedia editor
  • politician
Known forFounder of WikiBilim
Political partyNur Otan
AwardsWikipedian of the Year (2011)

Rauan Kenjehanūly[a] (Kazakh: Рауан Кенжеханұлы, pronounced [ɾɑwˈɑn kenʑeχɑnʊˈlə]; born 1 May 1979) is a Kazakh entrepreneur and NGO activist who was named the first Wikipedian of the Year in August 2011 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania.[1]

Career

Rauan Kenzhekhanuly was born on 1 May 1979 in the East Kazakhstan Region, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union. In 2001, he graduated from Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University with a bachelor's degree in international affairs.

In 2005–2006, he worked as a Press secretary and Head of the Department of Cultural and Humanitarian Cooperation of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation.[2]

During his university years, he served as the Program Coordinator for National Debate Center Public Foundation and chief-editor of the Youth TV program "Azamat" on the Kazakh national TV channel Khabar. After he joined Khabar, he became the economic observer and National TV Agency's Moscow bureau chief in Russian Federation.[3]

In 2010, he traveled to the United States to complete a one-year fellowship at Harvard University, where, that fall, he first became interested in editing Wikipedia upon taking the class "Media, Politics, and Power in the Digital Age".[4] That same year, he was named one of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs's fellows for 2010–2011.[5]

For his efforts in the development of Kazakh Wikipedia, Rauan received the title Wikipedian of the Year in August 2011. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales was criticized by fellow Wikipedians because of Rauan's ties to the government of Kazakhstan. Wales stated on Reddit in 2015 that he'd been unaware of Rauan's prior positions in the Kazakh government and said that if he had known Rauan was going to go on to become deputy governor of Kyzylorda Region, he would have "refused to give that award".[6]

He later founded the nonprofit organization WikiBilim, which aims to expand the availability of free Kazakh-language information on the Internet.[4] In 2014, he was named deputy governor of the Kyzylorda Region.,[7][8]

He also served as the founding director of the Eurasian Council on Foreign Affairs, which was formally established on 12 November 2014[9] with a grant from the Kazakh government.[10]

Since the 2016 he is acting as the CEO of Bilim Media Group (EdTech). In October 2024, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly was ranked 50th in the “50 Most Influential Business Leaders of Kazakhstan — 2024” list published by Forbes Kazakhstan. He was recognized in the EdTech sector.[11]

Public activities

In 2017, he was appointed as the chief of commission for the national project "translating 100 textbooks for HE to Kazakh language" and the head of National Bureau of Translation.[12]

Under the National Bureau of Translation Kazakh literature by more than 60 authors was translated into English, including two anthologies presenting Kazakhstan’s literary and cultural heritage, published for the first time in the United Kingdom and distributed in over 90 countries worldwide in partnership with Cambridge University Press.[13]

In August 2023, he was elected President of one of the oldest non-profit organizations in Kazakhstan — the International Kazakh Language Society.[14]

On 19 December 2023, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly presented the first Kazakh–English and English–Kazakh Oxford Qazaq Dictionary developed by the Qazaq Tili International Society in cooperation with Oxford University Press. The publication of the Oxford Qazaq Dictionary marked the inclusion of the Kazakh language as the 60th language represented within the Oxford Global Languages series of Oxford dictionaries.[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Often transliterated as Rauan Kenzhekhanuly through a Russified Romanization of Рауан Кенжеханулы.

References

  1. ^ Williams, Christopher (24 December 2012). "Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales restricts discussion of Tony Blair friendship". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  2. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauan-kenzhekhanuly-b168b724/html
  3. ^ "About us". WikiBilim. Retrieved 13 June 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ^ a b Davis, LiAnna (22 August 2012). "First Ever "Wikipedian of the Year" Motivated by HKS Course". Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Retrieved 24 June 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  5. ^ "Weatherhead Center welcomes 2010-11 fellows". Harvard Gazette. 16 September 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  6. ^ Michel, Casey G. (2 April 2015). "Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine". EURASIANET.org. Archived from the original on 1 November 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  7. ^ Michel, Casey (2 April 2015). "Wikipedia Founder Distances Himself from Kazakhstan PR Machine". EurasiaNet. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  8. ^ Julie, Zauzmer (4 October 2012). "10 Questions with Rauan Kenzhekhanuly". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 22 February 2026.
  9. ^ "About". Eurasian Council on Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  10. ^ Green, Chris (19 February 2015). "Jack Straw criticised for accepting part-time job paid for by Kazakhstan". The Independent. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  11. ^ "50 самых влиятельных бизнесменов Казахстана". Forbes Kazakhstan. 19 October 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2026.
  12. ^ "New humanitarian knowledge in light of Fourth Industrial Revolution". The Astana Times. 27 February 2018.
  13. ^ "Kazakh literature from over 60 authors translated into the English language". Cambridge University Press. 3 October 2019.
  14. ^ Mokhinur Sultanova (13 October 2023). "President of Kazakhstan meets 'Kazak Tili' society to advance nation's language policy". daryo.uz. Retrieved 21 February 2026.
  15. ^ "First Oxford Kazakh-English Dictionary Unveiled at Nazarbayev University". The Astana Times. 20 December 2023.
  • Media related to Rauan Kenzhekhanuly at Wikimedia Commons
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.