Talant Sultanov is the Chair and Co-Founder of the Internet Society Kyrgyz Chapter (ISOC.KG). He is a three-term member of the UN Secretary General’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group for Internet Governance (UN IGF MAG). Talant's experience includes working in international organizations such as the World Bank as a Digital Development Specialist and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as the Asia Regional Coordinator. 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 the Government Think Tank NISI. Previously, he has worked in academia as the CFO of the American University in Bishkek as the Scholarship Coordinator at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, and in the private sector at Kazkommertsbank in Almaty. 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.
Under Talant's leadership, ISOC.KG team promotes Internet connectivity and digital transformation in developing countries. He has connected the most remote communities of Central Asia to the Internet, including villages such as Suusamyr and Zardaly. Some of the projects include the "Sanarip Insan" digital skills project for women and youth in rural areas funded by the EU and the "ilimBox" project (Knowledge-in-a-Box), which brings educational content in local languages to unconnected rural schools and libraries. Thomson Reuters Foundation listed the ilimbox among seven worldwide digital education initiatives. This initiative has grown into an online educational platform, ilimBox.kg. Additionally, Talant and Internet Society teammates are working on activities related to ICTs for disaster resilience, Internet Exchange Point for Fergana Valley (FVIXP), personal data protection, and cybersecurity.
Talant holds a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (2006) and a Bachelor's degree (Summa Cum Laude) in International Relations from San Francisco State University (1999). He has also received executive education at the Harvard Kennedy School and NESA (2016).
