Profile: The Engineer Who Became Lieutenant Governor

TALAS — Aidar Maksat, who took office as Lieutenant Governor yesterday, was born in Kobozev on 3 November 1980 and registered as Aidar Maksatov. His father, Bolat Maksatov, a metallurgical engineer, moved in 1985 to the Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill, where he became chief metallurgist; his mother, Saule Maksatova, taught chemistry at the mill's technical lyceum. Maksat grew up in the works settlement and, like many of his generation, began school in Russian and moved to English-language classes after 1992.

He graduated in civil engineering from the Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute in 2002 and, on a territorial scholarship, took a master's degree in public policy and administration at the London School of Economics in 2005. He has used the short form of his surname since his student years. He joined the territorial Office of Economic Planning, stayed in the civil service through 2006 and 2007, and from 2009 to 2016 directed infrastructure development for the municipality of Talas, where he oversaw the rebuilding of the water treatment works. He then headed the governorate's Department of Infrastructure and Communications.

In 2008 he married Zara Toktarova, the Governor's only daughter, born on 14 November 1988, the youngest of six children. She is a doctoral candidate in education at Stanford University. They have three children. Critics say his rise owes much to the marriage; he describes himself as a manager. He is a keen amateur cyclist, a trustee of the Talas Symphony Orchestra, and speaks Iradi, Russian and English.