Nationality Kazakh | Known for Founder of WikiBilim | |
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Born 1 May 1979 (age 37) ( 1979-05-01 ) East Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan Occupation Wikipedia editor, politician Awards Wikipedian of the Year (2011) Education Harvard University, Kazakh National University named after Abai | ||
Rauan kenzhekhanuly at tedxalmaty
Rauan Kenzhekhanuly (born 1 May 1979) is a Kazakh man who was named the first Wikipedian of the Year in August 2011 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania. Previously, he served as the first secretary at Kazakhstan's Russian embassy, as well as the National TV Agency's Moscow bureau chief. In 2010, he traveled to the United States to do a one-year fellowship at Harvard University, where, that fall, he first became interested in editing Wikipedia when he took the class “Media, Politics, and Power in the Digital Age”. He later founded the nonprofit organization WikiBilim, which aims to expand the availability of free Kazakh-language information on the Internet. In 2014, he was named deputy governor of the Kyzylorda Region. He is also the founding director of the Eurasian Council on Foreign Affairs, which was formally established on 12 November 2014 with a grant from the Kazakh government.