Admission: 2006 Fall ITTP Master Program

Affiliation: Amazon Web Services

Position: Lead for Nordics Private Equity Business Development

“The main difference of ITTP was that each of the students were treated as a part of the family – thus the faculty was also caring about our well-being. Through ITTP I earned my biggest accomplishment - the black belt in Taekwondo.”

My name is Nigar and I am from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a rich country of a long history – but rich natural resources also bring lots of eyes on the land. Through the history, Azerbaijan has been invaded by many countries. After gaining independence in 1991, Azerbaijan defined its next generation of leaders as unique young technocrats with demonstrated excellence in education, work and innovation. In 2006, with its national strategy of turning oil capital into human capital through strong information technology, Azerbaijan began to benchmark South Korea, a model of transformation from agricultural society into a developed industrialized nation. As a successful project leader for the International Technology Tenders of Government, at twenty, I was elected as the first government-sponsored Azerbaijani to earn a master’s degree in Korea by ITTP program. ITTP was a uniquely designed program to help foreigners not only learn various subjects but also to get to know Korean culture. The main difference of ITTP was that each of the students were treated as a part of the family – thus the faculty was also caring about our well-being. Some of the pleasant memories I have from ITTP are the ski trip (my first ever), culture show where we had to represent our countries dance, food exhibit and yoga classes. All the Korean holiday celebrations that ITTP has been making by inviting us to dinners and explaining Korean history helped a lot to understand the main success behind the world’s most hard-working society and learn the most from it. I believe the empowerment of women will transform societies. Through ITTP I earned my biggest accomplishment - the black belt in Taekwondo.

In love with Korean culture, after obtaining my Masters at 22 at ITTP, I decided to stay in Korea and was offered a project leader position at SK by one of its VPs – whom I met through the event at KAIST. The Presidents of Azerbaijan and Korea initiated this $200M project as the first collaboration between the two countries. Working closely with SK’s Chairman, I managed over 300 subcontractors and reported to Azerbaijani ministers. I gained valuable experience in strategic leadership, politics and corporate diplomacy skills facilitating collaborations between my country and my company.

Overall, integrating into the Korean society was challenging. However, my desire to understand the culture, gain the community’s trust, and study advanced technological innovations motivated me to enjoy sleepless nights learning Korean. After a year, I was able to conduct business meetings fluently in Korean.

Searching for global-minded leaders with proven track records, Samsung approached me, and I was excited to accept this new challenge as their youngest senior consultant. My roles in Samsung allowed me to deeply understand how technology can transform a company and potentially globalize a country. I’m proud that I have been selected as a role model for globalization, frequently appearing in media advertisements, interviews, and public-relations campaigns. After winning $6M surveillance and $57M transport projects while exceeding revenue KPI by 10%, I was honored when Samsung’s CEO promoted me to senior consultant in Global Business Development, a “think-tank” consisting of Top-10 MBAs reporting directly to him.

Later to fulfill my dream of a child growing in Azerbaijan - I applied to top World Business schools and got accepted by six of them. I decided to go to Wharton MBA as I had many good friends from there. At Wharton I continued learning and got major in finance and management. I did my internship in Investment banking in Bank of America New York and later I decided to stay in US and joined Ericsson’s internal management consulting group. As Ericsson was a Swedish company I had a frequent business trips to Sweden. In one of those trips I met my currently Swedish husband. After a year of long distance dating I decided to move to Sweden. As I wanted to stay in technology I applied to Amazon Web Services and became their Lead for Nordics Private Equity Business development. In this role I am in charge to develop a new market for Amazon in Nordics and also help with the digital value creation for portfolio companies owned by those PE firms. Now I have two kids and enjoying the life of being a mother thriving to raise another generation of resilient women and men.

Looking back, I always attribute my success in life to ITTP and Korea and the opportunity they gave me as a twenty-year-old from Azerbaijan. My teacher’s belief in me, constantly pushing me beyond my limitations ranging from the trying new food into the unique Korean experiences shaped who I am and I will forever consider Korea as my second home country.