One of the things Timur Turlov, one of the richest men in the world, a self-made billionaire, really believes in is the power of chess. Chess has long been a part of his life, and he has done much to promote it in his home country of Kazakhstan and across the world. Currently, he is pushing initiatives that will make it a bigger part of schooling in different countries, including the USA. Turlov’s story is a showcase of an amazing ability to leverage knowledge and skill into productive and evergreen projects, which should bode well for his humanist projects as well.
Turlov was born in 1987 in Russia and comes from a Kazakhstani family. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Technology University as an economist manager, but had by this point already been working in finance for a while, starting when he had just graduated from high school.
Turlov first began working at World Capital Investments as a trader at a young age. He later used this experience to work at the Uniastrum Bank, specifically at Yutreyd.ru, a subsidiary focused on American stock market exchanges, for which he built the infrastructure. 2008 saw the trading unit shut down, but this did not deter Turlov from pursuing other goals. The very same year, he founded Freedom Finance, which would then evolve to become Freedom Holding Corp.
Freedom Finance gave its clients exclusive access to US stock exchanges and brokerage. This was a unique offering in the geographical area and proved successful enough to make Freedom Finance grow until it was represented in 22 countries. For years, the company was recognized as the fastest-growing broker and became one of the main brokerage companies in the Commonwealth states.
In 2015, Turlov became the main shareholder for Freedom Holding Corp and joined all his brands under one umbrella. In Kazakhstan and other countries, like Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Germany, the company offered a variety of services, including retail shopping, with a strong focus still on the brokerage services and trading. Freedom Holding became the first financial institution from its region to trade on the Nasdaq Stock market, a huge achievement for Turlov and all his projects. The
A lifelong passion for Turlov has been chess. He headed the chess federation in Kazakhstan and has donated significantly to make this more accessible to students. Now, he is pursuing chess as a way of improving education, as it is his belief that it is a highly beneficial activity for kids of different ages. As a father of six, Turlov is very passionate about education and development and has done much to promote chess as a healthy and educational tool that can help children develop an interest in math but also to construct better ways of thinking.