Paul Bennett, Managing Director
Paul Bennett, Managing Director of UNICON International, leads private practice at UNICON. He has served in senior corporate development and operational roles in large companies and early-stage ventures. He has worked for a number of companies in the U.S. and Europe and has gained extensive global business experience.

Prior to UNICON, Paul has spent his career helping to shape the private sector in developing countries. He has good track record of technical, managerial, marketing and entrepreneurial leadership and has held key investment and financial roles, serving clients in North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia.

Rustam Davletkhanov, Managing Director
Rustam Davletkhanov, Managing Director of UNICON International, leads public sector practice at UNICON. Rustam has been successfully working with donor-organizations such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Islamic Development Bank, and many other bilateral and multilateral organizations since 2003. Rustam is one of the founders of UNICON and has built the largest IFI-consulting firm in Central Asian Region, based on turnover and number of projects implemented.

Prior to UNICON, Rustam spent his career at Ernst & Young, where he was engaged in projects covering Uzbekistan’s largest enterprises, such as Uzbekneftegas (Uzbek Oil and Gas).

William Harrison, Director
William Harrison, Director of Corporate Finance practice at UNICON International, has joined UNICON in 2007. Prior to UNICON, William has been a Senior Advisor at Prudent Technologies. As an advisor, William has helped a number of companies raising capital, structuring financing, preparing business plans for venture capitals, and other financial services.

Prior to Prudent Technologies, William has been a senior consultant at Arthur Andersen assisting clients with corporate financial services. This included strategic partnerships, M&A advisory, enterprise restructuring and investments, and equity/debt financing schemes.

David Cawthorn, Director
David Cawthorn, Director of Public Health for all international health projects, is a highly experienced health administrator with over 25 years experience at a senior level in health and hospital management, and in the development and project management of international health projects.

Since 2002, he held position of Senior Business Manager with Aus Health International Pty Ltd, the international development arm of the New South Wales Department of Health, Sydney, Australia, where he provided specialist proposal preparation expertise for major internationally–funded health projects in developing countries; conducted contract negotiations with foreign governments; and project managed major international health projects. Prior to that, David was the Health Sector Specialist with SMEC International.

Clifford Henkel, Director
Clifford Henkel, Director, is an experienced consultant working worldwide on development projects, mainly in water resources engineering, organizational and participatory development of village communities and farmers, rural infrastructure, institutional development and strengthening.

He has been working with various development banks since 1980s and has more than 33 years experience working on projects in Australia, Ethiopia, Israel, Indonesia, Sultanate of Oman, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Turkey.

Reinhard Paul, Director
Reinhard Paul, Director at UNICON International and Managing Director at TelCon Consulting with HQ in Wiesbaden (Germany), a member company of UNICON International.

The founder and Director of TelCon Consulting, Reinhard Paul, has 38 years of professional experience in the fields of consulting, project Management and strategic business planning, as 30 years with IBM Deutschland GmbH in different assignments in Germany and abroad, the last years as Manager for the Telecommunications Unit in Eastern Europe/Russia. Reinhard speaks fluently English and Russian and has intensive experience in running projects in Central Asia, especially in the development of Vocational Education, where he was assigned consultant to ministries responsible for Vocational Education.

Kenneth Chukwuemeka, Director
Kenneth Chukwuemeka, Director for Nigeria and West Africa. Mr. Chukwuemeka is a senior level international development professional from Nigeria with 16 years of experience in project management, international procurement, donor procedures and business management. Since 1990’s, as representative of Crown Agents UK in Nigeria, he liaised with EC, World Bank, UNDP and Government of Nigeria, which allowed him to get fully familiar with donor procedures and procurement, as well as project management issues.

Mr. Chukwuemeka possesses excellent skills in economic consultancy and capacity building. During his career at Crown Agents he was assigned as Country Director for Nigeria, where he was responsible for the development of Crown Agents business throughout West Africa. During his professional career he was involved in Nigeria's Revenue Enhancement studies; Management Trainings in Nigeria; Trainings for the Federal Ministry of Finance and Economic Development; and many other projects.

Shamil Davletkhanov, Non-Executive Director
Shamil Davletkhanov, Director of Strategic Projects, is based at UNICON’s Uzbekistan Office. Shamil has experience of working in more than 25 countries throughout Asia and the Middle East.

His background is in transport sector, where he has worked for different international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Islamic Development Bank, and others. He has also assisted private sector operators, mainly in civil aviation industry.

Timur Zakirov, Director of Marketing and Research Projects, is based at UNICON’s Uzbekistan Office. Timur has in-depth experience of international business and is specialized in CIS countries for over 10 years. He is experienced as marketing and business development consultant, SME development specialist, reforms adviser to governments, and has excellent management and administrative abilities with proven record of practical and innovative achievements.

Timur assists local and regional companies in research, due diligence, and preparation of Business Plans for presentation to investors and venture funds.

Nodira Rakhmonbedieva is an experienced consultant working in the field of civil service, civil society, mass media, and general government reforms for more than 20 years.

Nodira used to run a Tajikistan-based NGO, which was one of the largest in the region in terms of organized trainings to Government officials. She has also carried out a number of trainings and workshops for the private and public sectors. Her social sector studies go throughout Tajikistan covering all layers of population. She drafted a number of strategies and policies to reduce poverty and increase income generation.

Aharon Adibekian is an experienced specialist with over 25 years of experience in social studies, statistics, public opinion and polls. He runs the largest NGO in Armenia specialized in public opinion and social studies.

Aharon’s main clients include UNDP, USAID, ADB, and World Bank. He is also working for Government agencies on various development issues. He has been recently engaged in ADB's regional Social Poverty Index study.

Aharon has joined UNICON in 2007 and since then has represented it throughout Caucasus region.