Daniyar Zhantilessov

The Exness Group is an international, award-winning multi-asset broker founded in 2008. With a deep understanding of traders’ needs, the company provides accessible, stable, and reliable brokerage services through the use of modern trading and investment technologies.

Heading up its procurement function is Daniyar Zhantilessov, who has over 12 years experience across diverse roles across various markets, and has acquired strong knowledge in the procurement field. 

“My career journey so far has led me to my current position as Global Head of Procurement at Exness,” says Zhantilessov, who has a finance degree and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain Management (CIPS). “When I joined Exness at the beginning of 2020, I started as a Procurement Manager and built the Procurement process in the Company from scratch. This earned me numerous promotions over the years, until I became the head of the department. 

“Within my role, I have enhanced procurement productivity, devised effective sourcing strategies, and implemented best-in-class procurement processes. I am also responsible for vendor risk management, due diligence, and process optimisation.”

Zhantilessov's career started at a juncture where he had to choose between a role as a financial analyst or a procurement specialist in the banking industry. As he explains, he chose the latter. “I like to connect and interact with people, so I felt it was a more fitting career. Despite excellent knowledge of finance, which also enables me to do my current job best, I prefer working with people instead of numbers.

“The procurement sphere has allowed me to maximise my skills and use them properly,” Zhantilessov adds. “It is an integrated part of my life and approach at large, to constantly compare and select the best value things price/quality wise.”

This approach even applies to things like family holidays. “I am the one investigating everything about our destination,” Zhantilessov laughs, “from the best sights to the best restaurants, a full comparison of accommodation options, constantly checking reviews online and asking friends and acquaintances what their own experience was.”

All of this shows how seriously Zhantilessov takes the procurement world. “Procurement is my passion and part of my life,” he says. “Our job allows us to meet many different people and build strong relationships and networks worldwide. From my point of view, it is one of the best fields to realise your negotiation and communication skills and make significant cost savings for the organisation. 

“We have a definition of five rights in procurement: right price, right quality, right time, right place and right quantity. This is my approach in my professional and personal life too.”

Having worked for global giants like Philip Morris, Huawei, and HomeCredit Bank, upon joining Exness at the beginning of 2020 Zhantilessov was tasked with building its procurement process from the ground up. The absence of any existing procurement framework was, in his words, “one of the reasons I accepted an offer from Exness, as it gave me this great opportunity and freedom to build a best-in-class procurement process from scratch.”

Today, he describes the process as one of his proudest professional experiences. “I treat every professional challenge as an opportunity,” Zhantilessov says. 

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