Alumnus Appointed Minister of Education in Azerbaijan

Muskie alumnus Mikayil Jabbarov of Azerbaijan was recently appointed Education Minister for the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan.  In his new position, Jabbarov leads the Ministry and its Deputy Ministers in forming and implementing national Education policies and initiatives.  As Minister, Jabbarov also works with Azerbaijani educational institutions, bodies and organizations to develop strategic plans and monitoring practices with key national and international stakeholders and partners.

As a 1996 Muskie participant in the Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, Jabbarov studied Transnational Business Practices. After returning to Azerbaijan, Jabbarov worked as a lawyer in the private sector (1999-2002) and in 2002, he entered civil service as an Advisor to the Minister of Economic Development. Since 2003, Jabbarov held several leading positions, including President of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, and Head of the State Department of the Historical and Architectural Reserve of Icherisheher.

Mr. Chris Jones, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baku states, “We are very pleased to see an alumnus, particularly one as skilled as Mr. Jabbarov, appointed as Minister of Education.  We are proud of Mr. Jabbarov’s achievements and look forward to working with him to strengthen the already close partnership between the Ministry of Education and the U.S. Embassy.”

The Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and is implemented by IREX.