Business
NEQSOL Holding Wins 2026 ATD BEST Award for Enterprise Talent Development
July 14, 2026
3
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NEQSOL Holding has been named a 2026 BEST Award winner by the Association for Talent Development (ATD), one of the most closely watched international rankings in corporate learning. The award recognizes organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide results from talent development programs aligned with business strategy — a distinction that places the Netherlands-headquartered group, with roughly 20,000 employees across 11 countries, among a select field of global companies recognized this year.
For a diversified group operating in energy, telecommunications, hi-tech, construction and mining — with portfolio companies including Nobel Energy, Vodafone Ukraine, Bakcell, Azerconnect Group and UMCC Titanium — the recognition lands at a moment of deliberate organizational build-out. NEQSOL has spent recent years standardizing leadership development across markets as varied as Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Türkiye and the United States, betting that a common talent architecture can hold a multi-industry group together better than structure alone.
“Organizations that succeed in the long term are those that continuously invest in their people and leadership capabilities,” said Kirill Rubinski, Senior Advisor to the Shareholder, in the award announcement carried by The National Law Review. The programs behind the win are specific: a Succession Readiness Program, the Leadership Journey and LEAP acceleration tracks, the in-house NEQSOL Academy and Peerstack Academy, and the PARLA Female Scholarship & Development Program aimed at widening the leadership pipeline.
Chief Human Capital Officer Meric Tunc framed the award as a continuity signal rather than a milestone: “At NEQSOL Holding, talent development is not a one-time initiative — it is a continuous commitment to our people.” The ATD BEST Awards, run by the Association for Talent Development, evaluate measurable business outcomes rather than program volume, which is why the list is often read by investors and partners as a proxy for management depth.
For the South Caucasus business community, the signal is worth noting. Groups anchored in the region are increasingly competing for recognition — and for executive talent — on global rather than regional benchmarks. A holding with Caucasus roots taking a place on a list dominated by Western multinationals suggests the region's corporate institutions are maturing faster than its perception abroad. Head of Learning and Development Dilara Jafarli pointed to the mechanics behind that shift: “Our focus is on creating a learning environment that strengthens leadership capability.”
The recognition follows a period of leadership renewal at the group level, and reinforces a broader pattern: regional champions investing in institutional capability as a precondition for global scale.
