Tale Heydarov

While a student in London, Heydarov founded the London Azerbaijani Society which later developed into the European Azerbaijani Society (TEAS), using cultural diplomacy to raise awareness of Azerbaijani culture and issues in Europe.

He is a noted campaigner for the rights of Azerbaijani’s displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Heydarov has edited several publications about Nagorno-Karabakh, including: The Armenian Question in the Caucasus: Russian Archive Documents and Publications (2011), the Khojaly Witness of a War Crime: Armenia in the Dock (2015) and Karabakh History in the Context of Conflict (2015) and the photography book The People the World Forgot.

Tale Heydarov is Chairman of the Board of Gilan Holdings, a private conglomerate that owns and invests in a wide range of logistics, IT, tourism, fast moving consumer goods, agriculture and large scale construction businesses in Azerbaijan.

Gilan Holdings has made investments in Azerbaijan’s sports infrastructure, notably Gabala FC football club and Gabala Sports Club. Tale served as President of Gabala FC since 2005, and Gabala Sports Club since 2013. High profile recruits to Gabala FC include former Arsenal and England player Tony Adams. Heydarov stood down from the club in early 2019.

Tale is the founder of several companies in the publishing sector, including TEAS PRESS Publishing House and the Libraff chain of bookstores, which sells publications in Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Turkish.

In 2011, Tale established the European Azerbaijan School (EAS), a private co-educational day-school. The school teaches the International Baccalaureate (IB), Primary Years Program (PYP), Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and the IB Diploma Program, with a curriculum taught in Azerbaijani, English and Russian. The school has a current population of nearly 900 students and includes an Early Years Program in addition to its 1-11 grade programme. The EAS is a member of the Council of International Schools.

Following his experiences with the school, Tale established the Azerbaijan Teacher Development Centre (ATDC) in 2014. ATDC, which operated until 2019, offered training courses in pedagogy and modern practices of education, and was accredited by Cambridge Assessment English.

Tale is also the founder of the Visions of Azerbaijan magazine, which began in 2006 but also launched as a digital TV channel in 2016. Both closed in 2018 as they went into insolvency.

Heydarov speaks Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Turkish. He is married with one daughter and one son.