Nilufar Mirzaeva spent over twelve years working on international projects in the energy and industry sectors of Uzbekistan, collaborating with engineers and managers from Japan, Spain, Greece, France, and Slovakia. A key achievement in her career was the ammonia and urea production complex at the Navoyaztot plant, valued at approximately $985.74 million. In this facility, she served as the lead coordinator, ensuring communication between the international team, the client, government bodies, and contractors. Currently, Mirzaeva resides in the United States, where she is pursuing an Executive MBA. Tatiana Ilyina spoke with her about how the daughter of a photojournalist from Navoi ended up at the negotiating table with Mitsubishi.
Nilufar grew up in Navoi in a large family; her mother was a nurse, and her father was a photojournalist. When her father fell ill, the children began helping him by developing and printing photographs, as well as delivering them to clients. Mirzaeva notes that this early experience taught her responsibility, discipline, and respect for the work of others.
Nilufar's birthday is July 4th. Her mother often joked that Americans celebrate Independence Day on this date, so she would surely receive many gifts. Over time, the family joke turned into a dream—to one day see the United States. However, America remained a distant prospect, and studying languages became the first step. Nilufar did not study English in school and only started taking it seriously at age 18. She balanced university studies with private English lessons and extensive self-study, after which she transferred from the Department of Russian Language and Literature to the Department of Foreign Languages. There, she passed the selection process to take classes with an American teacher who came to Uzbekistan under an international educational program.
After graduating from university, Nilufar spent four years teaching English to children whose native language was Uzbek, which prompted her to significantly improve her Uzbek. Two years later, the director of the language center, impressed by her work ethic and feedback from students and parents, offered her the position of deputy director. She then worked as an administrator in a hotel for a year before receiving her first offer in the industrial sector from a Spanish company building a gas turbine facility. After that, Nilufar worked with a project team from Slovakia, and her next step was the position of lead coordinator and translator during the construction of the complex at Navoyaztot.
The project, valued at approximately $985.74 million, was implemented by Navoyaztot in cooperation with a consortium that included Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Corporation from Japan. The new complex was designed for the annual production of 660,000 tons of ammonia and about 578,000 tons of urea.