ARD/Checchi Commercial Law Development Project

17 April 2001

I am the director of the USAID-funded ARD/Checchi Commercial Law Training Project in Kyrgyzstan and have served in that capacity for five years. Since the beginning of our program in January 1996 I have known and worked with Alexei Gridenko. Over that period we have called upon Alexei to perform a variety of technical services for our program and our office as an outside consultant, most particularly as a computer specialist and as a specialist in graphic design, and he carried them out with unfailing success. These include computer graphic design projects for a wide range of learning materials that we produce as a part of our program and for the Law and Business Bulletin, which our program publishes regularly in Kyrgyzstan.

I can strongly recommend Alexei both as a professional and as a person. He has shown himself to be extremely intelligent, capable, hard-working, imaginative and pleasant to deal with professionally and personally. I have the highest expectations as to his capabilities and his ability to make a valuable contribution to any endeavor that he undertakes. He inspires the highest confidence as a colleague and as a person, and I recommend him to you unqualifiedly.

Sincerely,

Brian Kemple
Program Director

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

18 December 1998

I have known Mr. Alexei Gridenko since mid 1997. UNHCR has worked on several projects with Mr. Gridenko and his company "EGA-BASMA". The projects included the production of folders, note-pads, calendars and brochures. Mr. Gridenko developed ideas for the design and arranged the publishing process.

The quality of Mr. Gridenko's work has been of excellent quality. His assistance in facilitating the production process has been invaluable, especially in the context of a country in transition, such as the Kyrgyz Republic, where high printing quality and reliable logistics are still not established like in many other countries.

UNHCR highly recommends the services of Mr. Gridenko as graphic designer and computer specialist.

Sincerely,

Helmut Buss
Head of the UNHCR
in the Kyrgyz Republic

15 December 1996

I am pleased to recommend to you Alexei Gridenko. Alexei worked for OSC Bishkek as Graphic Design Manager from April 1995 to December 1996. He has proven himself a talented personnel manager and very effective in coordinating production of print materials for our USAID Program for Public Education and Information.

Alexei's responsibilities included managing all aspects of budgeting, design and production of over two million brochures, posters, fliers, and print materials. This is a position of great responsibility and trust, requiring strong communication, management and negotiation skills. Alexei's diligence in researching printing options ensured that we always received the highest quality materials at the lowest possible cost. For a series of full-color brochures (edition total of over 525,000 copies) on privatization and capital markets, Alexei successfully negotiated production with Turkish and Kazak firms, meeting all of our deadline, budget and quality requirements. By nature Alexei has a positive attitude regardless of the task, and a strong work ethic. He frequently worked weekends and evenings in order to ensure timeliness and quality of public education materials. Quiet, talented, Alexei lets the quality of his work and his management speak for him.

Alexei is especially proficient in desktop publishing. For our local clients and counterparts he formatted and published several ground breaking publications, such as the Bulletin of the Kyrgyz Investment Funds Association, Business and Law (for the IRIS Commercial Law Project), Media Monitoring Report, Kyrgyz Stock Exchange Information Prospectus, and the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange Bulletin. Alexei also trained representatives of local organizations in desktop publishing so they could eventually produce these materials themselves.

Alexei is proficient in all major word processing, graphics and spreadsheet software: CorelDraw, Photoshop, PhotoPaint, PhotoFinish, Picture Publisher, Quark XPress, PageMaker, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, and Lotus. He also speaks fluent English, which made him a natural liaison to our international clients. I strongly recommend Alexei Gridenko to any organization seeking a talented graphic designer, manager, and computer specialist.

William J. Cleary
Program Director

Timothy W. Collins
Public Relations Manager