Alexandr Akimov is a Senior Lecturer in Banking and Finance at Griffith University, Australia. In addition to academic appointments, Alexandr has held the risk management appointments at the National Bank of Uzbekistan. He is an active member of a number of professional and research associations. He is currently a President of Australasian Association for Communist and Post-communist Studies (AACaPS) and is Australian representative at International Council for Central and Eastern European Studies (ICCEES) Executive Committee. His research expertise is in the areas of emerging market finance and economics with the particular focus on post-communist economic transition in post-Soviet Central Asia.Gennadi Kazakevitch is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Monash University, Australia. His research and teaching interests comprise market structures and competition in high technology industries, microeconomic reforms of public utilities, and comparative studies of economic reforms in the former communist countries. As the former Deputy Head of Monash University’s Economics department, he developed and coordinated broad department's coursework portfolio across all campuses and programs in Australia and internationally. He has extensive experience in guest lecturing on economic policy and reforms, including USA, Spain, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and China.