2016

Olga Chubrykova is a Deputy Director General for Europe 2 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, responsible for bilateral relations with the South Caucasus states, Turkey, Romania, Moldova and Belarus. She has been working in the Ministry since 1999, serving twice abroad in the Embassy of Ukraine in Turkey. She also served twice in Minister’s Office in the MFA. Chubrykova took various courses on European and security affairs in Geneva, Vienna, Birmingham (UK) etc. She is an oriental studies expert and speaks fluent Turkish. Chubrykova is an author of one book – ‘Turkey, that we don’t know’.

Medea (Dea) Chkheidze has been working in BP Georgia as Business Services Team Leader since 2007. Her responsibilities include but are not limited to: supervision of Business Services Team; Supervision of Maintenance, Travel/Accommodation & Catering contractors’ work activities; supervision of all aspects of office maintenance & refurbishment works; supervision of housing accommodation for BP expats; planning and monitoring of Business Services budget, etc. Initially Dea started to work in BP as an Administrative Assistant as an Agency representative (2002-2007). Before commencing work in BP, her working experience counts several workplaces like: Association for the protection of Landowners’ Rights, the International Center for Journalists, Volunteers Corps for Banking Reform, Information Center for Economic Reforms at the State Chancellery of Georgia, Newspaper Georgian Times, and the 1st TV Channel.

As to Dea’s studying background, after graduating from the Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures (1997) Dea has entered and graduated Georgian Institute of Public Administration (GIPA 1998) where she received a Master’s Degree in Local Government and Self-Government Administration Program. Dea has graduated from Project Management College at ESI Free University (2010) acquiring George Washington University Master’s Certificate. Dea has passed various training courses throughout the time she has worked in BP: Employee Relations for Team Leaders; Risk Management; Supervisory Skills Workshop; Influencing Skills; Scheduling & Cost Control; Incident Investigation; Presentation Skills, etc.

Nino has over 14 years of working experience as a management executive with leadership and management functions in different structures of the government and private organizations of Georgia. She is skilled professional in delivering organizational and structural changes, general management, strategic marketing management, elaborating effective human resources management strategies, designing and marketing of effective service delivery procedures, customer flow management and retailing. Currently she is the Director of Marketing and Services at EVEX Medical Corporation.

Most recently, Nino served as a CEO at the Public Service Hall and previously as the Head of Marketing Department under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, which finally resulted in making Public Service Hall project as one of the most successful government reform in Georgia, which further helped Georgia to be recognized as one of the world’s top reformer countries, with its rank of 9th place in the ‘World Bank Ease of Doing Business’ ranking and receive UN 2012 Public Service Award. Nino holds a Master’s degree in Executive Marketing and Sales Management from ESADE Business School and SDA Bocconi School of Management. Furthermore she has an MBA degree from the European School of Management (FreeUni).

Rabih El Chaer is a Senior Political Advisor and has 19 years of experience in public policy across Europe and the Middle East. Rabih has served as an advisor on speech writing, strategic planning, public affairs programs, media and communications strategy to a number of ministers, public authorities and political parties. At present Mr. El Chaer is an advisor to the Kuwaiti Parliament. Previously, he served as the President of the Lebanese NGO “Sakker El Dekkene” as well as the Senior Public Policy and Media Advisor to the Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Youth. Prior to that Mr. El Chaer was a Professor in Constitutional Law and a co-founder of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Saint Esprit (USEK). He was also the Managing Director of Transparency International Lebanese Chapter. In 2011 in the wake of the “Arab Spring” he worked as a political and media strategy advisor to a Tunisian newly formed Political Party after the “Arab Spring Revolution”.

Between 2008 and 2011, Mr. El Chaer also served as a Senior Political and Legal Advisor to the Lebanese Minister of Interior and Municipalities. The Ministry team won the UN best public service award for election management in 2010. Mr. El Chaer is a graduate of the National French School of Public Management (Ecole Nationale d’Administration, ENA) and holds two Masters Degrees in Human Rights and Public Law from France. He has also attended and completed fellowship programs at Harvard University, Stanford University, the International Development Center in the UK and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. He was also a lecturer in Public Law at the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris. Mr. El Chaer is a founder and a member of several NGOs. Rabih has received numerous recognitions including the Medal of Honor from the Lebanese Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, the Best Young Journalist award by Annahar Newspaper Lebanon, and he was also selected by the French Foreign Ministry for the 2010 “Personnalités d’avenir” program recognizing future potential international leaders.

Darko Brkan, along with a group of young activists and friends, founded UG “Zašto ne” 14 years ago, becoming the president of the organization. UG “Zašto ne” is a Sarajevo-based nongovernmental organization that promotes civic activism, government accountability, and the use of digital media in deepening democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). He also is the president of the board of the regional network Action SEE (Accountability, Technology and Institutional Openness in the SouthEast Europe region). Darko was a founding member of Dosta! (Enough!), one of Bosnia’s most prominent citizens’ movements for social justice and government accountability. Darko began his career in civic activism more than ten years ago as coordinator of the Campaign for Conscientious Objection, a network of organizations that promoted peace and conscientious objection to military service in BiH. He graduated the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department for Computer Science, and is currently an MBA candidate for Strategic Management of Information at the Faculty of Economics, University of Sarajevo.

His professional interests are mainly in the sphere of new technologies, digital and social media, elections and political processes, civic activism and participation, and international relations. Darko was a Draper-Hills Summer fellow of the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) in 2013 and a Reagan-Fascell fellow in 2012 at the Forum for International Democratic Studies in Washington, where he researched how new technologies can assist the efforts of civil society organizations. He is also Alumni member of the Council of Europe Academy of Political Excellence from the 2008 generation, Fletcher Summer Institute for Advanced Studies for Non-Violent Conflict from the 2010 generation, and is also a member of the Alumni for exchange student program with the United States after attending the IVLP program in 2009 and a member of the US Alumni Association in BiH. He is also a member of the board of the Center for Policy and Governance (CPU), the Human Rights Foundation of BiH and Foundation “Ekipa”, as well as a founding board member of the Center for Election and Political Studies in BiH. He was also a member of the board of the US Alumni Association in BiH in the term 2011-2015 and member of the ACIPS political council (POLIS) during the 2010 – 2011 mandate.