2019

Leadership and strategic management practitioner with 25+ years of professional experience, ranging from public services and non-profits to multilateral organizations in Europe, the United States of America, South Caucasus and Central Asia. Experienced trainer with an Institute for Leadership & Management certification. 2019 recipient of the Ambassador for Liberty and Peace International Award of Excellence. Committed to responsible leadership rooted in ethical values, centered around human and social capital, and driven by sustainable social impact.

Mr. George Darchia was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in November 30, 1980. He graduated from Lincoln University (San Francisco, California) with his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration in 2003. His Studies, among other subjects, included International Trade, Macro Economics and Organizational Culture.

For more than 15 years he has worked for governmental and donor organizations, private enterprises and financial institutions; counseled business associations and unions on institutional development, competitiveness and economic growth. Renowned for providing pragmatic advice and delivering tangible results, He has worked in technical and leading roles on long- and short-term assignments. Institutions Mr. Darchia has worked for, include the National Bank of Georgia, Flag International, LLC, Deloitte, International Executive Service Corps, Land O’Lakes Inc, Enterprise Georgia, and DAI Global. Currently he serves as a component lead at USAID Economic Security Program in Georgia, implemented by DAI Global. Mr. Darchia has gone through numerous trainings and professional development endeavors resulting in gaining excellent communication, management, presentation and problem-solving skills.

One of the highlights among Mr. Darchia’s achievements is insurance market reform in Georgia, which he spearheaded through institutional development of Georgian Insurance Association, tailoring and implementation of co-financed agricultural insurance pilot project, and initiation of public-private dialogue resulting in adoption of law on subsidized agricultural insurance in the country. During his career, Mr. Darchia took a challenge of an expatriate life and went to Middle East, particularly to Afghanistan, where he spent three years working on private sector developmentoriented program of USAID. Being a big believer of liberty, equality, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness, Mr. Darchia considers himself as a servant of private sector and economic growth and continues concentrating his efforts to achieve significant goals in his future career.

Mr. Giorgi Cherkezishvili is a Chief Investment Officer at Wings & Freeman Capital (WFC) – a financial advisory firm with special focus on structuring the financial transactions involving International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). Before joining WFC, Mr. Giorgi Cherkezishvili worked on different high level positions, both in public and private sector.

He was a Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia in the years 2017-2018, covering Transport & Logistics, Communications & Innovations, Investment & Entrepreneurship sectors. In the years 2014-2016 Mr. Giorgi Cherkezishvili worked as a Head of Investment Department at JSC Partnership Fund, state equity fund with investment portfolio over USD 2 bln. Short before, for more than eight years, he held different positions at Corporate Banking Department of JSC Bank of Georgia, a leading commercial bank in Georgia. Mr. Cherkezishvili holds a Master degree in Business Administration, Specialization in Global Management from Grenoble Graduate School of Business (France) and Caucasus Business School (Georgia) Dual MBA Program and Master/Bachelor degree in International Economic Relations from the Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

Since 2019, I am involved in the Professional Development Program for Leaders “Carl Friedrich Goerdeler-Kolleg for Good Governance” organized by the The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and Robert Bosch Foundation. In 2018, I have successfully completed a one-year research program at the Free University of Tbilisi and the University of North Texas on “Russian Hybrid Warfare and its Implications for Democracy,” which will be published as a hard copy at the end of 2019. Since 2013, I have been working as program manager at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in the South Caucasus office in Georgia. At the same time, I am an invited lecturer at the Ilia State University in Tbilisi. I teach the political and legal system of Germany for various bachelor courses. In 2011, I completed my master’s degree in International Relations and Economics at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany. Before that, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Georgian Technical University.

Counting 17 years of management experience including 7 years of her dedication to Georgia’s public sector as a senior executive, Ketevan has successfully served as vice minister of Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, under four consecutive leaderships of two democratically elected governments. Her area of work included Economic Policy, FDI Attraction, SME Sector Development, Export Promotion and Development, Tourism Development, Special Development and Construction Policy, R&D, National and International Promotion Campaigns. Ketevan has an impressive record of cooperation with all leading International Financial Institutions and International Organizations through development and implementation of multimillion dollar economic development programs.

Ms. Bochorishvili holds MA degree in International Public Management from SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy) and BA/MA degrees in International Conflict Resolution from Georgian Technical University. She has accumulated several intercultural experiences and developed entrepreneurial skills through participating in programs at Georgetown University (USA), the Iacocca Institute (USA) and Charles University (Czech Republic). In her capacity, as CEO of JSC Anaklia City, Ms. Bochorishvili aims to develop the city scale special economic zone, next to the deep sea port, encompassing such economic clusters as logistics, light manufacturing, tourism and hospitality and other services.

Oto Berishvili joined Adjara Group in 2010 and heads a visionary team of 50 people who runs the business development process of the company. He leads the company’s business expansion effort and is responsible for new international markets entry strategies. Oto is instrumental to project development and concept creation of the company’s ever-evolving initiatives. His interest in regional development and grassroots engagement drives him to focus on responsible business practices and generate knowledge sharing platforms for others to get inspired by.

Nikoloz is a qualified, experienced and responsible professional with more than 20-years of extensive experience in Banking, Finance, International Trade Finance, Consulting, Management and Coordination.

Now, he’s a Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. Before joining Ministry Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, he was actively involved in private sector, particularly in Corporate Banking and Consultancy. For past 19 years, he acquired experience of working for largest Georgian and International Banks: Bank Republic – Societe Genarale Group, TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, as Head of Corporate Banking Division and head of Regional Corporate Banking.

He has also been involved in numerous private initiatives, mostly as an angel investor oriented on Social Impact Investments; in 2016, he initiated and founded LLC Altitude (project – Altihut 3014) that is an innovative, Social Impact Investment Project, executed solely by private investment. He has joined Government team from TBC Bank, where he served as a Head of Regional Corporate Banking Business. He holds a Master Degree form Tbilisi state University in International Economics (2000) and Master Degree in Innovations management form Grenoble Graduate School of Management (GGSB), Grenoble, France (2015).

Damelya Aitkhozhina is a Researcher with the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. A lawyer by training, prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Aitkhozhina has worked on a number of projects aimed at promoting human rights in Central Asian region and the Russian Federation.

She has worked with the Street Law human rights education project; the European Human Rights Advocacy Center and the Russian Justice Initiative and as a Researcher with Amnesty International. She also has considerable experience working in UN in Central Asia, including OHCHR, UNHCR, UN Women and UNTOP.

She holds MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, LLM in international human rights law from the University of Essex (UK) and her law degree from Adliet Higher Law School (Kazakhstan).