Giorgi Maisashvili
Born in Tbilisi in 1962, Giorgi Maisashvili was one of four authors of the economic policies of Georgia's first-post-Soviet president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. After Gamsakhurdia's overthrow in 1992, Maisashvili left Georgia for the United States.
A graduate of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, he worked at Enron Corporation at different positions, but left the post of head of the energy company's risk analysis department in 2001, the same year Enron declared bankruptcy following an accounting scandal. Maisashvili later oversaw Caspian Sea energy transportation issues for the Cambridge Energy Association research group.
He returned to Georgia in 2003 before the Rose Revolution, and prepared an economic program for then opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili.
After Saakashvili's advent to power, however, Maisashvili did not join the government. He instead launched a non-governmental organization called Government of the Future and the Leadership School, which describes its purpose as developing future leaders.
In July 2007, Maisashvili set up his own political party and announced intentions to run for president in 2008. Party members are mainly drawn from the professional classes, but do not include any political celebrities.
Among many Georgians, the Western-style, Harvard educated candidate is often considered far removed from Georgia's reality; Maisashvili himself, however, announces that he is offering the model for state's development that can turn Georgia into "model country" with its own exclusive function of being a bridge between East and West.
Website: NA
Address: 44 Kazbegis Kucha, Tbilisi
Tel: (995-32) 39-46-17
