Ambassador Archil Gegeshidze was appointed Executive Director of the Levan Mikeladze Foundation in November 2016. Prior to that Amb.Gegeshidze served as Georgia’s ambassador to the United States for more than three years.He joined diplomatic service from academia working as a senior fellow at Georgia’s renowned think tank – The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS). More than a decade of work at GFSIS was primarily related with research and training.
Before joining GFSIS, Dr. Gegeshidze spent an academic year at Stanford University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar.
Dr.Gegeshidze worked for the Georgian government from 1992-2000 where he served as an Assistant to the Head of State on National Security and a Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the President.
In addition to his native Georgian, Dr. Gegeshidze is fluent in English and Russian. He also speaks French and some oriental languages.
Ekaterina Baramidze has around 20 years of experience in project elaboration and management within international organizations; since 2007 she was actively involved in the EU Georgian Cooperation issues, while working as an EU Institution Building Instruments Expert, she supported the different Georgian line ministries and agencies in the affective use of EU assistant tools like Twinning, TAIEX, SIGMA, etc. She has elaborated practical guidelines for the public servants about the effective application of the TAIEX tool and how to draft institutional Twinning project fiche.
Ekaterina has joined the LMF team since March 2015. At the LMF she is in charge of the overall leadership & management of the LMF projects implementation to ensure effective & efficient follow-up of the execution of individual projects. Support to the review & improvement of the operational procedures of the LMF. The major areas directed are: recruiting & staffing; organizational planning; performance management & improvement systems; organization development; management & coordination of short-term consultants; identification & elaboration of new projects & budgets based on the LMF policy & strategy. Intensive cooperation & communication with relevant state administrations, media & civil society organization working in the field of the EU approximation. Elaboration & Management of the project related activities & dissemination of information about the EU Georgia cooperation among ethnic minorities and other groups. Arrangement & management of public events: public lectures, conferences, roundtable discussions, workshops etc.
In 2014 Natia Ghvinjilia graduated from University of Wales Trinity Saint David and gained the MBA with merit in project management. She researched and wrote the thesis on: ‘Suitability Framework of EU projects in Georgia”. In 2001 she earned the Master of Arts in English language at Tbilisi Illia Chavchavadze University of Languages and Culture.
She has over 7 years experience in working at international organizations and in management of EU projects. During her engagement in EU Twinning projects she acted as a liaison with the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia and national institutions at the central and local level;
Ms Ghvinjilia joined the LMF in June 2016 as a project coordinator. Her duties and responsibilities include arrangement of informational workshops, rountable discussions and public awareness campaigns on EU and EU core values; Ensuring good partnership with the agencies working on religious and ethnical minorities, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society etc; Promoting due information and communication flows for all stakeholders, encourage networking and experience sharing between Project stakeholders and target groups;
She is fluent in English, German and Russian languages.
Eter Sajaia is the financial manager of the Levan Mikeladze Foundation. She manages professional level accounting functions for the foundation and prepares financial reports for donors. She has more than 20 years of experience in her field (as Chief Accountant and Financial Manager) with numerous different organizations.
Graduated with honors from the Empire State College/University of New York in Prague with the Bachelor’s dual degree in International and Economic Relations. Throughout her studies, she has done a number of research papers referring to international conflicts and security, modern diplomacy and political systems. She defended her thesis on the “Legality of Humanitarian Intervention: International Law and Moral Justifications.” At the university, she had been an active member of Student Council serving as a Secretary and a Treasurer. In 2014, she completed two-months internship at "Tbilisi Business Consulting Center", where she provided technical assistance to various local and international projects.
She has joined the LMF in November 2015 and is currently a project coordinator. Her duties and responsibilities include planning and organization of project activities, writing meeting and progress reports, communication with donors, experts, project participants and government institutions. She also administers project websites.
She speaks Georgian, English, Russian and German (basic) languages.
Tamta Darsalia is a project assistant and provides technical and logistical support for ongoing projects in the Foundation.
Tamta graduated has a B.A. in International Relations from the Social and Political Science Department of Tbilisi State University. Since 2018, she has been enrolled in the master’s program of National and Ethnic Studies of the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Tbilisi State University.
Until 2016, she worked as an organizer of research projects in an NGO “Youth Generation”. In 2016-2018, she was the head of international projects at the Research Center for Complex Development of Tbilisi State University. Tamta took part in various local and international conferences and projects. She translated several scientific books into Russian and Georgian languages, among them it is worth noting E.Patashnik “Reform at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted”.
