David Tkeshelashvili

Head of Administration (Chief of Staff) to the President of Georgia (2010-2013)

Mr. Tkeshelashvili has a strong educational background in Legal Studies, with expertise in the field of International Law, focused on the rule of law and democracy development in transitional countries. Mr. Tkeshelashvili is an Associate Director of the Center of International and Comparative Law (CICL) at Emory University School of Law. He is a Professor of Law, teaches course in public international law. In 2008 he was awarded with Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award and is an Honorary Citizen of State of Georgia.

David Tkeshelashvili is a former Georgian Politician, who was Vice Prime Minister and then First Vice Prime Minister of Georgia from 2008 to June 2010. From 2010 to May of 2013 he served as a Head of Administration (Chief of Staff) to the President of Georgia.

Mr. Tkeshelashvili joined the government in 2006 as a Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources. From 2007 to 2008 for a short period of time he served as a Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs. From 2008 to 2010 he led regional development and local self-government reform process and instituted a series of structural and policy reforms for decentralization and sustainable regional development, first as a State Minister for Regional Issues, later under his leadership new office, Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure was created. He served as a minister of the newly established agency till 2010.[/vc_column_text]

Before joining the Government of Georgia Mr. Tkeshelashvili served as a member of Georgian Parliament for eleven years from 1995 to 2006. During eleven years in Parliament Mr. Tkeshelashvili served as a Deputy of Majority Leader and later as a Chairman of the Subcommittee for Relations with Media and Non-Governmental Organizations of the Human Rights committee.

He has been participating in political campaigns and party building in different capacities as well as monitoring of election processes nationally and internationally. Worked closely with both the IRI (International Republican Institute, USA) and the NDI (National Democratic Institute, USA). He has also managed projects funded by international donors, the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and USAID.

He graduated from Tbilisi State University with degree of Master of Arts in Legal Studies. He won Edmund S. Muskie scholarship and later subsequently obtained LLM degree from Emory University in Atlanta.