Vazha Salamadze

Vazha Salamadze

Director

Mr. Vazha Salamadze is founding director of CSI. He has 28 year experience in public sector, from which 25 years he dedicated to development of civil society and promoting enabling environment for CSOs. Mr. Salamadze has sound experience in policy analysis, crafting policy papers, drafting laws and lobbing at national and international levels. He also teaches policy analysis at several universities of Georgia.

Mr. Salamadze works internationally. He served as a Co-Chair of Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness from 2010 to 2012. Than he was member of Global Council of CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness. Prior establishing CSI, Mr. Salamadze worked for Government of Georgia at various administrative positions. He holds a Master in Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri Saint Louis, USA, a Diploma in Law from the Institute of Economics and Law, Tbilisi, Georgia and Diploma with distinction in Economics from Tbilisi State University.

David Tivishvili

David Tivishvili

Financial Director

Mr. David Tivishvili is the Financial Director of CSI. He has long experience in Finance management, from which the last years of experience of working with large NGO-s and international projects.

Mr. Tivishvili has suitable finance and accounting skills and experience in relation with international donors; He has Knowledge in consulting and training staff and grantees (local and International) on financial, accounting, and legislative issues, Ability to manage people, and definite communication and team-working skills.

Mr. David Tivishvili has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in economics and Finance Sector.

Ia Gabunia

Ia Gabunia

Project Manager

Ms. Ia Gabunia is a Project Manager at CSI. Her professional experience counts more than 14 years in the management and coordination of programs both with civil society organizations and the private sector. Since 2005 Ia leads Civil Society Enhancement (CSD) and Economic Development programs (ED) at CSI. She is in charge of all program management related issues, ensuring quality performance and project management standards. Within the program boundaries she is responsible for ensuring personnel management, crafting operational action plans, supervising the implementation phase, meeting deadlines and project alignment, monitoring project outcomes; On the operational side, she is in charge of market analysis and market linkages issues.

Ia’s practical experience, which she gained by working through different organizations and projects is supported with a solid academic background. Mrs. Gabunia holds professional degrees from the Free University of Tbilisi, ESM Business School – MBA and the State Institute of Foreign Languages and Culture, Department of English Language & Literature, diploma with honor. Mrs. Gabunia has undertaken additional studies in Result Based Management and Evaluation, Result Oriented PME, HICD Performance Assessment Methodology, HR Management and etc.

Teimuraz Jaliashvili

Teimuraz Jaliashvili

PR and Communications Manager

Temur Jaliashvili is a Public Relations Manager in the Civil Society Institute since 2005. He has 20 years experience of working in the public and business sectors. While working in CSI Temur has participated in the planning and implementation of numerous projects and informational campaigns.

Temur graduated from Tbilisi State University and obtained a diploma in psychology. He also holds a certificate of public relations and event management from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA).

Levan Paniashvili

Levan Paniashvili

Senior Lawyer/Advocacy Officer

Levan Paniashvili graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and has a Master’s Degree in Law. He is Chief Lawyer and Advocacy Officer at the Civil Society Institute (CSI), has a 16-year experience in analyzing and drafting legal acts, as well as in providing legal consultancies to and conducting training for both public servants and representatives of civil society organizations. At various times, Levan has held a manager position, he has long experience of working in public and civil society sectors.

Levan Paniashvili is actively involved in the process of drafting legislative changes related to transparency and accessibility of a state (including municipal) grant funding system. Over years, he has been involved in the development of various local self-government by-laws. Besides, he actively conducts training for representatives of civil society organizations and public servants of self-government, as well as is a supervisor/lecturer of several online courses for civil society organizations and servants.

Levan Paniashvili is the author/co-author of various researches, textbooks, and publications.

Tornike Imnadze

Tornike Imnadze

Legal Expert/Procurement Officer
Natia Apkhazava

Natia Apkhazava

Director of CSI Batumi Branch/Legal Expert

Natia Abkhazava is Head of the Batumi branch of the Civil Society Institute. She started her activity in the organization as a junior expert, while since 2012, she leads the Batumi branch. Natia has many years of experience working in the civil sector. Her activities include the promotion of the development of transparent and participatory self-government, elaboration and lobbying of local normative acts, facilitation of the establishment of effective cooperation among civil society organizations and state structures, as well as enhancement of participation of public actors in the decision-making process.

Natia is a member of the Civil Advisory Board of the Mayor of Batumi, one of the founders of a society “Batomi” and a civil activist.

Natia Abkhazava graduated from Shota Rustaveli State University with a degree in law, holds a Master Degree in Constitutional and Administrative Law; she has obtained certificates of a number of international and regional programs; passed Public Administration – at Malmo University (Sweden) and a practical course in Governance and Accountability within the framework of the Open World program (USA).

Lali Shalvashvili

Lali Shalvashvili

Social Media Manager

Lali Shalvashvili is the manager of social media, former editor of the civil society organizations’ portal (csogeorgia.org) of the Civil Society Institute. She has a multi-year journalistic experience of working in media outlets such as the newspaper “Droni”, newspaper “Rezonansi”, 1st Channel (news program “Moambe”), TV-Company “Imedi” (news program “Kronika”). She has authored numerous newspaper articles and television stories.

Lali Shalvashvili has graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani State Institute. She has undertaken the Media Management Course at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), training-course of “Reuters” in journalistic techniques, USAID-administered course – Economy for Journalists, the US Information Agency course in investigative journalism, as well as the Media Monitoring course of the EU and the UN Development Program.

Darejan Muradashvili

Darejan Muradashvili

Head of the Gori Office

Darejan Muradashvili manages the Gori office of the Civil Society Institute since January 2018. She joined CSI within the framework of the BftW-funded project – “Establishment of a sustainable union of local actors in Georgia”.
Darejan Muradashvili has a 13-year experience of working as in international tourism, agriculture, as well as in the non-governmental sector.

In 2009-2013 years she worked as Office Manager, Assistant Project Manager at the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ); in 2014-2017 years she served as Regional Representative of “Elkana”, a Biological Farming Association, and Project Coordinator of the European Neighborhood Program (ENPARD).

Darejan Muradashvili graduated from the Faculty of English Language and Literature of Gori State University. She has participated in various exchange training seminars and training programs such as project cycle management, agriculture, cooperation, international relations, and result-oriented project management; she is a graduate of the 2014 Gori Democracy School (NIMD).

In 2019, Darejan attended an Eastern Partnership-organized training course on digital technologies, e-governance, and stakeholder relation methods. She is a participant in the 2019 US Professional Internship Program. Besides, she is also experienced in lobbying activities.

Tata Bochorishvili

Tata Bochorishvili

E-learning Coordinator www.e-learnin.ge

Tamar Bochorishvili has ten years of experience in the civil sector. She was involved in the planning and execution of several educational and research projects. She has received a master’s degree of Arts in Public Administration at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

Since 2017, she has been the coordinator of distance learning and leading the development of different online courses in various fields and the implementation of distance learning. She was involved in the development of 18 online courses and was a co-author of an online course „lobbying and advocacy. “ Tamari is also actively involved in the strengthening of citizens’ participation and capacity development direction at Civil Society Institute.

Nino Mgvdeladze

Nino Mgvdeladze

Policy Analyst

Nino Mgvdeladze has graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University in 2011 and has a BA in Political Science. In 2013 she got a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy at the same University.

Nino Mgvdeladze was an intern at CSI, within the framework of the paid internship program of the project “policy, Advocacy and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) implemented by the East-West Management Institute and financed by USAID. She has some experience in Qualitative and Quantitative researches, making Policy documents and Policy analyze. Nino is a member of Youth Parliament 2013 and the Institute for Public Administration professionals (IPAP).

Nino Surguladze

Nino Surguladze

Financial Officer

Nino Surguladze works as Finance Officer at the Civil Society Institute since 2017. She has many years of experience in the field – served as Chief Economist at the State Insurance Company of Georgia; Chief Accountant at the N(N)LE People’s Harmonious Development Society (finance management and accounting of grant projects funded by the EU, G-PAC, OSGF, Rustaveli Foundation, US Embassy, International Organization for Migration – IOM); Within the framework of a UNDP project, she facilitated the coordination of non-governmental organizations working on women and gender issues, performed submission of reports to donor organizations, and budget control at the N(N)LE International Center for Education of Georgian and German Women and Information; she worked as Grants Coordinator at the Open Society Georgia Foundation (financial management of sub-grants issued within the framework of the OSGF and EU Project).

Nino Surguladze graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Georgian State Agrarian University; holds certificates issued by international organizations: EU and CSRDG – “Taxes and Financial Audit”, UNDP – “Evaluation of Project Outcomes and Reporting”, G-Pac – “Taxation Aspects of Non-Governmental Organizations”, Accounting Course used in the updated functionality of the ORIS program, CTC – “Quality Management Standards ISO 9001-2000”, ORIS, MS Office – “International Standards-Based Accounting Course”.

Sophio Jashi

Sophio Jashi

Assistant-researcher

Sophio Jashi joined the Civil Society Institute’s team as an assistant-researcher in 2022. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Tbilisi State University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration at Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). In both universities she studied with a state funding (100%). During the study Sophio had a high academic performance, she gained semester scholarships and was the best student of the year from 2017-2019 at GIPA.

Within various projects Sophio has worked with the Civil society Organizations, local government representatives and political parties.

Zurab Menagarishvili

Zurab Menagarishvili

Advocacy Officer

Zurab Menagarishvili joined the Civil Society Institute (CSI) team in 2023 as an advocacy officer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tbilisi State University (2018) and a Master’s in International Relations from Ilia State University (2020). As part of an exchange program, he studied political science at the University of Salzburg. Prior to joining CSI, he contributed analytical articles on politics, economy, local self-government, regional conflicts, and Georgia’s European integration to the Georgian online publication ‘Netgazeti’. It focuses on researching citizen participation in local self-government, as well as the institutional development of civil society organizations and state-civil society relations.

Nina Phichkhaia

Nina Phichkhaia

project coordinator

Nina Phichkhaia joined the team at the Civil Society Institute (CSI) in 2023 assuming the role of project coordinator. In 2019, Nina successfully attained a law bachelor’s degree from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Currently Nina is pursuing an interdisciplinary master’s program in psychological anthropology at the same university. Nina possesses expertise in managing projects centered around the academic and professional growth of young individuals, with a solid background in supporting and overseeing program development in this realm. Additionally, Nina has gained valuable experience in both the private and public sectors, actively contributing to the formulation of business strategic development documents, conducting pertinent research, and providing administrative assistance.

Nino Ketiladze

Nino Ketiladze

Information technology administrator

Nino Ketiladze is the web and information technology administrator at the Civil Society Institute.

She has graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the faculty of Physics. Nino has worked on the same faculty for quite a long period. She has experience in working with various non-governmental organizations.

Olga Giorgobiani

Olga Giorgobiani

Administrative Officer

Olga Giorgobiani is the Administrative Manager of the Civil Society Institute. She has a 26-year experience of working in both the public and private sectors.

In 1997-2005 years, she worked at the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia as Chief Specialist of the Office of the Minister, while from 2005 to present, she works at the Civil Society Institute as Administrative Manager.

Olgao Giorgobiani graduated from the Faculty of History – Philology of the State Pedagogical Institute of South Ossetia.

Kristine Gurgenidze

Kristine Gurgenidze

Regional Coordinator

Kristine Gurgenidze – Regional Coordinator of the Civil Society Institute, Citizen Participation and Good Governance Officer – Kristine has many years of experience working in the civil and public sector, including in the direction of strengthening and monitoring regional and local self-government. The main directions of Kristine’s activity at the Civil Society Institute are advocacy of local problems, strengthening the role of young people in the decision-making process, lobbying for the use of participation mechanisms and implementation at the local level, etc. Kristine Gurgenidze graduated from Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, has received a master’s degree of Law at Caucasus University with general specialization, and is a Konrad Adenauer Foundation scholarship holder.

Malkhaz lagazidze

Malkhaz lagazidze

Driver

Malkhaz Lagazidze is an Honored Master of Sports in shooting with bullets, he was a member of the National Team of Georgia.

He has held various positions in both the private and public sectors.

He works at the Civil Society Institute for 15 years.

Vladimer Sakulov

Vladimer Sakulov

Driver

He has held various positions in both the private and public sectors.

He works at the Civil Society Institute from 2023 year.