Giorgi Maisashvili

Giorgi (Gia) Maisashvili ( _ka. გიორგი [გია] მაისაშვილი) (born November 24 1962) is a Georgian economist and politician who was a presidential candidate in the Georgian presidential election, 2008.

Born in Tbilisi, Maisashvili graduated from the Tbilisi State University in 1985. He was involved in students' pro-independence protests against the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, but left Georgia after Eduard Shevardnadze came to power in 1992. He was granted a political asylum by the United States and graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1997. The same year, he joined the Houston, Texas-based energy company Enron and served as the head of a risk analysis unit until quitting the company in 2001.

He returned to Georgia on the eve of the 2003 Rose Revolution and became an economics consultant to the then opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili. Shortly after Saakashvili's ascend to power, Maisashvili distanced himself with the new president. In 2006, he set up a [http://leader.ge/ Leadership School] with the declared aim to rear "a new generation of skilled, wise and courageous leaders." In July 2007, he became more actively involved in politics and established the Party of Future ("momavlis partia").

He registered as a presidential candidate for the early elections called on January 5 2008. He makes a major focus economy and social solidarity, and supports Georgia's bid to join NATO. On November 30 2007 he declared that he would support Mikheil Saakashvili in the case of a second-round run-off against the tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. [ [http://www.civil.ge/eng_/article.php?id=16637 Candidates: Giorgi Maisashvili] . Civil Georgia. December 21, 2007.]

He is running in the May 2008 Parliamentary election from Tbilisi’s Saburtalo constituency on the Christian-Democratic Alliance ticket. The Alliance also unites the Greens Party, as well Temur Shashiashvili, formerly a governor of Imereti during Eduard Shevardnadze’s presidency. [ [http://www.civil.ge/eng/detail.php?id=17552 List of Majoritarian MP Candidates.] Civil Georgia, April 24 2008.]

References

External links

* [http://www.giorgimaisashvili.ge/index.php?m=page&pn=1&lang=ge The Maisashvili campaign website]