Our Team in Georgia

Cătălin Ţacu has been appointed by International Labour Organization (ILO) as Chief Technical Adviser (Project Manager) for DANIDA-funded project on “Inclusive Labour Market for Job Creation in Georgia”, on February 15, 2021. Before joining the UN family he worked as labour inspector at Territorial Labour Inspectorate Iaşi – Romanian Labour Inspection, occupying management positions in the area of enforcement and monitoring labour relations. He was also involved in international activities and projects regarding labour inspection and mobility of workers, including the membership of the Committee of Experts on Posting of Workers of the European Commission.
Cătălin Ţacu graduated the Law School, a Master’s in Human Resource Management and a PhD in Management. As associate professor, he has been teaching about legal aspects in international human resource management, EU social law, and enforcement of labour law

Dr. Khalil is currently the UNICEF Representative to Georgia and also serves as MBA thesis supervisor with the UN Staff College and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Before joining UNICEF Georgia, he served as the Senior Advisor to UNICEF Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa and the UNICEF Special Representative in Libya. He was also the managing director and principal consultant of the International Centre for Research and Training (ICRT) based in Dubai and the Chairperson of the Beirut Centre for Human Rights. He held important positions in Lebanon, in the League of Arab States, Iraq, Bangladesh and the Arab Gulf Area.

Irakli Malania has been appointed as the Humanitarian Affairs Officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the South Caucasus, based in Tbilisi. Before joining OCHA, Irakli has served as the Public Diplomacy Programs Coordinator to the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi since 2018. His portfolio included educational and professional exchange, public diplomacy, and democracy assistance programs. He also worked as a Project Officer for the refugee integration and livelihood project implemented by the United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG) and as a Project Assistant for the Advancing National Integration project implemented with financial support from USAID. Irakli holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), and also graduated from the Free University of Tbilisi with a BA Honors specialization in International Relations with Concentration on Far East (Chinese Language). He spent an exchange year in San Antonio, TX as a FLEX program finalist (2009-2010) and went to Nanjing, China (2014-2015) to study Chinese language and culture as a university exchange student.

Ms. Kaori Ishikawa officially assumed her assignment as UN Women Country Representative for Georgia on 27 August 2021.

Kaori brings over 20 years of extensive experience managing peace, humanitarian and development programmes as well as policy and advocacy work in over 20 countries.

Prior to her assignment in Georgia, she was the Head of Office for UNFPA Mongolia. Kaori served in a number of UNFPA Country Offices and Sub-Offices with large and complex operations, including Lao PDR, Yemen, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. She also served in UNFPA Arab States Regional Office (ASRO) in Cairo and Gender, Human Rights and Culture Branch of Technical Division of UNFPA HQ in New York as Gender Specialist.

Prior to joining UNFPA, she worked with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP) in Japan.
Kaori is a national from Japan and holds a Bachelor's degrees in Sociology, with specialization on social welfare policy on aging population from Ritsumeikan University, Japan; a Diploma in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, UK; a Master's degree in Women and Development from Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands; and a Master of Business Administration at Warwick Business School in the UK.
She is married with one daughter.

Ms Furley has worked with UNHCR for nearly 25 years in various functions including programme, policy, communications, emergency response and humanitarian inter-agency coordination. She headed the partnership section in HQs supporting UNHCR’s global partnerships with NGOs and UN agencies, and was later head of policy and field support for Eastern Europe and South East Europe. Most recently she was Deputy Representative and then Head of External Relations in Uganda, UNHCR’s biggest Africa operation. She has also worked as UNICEF Deputy Representative in Russia. She has degrees from Cambridge and Princeton universities.

Mrs. Bakradze has been appointed UNFPA Head of Office in Georgia in January 2020. She has worked for UNFPA/Georgia for more than 15 years leading its programming in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and population dynamics, since 2014 in a capacity of an Assistant Representative. Before joining UNFPA she worked for UNIFEM, GRCS/IFRC and other international NGOs. In the beginning of her career, Mrs. Bakradze worked as a Medical Doctor in leading clinics of St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation, and Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a degree of a Medical Doctor from Tbilisi State Medical University and MBA from the Caucasus School of Business (in partnership with Georgia State University, USA).

After three-year assignment as a FAO Liaison Officer for Georgia, Mr Meskhi was appointed in his current position of the Assistant FAO Representative in 2004 when the Representation Office of the Organization was inaugurated in Georgia. Before joining FAO, Mr. Meskhi briefly served as the Head of International Relations Department in the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia in 2000. From 1991 to 2000 he worked for the private sector in the areas of agriculture and energy, including the positions of an Import & Marketing Manager of HANWHA Petroleum (Seoul, Korea), Coordinator of a Gulf-Georgia Project Fertilizers for Dry Areas in Sharjah, the U.A.E., the Trade Consultant in Benghazi, Libya and the Marketing Consultant of Jason Co in Moscow, Russian Federation and Wolvega, the Netherlands. In 1986-91 he was a lecturer of the Contemporary Arabic at the Department of Semitic Languages in the Tbilisi State University. Mr. Meskhi holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, MSc in International Relations and BSc in Linguistics.

Ms. Chamilova joined UNODC Georgia in 2016 with 23 years of comprehensive analytical, planning, admin and int’l program management experience, including 10 years working overseas. She has significant experience in representing and consulting on behalf of Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). She holds a PhD in cross-cultural problems, Education Research Institute, Moscow, Russia; B.Ed. Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada; B.A. in History/Social Studies, Dagestan State University, Russia.

Nick Beresford has over 20 years’ experience within the UN system and has served in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Somalia and East Timor. He holds a Master of Science in Development Economics from the University of Sussex (UK). He also holds degrees in audit and accountancy and English literature.

Mrs. Sanja Celebic Lukovac, has been appointed the Chief of Mission of the IOM Mission to Georgia in July 2018. She has been with the IOM since 1998 and has acquired extensive experience in migration issues and IOM’s programmes. She also served in IOM Mission in Iraq as Head, Programme Development and Support Unit/Senior Programme Development and Donors Liason Officer. Prior to that, she worked in the Regional Liaison and Co-ordination Office to the European Union as Liaison and Project Development Officer covering Northern Africa and Middle East, Western Balkans, and Turkey.

Mr. Molineus is the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus, effective July 1, 2019. He joined the International Finance Corporation in 2002 where he managed corporate governance reform programs in Russia and across the Middle East & North Africa region. In 2008 he joined the World Bank in Washington as a Senior Operations Officer responsible for financial and private sector development and then became a Practice Manager for the Capital Markets Global Practice. He also served as Director to the Finance & Markets Global Practice and later as the Director for the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, he worked at the OECD.

Selim Cakir has rejoined the IMF as Sr. Economist in August 2016 and has been working as the IMF’s Resident Representative in Georgia since June 2019. Prior to rejoining the IMF, he worked as Chief Economist for Turkey and Gulf countries at Bnp Paribas between 2008 and 2016. Prior to his career at Bnp Paribas, he held various positions at the International Monetary Fund during a tenure of 10 years where he worked on Middle East and transition economies in Central Asia. Mr. Çakır represented the government of Turkey in the Executive Board of the IMF between 1999 and 2003, and had an active role in the design of the government of Turkey’s economic program.

Dr Domente is WHO Representative and Head of the Country Office in Georgia since April 2019. In 2013, he became part of the WHO team on the ground in Athens, Greece, acting initially as Health System Analyst and since 2016 as Senior Adviser, Health Policy and team leader. In 2004 Dr Domente has joined the UN family, working first for UNICEF Moldova as HIV Officer. Since 2008 Dr Domente is with WHO. He worked initially as Technical Officer, Disaster Preparedness and Response and then as Health System Officer in the WHO Country Office in the Republic of Moldova.

Mr Talgat Toleubayev of France has been appointed Regional Coordinator in the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute’s CBRN Risk Mitigation and Security Governance Programme on 1 November 2019. He coordinates activities for 10 countries of South East and East Europe region within the framework of the European Union’s CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative.
Prior to assuming this position, he has worked at the headquarters of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) for more than 16 years. He graduated from the Boston University majoring in Strategy and Security Studies.

Dr. Shkolnikov holds this position since July 2011. Prior to this assignment he held a number of positions in the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations focusing on human rights and good governance in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He also served as a Senior Fellow at the Jefferson Institute with offices in Belgrade, Serbia and Washington. He also served as the Director, Europe Office of Freedom House in Hungary, the OSCE/ODIHR Adviser on Migration and Freedom of Movement and later as the Head of Democratization Department of OSCE/ODIHR in Poland, and the Resident Research Consultant at the RAND Corporation in the USA.