Vakhtang Lejava
Vakhtang (Vato) Lejava - the chancellor of the Free University, the head of the Advisory Board to the Prime Minister of Georgia in 2005-2007. [1]
He was Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Deputy Minister of Economy in 2004 and in 2007-2008, Deputy State Minister of Reforms Coordination 2005-2007, Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister and Head of Advisory Group on Economic and Governance Affairs in 2009-2012, and Deputy Minister of Finance in 2012. . [1]
Vato was a leading member of Government bodies that guided a wide range of exemplary economic, structural, regulatory and business climate reforms that covered, but was not limited to: Liberty Act, sector reforms, privatization, international trade and investment climate. . [1]
Vato Lejava led and coordinated swift and successful work on Doing Business reforms, resulting in Georgia becoming #8 in 2014 globally, moving from #112 in 2005. . [1]
He was the negotiator from Georgian Government side on the Economic Chapter of the Association Agreement with the EU; A key member of the negotiating team and the negotiator on two topics of the Georgian-EU negotiations on the DCFTA in 2009-2012. He represented Georgia in the Council of Europe GRECO (anti-corruption body), served as a deputy Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Council of Georgia. In this period Georgia moved in the Transparency International CPI Ranking from #124 (2003) to #51 (2014) outperforming some EU-member states. From 2012 he is managing a premier tertiary education institution - Free University of Tbilisi, that has doubled its intake retaining outstanding quality and record high employment rate of the graduates. [1]
In 2014-2016 he was an acting CEO of the Knowledge Fund, established by Kakha Bendukidze, that made unprecedented for Georgia private investment fo app. 50 mln. USD into higher education. . [1]
As as partner of consulting company Refomatics (est. 2012) Vato is currently advising a number of governments in Central Europe, Africa and Asia (2011-2015). Vato was a board member of the Georgian Rugby Union (2011-2015) .[1]