Team
The people behind CDGR
Founding team
Founding Director
Dr. Elguja Khokrishvili
Dr. Elguja Khokrishvili is a political economist and former diplomat specialising in EU external relations, democratic resilience, and governance reforms in transition countries. He served as Ambassador of Georgia to Germany from 2017 to 2019 and was based at the Embassy in Berlin from 2015 to 2020. He has taught at IU International University Berlin and held teaching and research fellowships at Freie Universität Berlin under the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Chair, at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and at Araminta gUG in Berlin. He holds a Dr. rer. pol. from the University of Potsdam and a Master in Business and Economics from the same institution. His publications cover economic resilience, tax reform and fiscal decentralisation, and EU integration. He has provided policy expertise to the Open Society Institute, UNDP, and USAID, and co-founded the Caucasian Institute for Economic and Social Research (CIESR).
Co-Founder
Dimitri Tskitishvili
Dimitri Tskitishvili is a political analyst and former parliamentarian working on foreign policy and democratic reform in transition countries. During his tenure as a Member of the Parliament of Georgia (2016–2020), he served as Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and played a significant role in legislative reforms in gender equality, occupational safety, and labour rights. He has served as a policy consultant for international organisations, focusing on governance reforms and social protection. He is a board member and co-founder of the Georgian Progressive Forum, a social-democratic think tank advocating for inclusive economic policies, labour rights, and democratic development. He holds a BA in Foreign Economic Relations from the Tbilisi State Institute of Economic Relations and an MA in International Studies from the University of Wyoming.
Associated Fellows
Associated Fellow
Zaza Broladze
Zaza Broladze is a senior economist and public policy researcher with nearly three decades of experience in economic analysis, fiscal policy, and institutional reform. He holds an MS in Policy Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from The George Washington University. He served as Chairman of the National Statistics Office of Georgia (GEOSTAT), where he modernised the national statistical framework, and has been a member of its Advisory Board since 2017. As a Monetary Economist at the IMF Resident Representative Office in Georgia, he tracked monetary trends, exchange rate dynamics, and fiscal developments. He has contributed to policy research and reform initiatives across Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan, working with institutions including the World Bank, USAID, and the European Commission.
Associated Fellow
Teona Akubardia
Teona Akubardia is a defence and national security expert with extensive experience spanning public service, academia, and civil society. She served as a Member of Parliament of Georgia and Deputy Chair of the Defence and Security Committee from 2020 to 2024, and previously as Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia from 2014 to 2018. She has been an Associate Professor at Tbilisi Open University since 2019, teaching international and national security courses, and is a co-founder and board member of the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center (GSAC). She holds a PhD from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, an MA in International Security and Strategy from King’s College London, and completed the postgraduate course at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) in London.
Associated Fellow
Nino Dolidze
Nino Dolidze is a democracy, elections, and information integrity expert with over 20 years of experience in democratic governance, electoral integrity, countering disinformation, and human rights protection in complex political environments. From 2021 to 2025, she served as Executive Director of ISFED, Georgia’s leading election observation organisation. Prior to that, she spent nearly a decade at the International Republican Institute (IRI), focusing on electoral reform, political party development, and women’s political participation. In 2025, she received the Madeleine K. Albright Democracy Award for her work defending election integrity and promoting democratic participation. She holds an MA in Public Policy and Administration and a BA in Diplomacy and International Relations, and is an alumna of Yale University’s Women’s Campaign School (2016) and the McCain Institute Global Leadership Program (2022). She lectures in political science and currently consults international organisations on electoral and information integrity.
Advisory Board
CDGR’s Advisory Board is currently being established. Members will be announced in due course.
Fellows and associates
CDGR will host visiting fellows and associated researchers working on the Black Sea region, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Calls for applications will be published here.