Speaker
Mikheil
Janelidze
Position
Institution
Served as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from September 2015 until his appointment as Minister. In this capacity, he had a portfolio of Georgia’s relations with the United States and Canada as well as economic diplomacy.
Prior to moving to the Georgian Foreign Service, has enjoyed an extensive career at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia in the period of 2009–2015 initially as Director of Foreign Trade and International Economic Affairs Department, and, since 2011, as Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development. Throughout these years he also served as Georgia’s Chief Trade Negotiator with the EU and Chairman of Intergovernmental Economic Commissions with various countries. Before joining the public service and taking up the government job, Mr. Janelidze worked for the private sector as a manager and an entrepreneur in the area of business development and management consulting mostly focused on international trade and investment.
Earned his Bachelor’s degree with honors in International Relations from Tbilisi State University in 2002. Later, in 2003-2006, he continued his postgraduate studies in International Law and European Law at the Diplomatic Academy in the Russian Federation. In 2011, earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration with Distinction from the Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France and the International Executive MBA from CSB in Georgia. Prior to that, in 1996-1997, studied at the Hochwald Gymnasium in Wadern, Germany.
In 2011 Mikheil Janelidze was awarded - the Order of Honor - for his outstanding contribution to the development of foreign trade and international economic relations of Georgia