George Melashvili


George Melashvili is a public figure and a civic activist who is the founder and president of the Europe-Georgia Institute, a hybrid non-governmental organization in Georgia since September 2016.

Education

Melashvili graduated from the Free University of Tbilisi founded by Georgian statesman, visionary and philanthropist Kakha Bendukidze in 2016 with a degree in International Relations. During his bachelor studies, he received a scholarship from the Academy of Korean Studies to study South Korea’s economic development and democratic transition. He is also an alumnus of Haifa University program supported by the government of Israel and successfully graduated from Swedish Institute Summer Academy for Young Professionals in Malmö, Sweden.

Career

George was one of the leaders of the Future Diplomats’ Club – a youth organizations in Georgia dedicated to contemporary international relations, diplomacy, civil politics and the rights of youth. He was selected as a member of Presidential Discussion Club hosted by the President of Georgia and was part of the team working on contemporary challenges of Georgia's neighborhood and the Black Sea Region, followed by a successful internship at the International Department of the Presidential Administration of Georgia.
During the 2016 Georgian parliamentary election, George Melashvili managed the unprecedented Get out the vote campaign “Your Voice, Our Future” uniting citizens of Georgia to realize the importance of their vote. The campaign mobilized 500 volunteers from Georgia's all regions and was held in Georgia's all 11 regions and the capital city and managed to increase the youth turnout by more than 20%. The campaign was followed by an #Initiative project aiming to increase youth participation in decision making and civic life and issued more 500 small scale grants were issued to support activities in more than 20 municipalities of Georgia.
George Melashvili also was a lecturer at the School of Diplomacy of the Free University. He served as the youth delegate at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and is actively involved in different initiatives promoting civic engagement, regional cooperation, and international development.
He is the holder of the first prize award for his essay about Janri Kashia’s book “Totalitarianism” and Mikheil Javakhishvili Medal for a documentary film about Soviet repressions, and is the winner of the MLOW contest held by the United Nations Academic Impact and was invited to the United Nations to make a speech about the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
During the opening event of the "Europe in a suitcase" project held by the Europe-Georgia Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Melashvili initiated the Oliver Wardrop Discussions to bring together British and Georgian politicians and young leaders and foster dialogue and cooperation between the countries. The first Wardrop Discussion was held on the 22-nd of October, 2019 and featured former Georgian Ambassador to the UK Giorgi Badridze, the representative of British Liberal Democrats Imad Ahmed and others.