Fady Asly, Founder & CEO

Fady has a broad experience in the Middle East, Africa, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia in trade and distribution of food products, agriculture, fertilisers and various machinery and equipment with investments in insurance, hospitality, security and media; Fady is Chairman of Agritechnics International, Chairman of Agritechnics Holding Georgia, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Georgian Mines and Energy, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia and member of the Investor’s Council under the Prime Minister of Georgia.

Khatuna Khasaia, COO

Before joining Channel Georgia FZC as COO, Khatuna worked for COLMEF UAE as Procurement Manager and then as Product Line Manager. Khatuna spent most of her professional life in procurement for major companies in the construction and development fields. She holds a Bachelor Degree in International Business and Foreign trade, A Bachelor Degree in English language and literature and an MBA in Project Management from Istanbul Technical University.

Khatuna is fluent in Georgian, Russian, English, Turkish and Polish.

David Kirvalidze / Partner - Agriculture

David Kirvalidze brings 24 years of leadership and management experience in agriculture development specifically focused on development policy, value-added agriculture and private sector development. In 2000 and 2012, Mr. Kirvalidze served two terms as Minister of Agriculture in Georgia. As minister he led efforts in institutional reforms, productivity increase,
Export growth and attracting significant investment into Georgian agriculture sector and food industry. Prior to serving as Georgia’s Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Kirvalidze was elected as a Member of Parliament and served from 1999-2000, where he was responsible for overseeing government practices and legislation. He also was engaged at CNFA as a Senior Advisor from 2006-2012, working with the President to advise on new business development and strategic planning. With his direct participation CNFA was awarded 8 projects with funding of $95 million.
Mr. Kirvalidze began his career as a lecturer at the Georgian State Agricultural University and Institute of Environmental Protection, Ecology and Agribusiness in Georgia and has subsequently undertaken significant work in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Netherlands, Uzbekistan and the United States. He also has practical experience as a farmer.
Mr. Kirvalidze holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural Sciences from Georgian State Agricultural University and Moscow State University and also has a degree in Soil Science and Agro-chemistry from Georgian State Agricultural University in Tbilisi. He is fluent in Georgian, English and Russian.

Sascha Ternes/ Partner- Banking and Financial Services

Sascha, a citizen of Germany, has 20 years of management experience in emerging markets, with a proven track record in the area of finance and banking. He resides in Georgia since 2007, where he initially served as CFO and later as CEO of ProCredit Bank Georgia (the 3rd largest bank in the country, the market leader in MSME lending) and subsequently as Deputy CEO of Bank of Georgia (the country’s largest bank, listed on the London Stock Exchange, FTSE 250). Since 2015 Sascha has been the Managing Partner of TERNES Real Estate Fund, the pioneer in collective investments for creating high-yielding real-estate portfolios in Georgia. Prior to relocating to Georgia, Sascha held various senior executive positions over the course of 13 years in a German Technology Group that focused on international development and investment. Here he was responsible for the implementation and supervision of numerous operations in 10 countries, with duties including assignments to Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Sascha has a background in finance and business administration and was awarded with an honorary doctoral degree, affirmed by the German Ministry of Education & Science. Sascha is a Board Member of Georgia’s Financial Supervision Agency (FSA). He also serves on a volunteer basis as Chairman of the German Business Association (DWV) in Georgia as well as a Chairman of the German International School Tbilisi and as Board Member of the Independent Directors Association in Georgia, all organizations which he co-founded.

Ronald Tyan/ Partner-Business Development

Ronald has over 20 years of experience in finance. His expertise in the derivatives market enabled him to advise privately held and publicly listed European and US financial firms.

Ronald holds a D.E.A. in Economics and Finance from Paris1 La Sorbonne University-France. He was a PhD student in Finance and gained professional experience for over 25 years in market finance trading and advising at Cantor Fitzgerarld and Tullett-Prebon-Yamane London in different derivatives fields, all of which enabled him to pass on his knowledge to new generations as professor at EDHEC Business School in France.

 Ronald is a professional coach and facilitator. He holds a Master1 from Convergence RH, Toulon-France. He advises and works with entrepreneurs, lawyers, politicians, and managing directors. He helps executives and teams of high performance to unleash their potentials for better decision-making, leadership, and management to reach ultimate results and bottom-line growth.

 He founded and managed Albatross Consultant Ltd London and A2X Ltd London, both offering consulting services in management and organization strategy, executive coaching and high management team building, and proprietary trading and interest rates advisory services for banks and hedge funds.

 Ronald explored collaborative management, mediation and negotiation at high levels. He also headed negotiations for the CME in Europe.

 His COO role at ZETA INSIGHTS, Bangalore, gave him new insights about managing organisations and people and helped refining his skills of flexibility and adaptation.

 Being a board member in several companies and having gained experience in business and organisational leadership, Ronald acts as a catalyst to facilitating solutions.

 His involvement in deals at different levels – strategy, negotiation, resources and capital restructuring – in technology, real estate and finance gave him a privileged position to analyzing and selecting investments.

Ronald’s relationships throughout his different experiences led to a solid network of client base ranging from Europe to Asia including MENA and the GCC region.

Ronald is fluent in French, Arabic and English.

R. Michael Cowgill / Partner-Energy

In his 19^th year in Georgia, Michael is the President and co-founder of Georgian American University (GAU) in Tbilisi, Georgia, with Schools of Business; Law, International Relations & Diplomacy; Informatics & Engineering; and Humanities & Liberal Arts. He is also the Co-Director of International Energy, LLC, providing independent strategic energy, regulatory and financial development services for oil and gas projects in the Caspian and Black Sea Regions. Michael has over 40 years of experience in managing all phases of projects in 40+ countries in the energy and education industries with emphases in project/construction management, environmental, regulatory and strategic analysis, operational risk management, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and global business development. From 1999-2003 he was the pipeline adviser for the Government of Georgia providing strategic, regulatory, technical assistance and technology transfer for the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Oil) and South Caucasus (Natural Gas) Pipelines.

Michael is President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia (AmCham), Past Chair and now Board Liaison for HR/Education, CSR and Energy Committees; TRACE International Certification 2014/2015 www.TRACEInternational.org certifying compliance with international anti-corruption/bribery standards; Steering Committee, UNDP Global Compact Program for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Georgia; Member of Georgian Government Anti-Corruption Council; Georgia Representative to OECD Responsible Business Conduct Initiative; Previous member of the Board of Directors of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA); Previous Advisor to the University of Texas’ Business and Environmental MBA program; Previous member of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners (TIPRO) Environmental Committee.

Michael has an MBA from UC Berkeley and is a PhD candidate at Georgian American University.

Ludovic Girod/ Partner-Market Research

Ludovic is the Founding Partner and Director of Experto Consulting. Ludovic is a business developer and an entrepreneur by nature. He is the Owner/Managing Director of Pepela LTD a chain of toys stores with division for toys re-export and distribution in the Caucasus countries as well as for Zebra Group, a publishing house for children books in Georgia and Azerbaijan. In parallel he was the Managing Director of Clasquin Georgia, a forwarding, logistics and international transportation company. Ludovic is the Vice-President of the Chambre of Commerce and Industry France-Georgie.

Before moving to Georgia, Ludovic worked for several companies in France: XO Editions Group and Editions du Seuil as Sales Director; Groupe Eyrolles as Direct Sales and Marketing Manager and French National Service as an Officer on Air Base.

Ludovic holds a Full Time MBA degree from Institut Supérieur du Commerce de Paris (ISC) in France.

Keti Sidamonidze / Partner-Market Research

Ketevan (Keti) Sidamonidze is the Managing Partner of Experto Consulting. Before joining the company she worked for the Georgian National Investment Agency as the Chief Advisor to the Director for over a year. She also was the Private Investment and Financing Consultant for USAID EC-LEDS Clean Energy Program.

Keti holds a Full Time MBA degree from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. During her MBA she interned as a Consultant for the social entrepreneurship initiative of ESADE, BBVA and PwC in Spain called The Momentum Project where she aided Grupo Sacendi in devising a replicable sustainable growth strategy that resulted in obtaining a 0.5 million EUR Impact Loan from BBVA Bank.

Up until the MBA she was the Focal Point of the United Nations Global Compact Georgia Network. Keti has successfully led the internal and external communications of the Network that resulted in increasing the membership of the network by 35%. For over 7 years Keti worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, lately as the Projects Team Leader/Manager and she led dozens of projects, including two US-Georgia Business Summits and USDA Trade and Investment Mission to Georgia. In addition, Keti ran AmCham Tourism, IT & Telecom, Trade and Transportation Facilitation, SME, CSR, Agri-business and Tax Committees for several years. Keti was the founding Board Member of the Georgian SME Association and a member of the Advisory Board of www.PRExchange.ge, the only PR and Marketing club in Georgia before moving to Barcelona.

Maia Sidamonidze / Partner-Tourism

Maia is the former Head of Georgian National Tourism Administration. After obtaining her BBA and MBA Degrees in Tourism and Hospitality from Swiss and UK educational institutions, she pursued her professional career in hospitality industry in Georgia and in the UK. In 2010, Maia won an open competition to become the Head of Georgian National Tourism Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. She led for three years the tourism industry in Georgia that was determined by the Georgian government as one of the top priority sectors to develop the country. Under her leadership, Tourism became one of the fastest growing industries in Georgia and achieved the highest growth of international tourism in the region according to the UNWTO report. Maia is currently the owner of a hotel and a leading tour operating business in Georgia. Before starting her own business, she was for two years the Dean of the Tourism Faculty at the Caucasus University in Georgia.

Jamil-Henry GERMAIN/ Partner-Water Treatment Technologies

Jamil has been active in the Middle East for more than thirty years consulting, contracting and operating as joint-venture project manager in various scales of municipal water treatment works and environmental friendly applications featuring the ozone technology. He has been assisting since years international water treatment manufacturers and contractors from tendering to final commissioning stages. Jamil specialises in existing treatment plants that could benefit from an upgrade in performance via the introduction of advanced oxidation stages .

Nick Gvinadze/ Chief Legal Advisor

Nick is the Managing Partner of Gvinadze & Partners LLC. With over two decades of busy private practice, he has accumulated abundant experience in the whole spectrum of both Georgian and cross-border commercial law, with particular focus on energy, infrastructure, tax and dispute resolution. Nick has advised on a number of key foreign investment projects in Georgia, including major oil and gas transportation projects in the Caspian region, and has acted in a number of higher profile proceedings in the Georgian Courts as well as in international arbitration.

Before re-launching Gvinadze & Partners in 2010, Nick was a partner at DLA Piper Gvinadze & Partners LP, headed Ernst & Young’s legal practice in Georgia, was a partner at GCG Law Office (a leading Georgian law firm in the 1990’s), served as an attorney to the Financial Department of the Georgian Parliament, and acted as local counsel to an international law firm in the UK. He is also the former Chairman of the Arbitration Court of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he authored the Court’s Arbitration Rules, and has also sat on the Grants Commission at the Open Society Georgia Foundation, as well as on the Investment Support Council at the Georgian Parliament. Over the years, Nick has lectured extensively on various aspects of Georgian and International Business Law at various leading educational institutions in Georgia.

Nick is also a Member of the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, Co-Chairman of the British-Georgian Law Association (BGLA), and sits on the Boards of the EU-Georgia Business Council (EUGBC) and the Georgian-Swiss Business Association (GSBA). Nick is a founding member of the Georgian Bar Association (GBA) as well as Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), and is also a member of the International Bar Association (IBA).

Nick has received a Diploma in Jurisprudence with high honors from Tbilisi State University, a Diploma from the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at the University of London, as well as an LL.M in International Business Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Nick is fluent in his native Georgian, as well as in English and Russian.