Kakha Bendukidze
Chairman of the Free University of Tbilisi, Former minister and Head of State Chancellery of Georgia
Areas of expertise
Keynote Speaker at SBS
Biographical Statement
Kakha Bendukidze is a Georgian reformer, businessman and philanthropist. He began his career in the 1980s as a molecular biologist in a research institute and in 1989 he co-founded the Bioprocess Corporation in Moscow subsequently becoming its chairman. From 1996 to 2004 Mr. Bendukidze was chairman and chief executive officer of OMZ, one of Russia’s largest heavy engineering companies. He moved back to Georgia in 2004 when he was appointed minister of economy. He served as state minister in charge of reform coordination in 2004-2008 and was head of the State Chancellery from 2008 to 2009. During that period Georgia became the top-reforming country in the world according to the World Bank’s Doing Business report. In particular, Georgia jumped from 137 to 11 on the ease of doing business scale. Several years ago Mr. Bendukidze started investing in the education sector in Georgia and launched the Free University of Tbilisi where he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2011 he founded an entity that took over the management of the state agricultural university in Tbilisi. Mr. Bendukidze also set up the private equity fund Linnaeus Capital Partners that has increasingly focused on aquaculture, with stakes in companies in Greece, Israel and Britain. He is AquaBounty Technologies’ largest shareholder.
Publications
Leadership and Reforms, Kakha Bendukidze