Lasha Zhvania

Lasha Zhvania
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Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development
In office 9 December 2008 – August 2009
President	Mikheil Saakashvili
Prime Minister	Grigol Mgaloblishvili
Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee
In office 14 June 2008 – 9 December 2008
President	Mikheil Saakashvili
Preceded by	Konstantine Gabashvili
Succeeded by	Zurab Pololikashvili
Ambassador of Georgia to Israel
In office 18 March 2005 – 7 June 2008
President	Mikheil Saakashvili
Prime Minister	Lado Gurgenidze
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 2004–2005
President	Mikheil Saakashvili
Personal details
Born	14 October 1973 Tbilisi, Georgia
Spouse(s)	Tea Kiknavelidze
Religion	Georgian Orthodoxy

Lasha Zhvania (Georgian: ლაშა ჟვანია) (born 14 October 1973 in Tbilisi, Georgia) is a Georgian politician, Currently serves as General Manager of the International Humanitarian Foundation of Patriarch of Georgia His Holiness Ilia II [1], the Minister for Economic Development from November 2008 till August 2009 and an ex-Parliament of Georgia. A lawyer by education specializing in international law, he has served in the posts of Consul in Israel, Deputy-Minister of Finance, Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Israel and the Republic of Cyprus, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.

Early life and career

Lasha Zhvania was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. He was educated at Tbilisi school No 1 (1979–1990), Faculty of International Law and International Relations of the Tbilisi State University (1990–1995), PHD study on International Humanitarian and Refugee Law at the Department for International Law of the Tbilisi State University (1995–1998). Apart from numerous high-profile government positions Zhvania has been actively involved in various educational Programmes attending the CPDS - Courses for Political and Diplomatic Studies in UK's Leeds University, in 1995, and Refugee and IDP International Law Programme at Birmingham University in UK, in 1998.

In addition to his native Georgian, he speaks English, Hebrew, Russian and Greek. Zhvania was elected to the Parliament on May 21, 2008. His appointment as Chairman for Foreign Relations Committee on 14 June 2008 coincided with Georgia’s increasingly tense relations with its northern neighbor Russia and Occupation by Russian Federation of Georgian regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO.

He is married to Tea Kiknavelidze and they have three children - Anna, Sulkhan-Irineos and Helen.