ISET and ISET-PI Director

Tamara Sulukhia was World Bank’s Sustainable Development and Infrastructure Program Leader for Turkey February 2016-March 2019, based in Ankara, Turkey. In 2010-2015 she served as a Sustainable Development Program Leader for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, based in Kiev, Ukraine. She joined the World Bank in the Regional Office for Caucasus in Tbilisi in 2004 as Senior Infrastructure Specialist. Prior to the Bank, she served as the Minister of Infrastructure and Development of Georgia (2004); as the Head of Local Governance Center of Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) in Tbilisi (2002-2004); was a Fulbright Scholar at the George Washington University in Washington DC (2001-2002) and Development Assistance Specialist in USAID/Caucasus (1997-2001). Her experience includes being a Board Member of several leading Georgian and International NGO’s, and President of Association of Women for Urban Development of Georgia. In 2002-2009 she was teaching Urban Policy and Governance at the Georgian Institute of Public Administration. She is an author of number of publications on urban planning and governance. Tamara holds PhD in urban planning (1997) from Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Chairman of ISET’s International Faculty Committee Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University

Paul Wachtel is a Professor of Economics and the Academic Director of the B.S. in Business and Political Economy Program, at New York University Stern School of Business. He teaches courses in monetary policy, banking and central banking, and global macroeconomics. Professor Wachtel has been with NYU Stern since 1972. He has served as the chairperson of the Economics Department and as Vice Dean for Program Development at Stern and was also the chairperson of the University Faculty Council. His primary areas of research include monetary policy, central banking, and financial sector reform in economies in transition. He is the author of several books, including Banking In Transition Economies: Developing Market Oriented Banking Sectors in Europe (Edward Elgar, 1998).

His writing has been published in numerous journals, including, most recently, Economic Inquiry , Journal of Banking and Finance, Comparative Economic Studies and Journal of Money Credit and Banking . He is the co-editor of Comparative Economic Studies and the program chair for the Dubrovnik Economic Conferences. He has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a senior economic advisor to the East West Institute, and a consultant to the Bank of Israel, the IMF and the World Bank. Professor Wachtel received his bachelor of arts from Queens College, his master of arts in economics from the University of Rochester, and his doctor of philosophy from the University of Rochester.

  Academic Director at BEROC

Mykhaylo Salnykov is an Academic Director at BEROC. He earned his PhD in Economics at the Simon Fraser University (Canada) in 2008 supplemented by two Masters in Economic Theory (Kyiv School of Economics, 2004) and Environmental Sciences and Policy (Central European University, 2002). Mykhaylo’s primary research interests are in the fields of environmental and natural resources economics, energy economics, applied microeconomics and applied econometrics.

Vladimer Papava was born in Tbilisi on March 25, 1955. In 1972 he finished Tbilisi secondary school No 15 with a gold medal. That same year he enrolled at the Faculty of Engineering Economics of the Tbilisi State University with a specialization in economic cybernetics graduating it with excellence in 1977. In 1977 he started to work as a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics and Law of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. In 1978-1982 he was a research intern at the Central Economic Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and later a post-graduate student at the same institute. In 1982 Vladimer Papava returned to the Institute of Economics and Law of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, where he held the positions of junior, senior, leading and principal research fellows. In 1991 he was elected as the Director of the Institute of Economics and Law.

On June 24, 1994 Papava was appointed Minister of Economy by decision of the Head of State of Georgia; he held this position until May 2000. Vladimir Papava is the author of 343 papers, monographs, textbooks and articles with 34 articles published in international and 24 – in Russian journals with high impact factor. He has published 14 monographs abroad (USA, Sweden, Russia, Greece, Azerbaijan). The citation index under Publish or Perish 4 is 490. He is a member of the editorial boards of two international and one Russian scientific journals with high impact factors. During years Vladimer Papava performed various duties: Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the Georgian Academy of Sciences – Economic Series (1992-2005); Chairman of the Coordinating Economic Council of the Scientific Experts Board of Georgia (1992-2003); Member of the Economic Council of the President of Georgia (1993-2003; 2005-present); Alternate Governor of the World Bank for Georgia (USA, 1994-2000); Member of the Editorial Board of the Problems of Economic Transition (USA, 1997-present); Member of the Editorial Board of the Society and Economics (Russia, 1998-present); Member of the Editorial Board of the Central Asia and The Caucasus (Sweden, 2004-present); Member of the Editorial Board of The Caucasus & Globalization (Sweden, 2006-present); Member of the Transatlantic Steering Group for Project on Democratic Transitions (USA, 2006-present); Senior Associate Fellow of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center (Johns Hopkins University-SAIS) (2006-present); Member of the CASE (Center for Social and Economic Research) Advisory Council (Poland, 2007-present); Chairman of the Scientific Committee for Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia (2011-present); Member of the Board of Advisers of the Minister of Finance of Georgia (2013-present).