NBG Board Appoints Two New Vice Presidents  

The Board of the National Bank of Georgia appointed two new Vice Presidents, the NBG reported on November 30. Ekaterine Mikabadze and Ekaterine Galdava became the new Vice-Presidents. 

The newly appointed Vice Presidents have already been and will continue to be members of the Board, which is the supreme body of the financial regulator. The candidacies of Mikaberidze and Galdava for the position of members of the Board were supported by the Parliament of Georgia in 2021 for the period of seven years, i.e. from 2021 to 2028. 

Thus, together with the position of members of the Board of Directors, they will hereafter serve as Vice Presidents of the National Bank of Georgia.

New NBG Board Members:

Ekaterine Mikabadze – Prior to her appointment as a member of the Board and now as the vice president of the NBG, Ekaterine Mikabadze served as the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, from 2019 to 2021.  She also held several positions at the National Bank of Georgia, first as a Chief Specialist in the Balance of Payments Division of the Macroeconomics and Statistics Department from 2009 to 2011, then as a Chief Specialist in the Monetary Policy Division of the Macroeconomics and Statistics Department from 2011 to 2013, and then as a Chief Specialist in the Monetary Policy Division of the Macroeconomics and Statistics Department  from 2013 to 2016. From 1995 to 2007, Mikabadze held various positions at the National Statistics Office of Georgia.

Mikabadze holds a Master’s degree in Economic Sciences from Tokyo International University, which she received in 2008. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Information Science and Management Systems from the Georgian Technical University in 1995.

Ekaterine Galdava – Ekaterine Galdava has held several positions in the National Bank of Georgia in the past. From 2005 to 2007, she was a member of the NBG’s Board of Directors and Vice-President. Among other positions at the NBG, Ms Galdava worked simultaneously as Chief Economist in the Economic and Credit Policy Department and as Head of the Information and Forecasting Department in the Macroeconomic Policy and Monetary Operations Department from 1993 to 1994. At the NBG, she also served as Deputy Head of the Macroeconomic Policy and Monetary Operations Department from 1996 to 1998 and then as Advisor to the President on Economic Issues from 1998 to 2001.

She also worked in the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, first as Head of the Department of Infrastructure Policy and Development Partner Relations from 2917 to 2018, and then as an advisor from 2020 to 2021.

Galdava holds a master’s degree in economics. She studied at Williams College in Williamstown, USA from 2001 to 2002.

Current NBG Board

According to the law on National Bank, Vice Presidents candidacies are submitted by the President of the National Bank for approval by the Board. The Board members candidacies themselves are submitted by the President of Georgia and approved by the Parliament for the seven-year term. Currently, there are six members of the Board of the National Bank.

These are Natia Turnava (First Vice President and the acting President of the National Bank), Ekaterine Mikabadze, Ekaterine Galdava, Robert H. Singletary, Teimuraz Khomeriki and Nana Keinishvili. The latter two were appointed by the Parliament on September 21. 

Rearrangement of personnel in the financial regulator started shortly after the acting NBG President Natia Turnava introduced the changes in the sanctions’ enforcement rules, according to which the “Georgian citizen can not be subjected to international sanctions unless convicted by a Georgian court.” The amended regulation effectively shielded the former Prosecutor General of Georgia, Otar Partskhaladze, sanctioned by the U.S Treasury Department. 

Turnava’s controversial decision led to the prompt resignation of three NBG Vice Presidents, Papuna Lezhava, Archil Mestvirishvili, and Nikoloz Gagua, followed by the NBG head’s adviser Giorgi Bakradze. 

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