Mamuka Bakhtadze

Mamuka Bakhtadze (; born 9 June 1982) is a Georgian politician who served as the country's Prime Minister from 20 June 2018 until 2 September 2019. Bakhtadze announced his official statement about resignation via Facebook post. He had previously served as Minister of Finance (2017–2018) and, prior to that, executive director of the Georgian Railway company (2013–2017). Education and early career Born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union, Bakhtadze graduated, in 2003, from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in Management and Microeconomics and from the Georgian Technical University with that in Electromechanical Engineering. He obtained MBA from the Moscow State University in 2005 and the INSEAD business school in 2010. After serving at the supervisory board of the Georgian International Energy Corporation from October 2010 to November 2012, Bakhtadze became CEO of Georgian Railway LLC, the state-owned railway company of Georgia, in March 2013. Government On 13 November 2017, Bakhtadze was appointed Minister of Finance in the second cabinet of Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Kvirikashvili stepped down as Prime Minister on 13 June 2018, citing his differences with Bidzina Ivanishvili, a recently reappointed influential chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and triggering the resignation of the entire cabinet. Georgian Dream nominated Bakhtadze, 36 years old at that time, as Kvirikashvili's successor. By that time, he was largely a political unknown; 55% of respondents had not heard of him according to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in May 2018, two weeks before Bakhtadze's nomination. He was widely considered to have been Ivanishvili's personal choice and a close friend of the Ivanishvili family.