International Organization for Migration

Mrs. Sheehan brings more than 30 years experience in the field of migration, including eight years with IOM in the Caucasus. From 1998-2002 she was the Chief of Mission in Yerevan, and from 1998-2002 she was the Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus based in Tbilisi. After a three year break from the region during which she opened the IOM office in Sri Lanka to provide emergency response, and livelihood replacement for tsunami victims, Mrs. Sheehan returned to Tbilisi as Chief of Mission for the Georgia Office where she currently works. She has also served as Deputy Director of Volunteer Programs to the Governor of California on issues related to the influx of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war; Director of the International Catholic Migration Commission training program in Sudan for Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees involved in a U.S. resettlement program; and nine years in a law office dealing with immigration. She began her career with the United Farm Workers Union in California and Arizona, advocating for the rights to unionize and strike, on political campaigns and with voter registration.

KPMG

Andrew Coxshall is the Managing Partner for KPMG in the South Caucasus. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working in a number of different countries around the world including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa and the UK. He specializes in finance and audit issues in the infrastructure, government and healthcare sectors, with additional experience in communications, financial services, industrial markets, consumer markets, World Bank projects and mining. Mr. Coxshall holds a Masters of Business Administration from Heriot Watt University and is a Chartered Accountant.

Eurasia Foundation

As President of Eurasia Foundation, Mr. Beebe-Center is responsible for defining and executing the strategic goals of the Foundation as approved by the Board of Trustees. Mr. Beebe-Center joined the Foundation in 1993. He established the Foundation’s first field offices and ran the Moscow regional office for two years. In 1995, Mr. Beebe-Center returned to the United States to serve as the Vice President for Projects and Development before becoming Executive Vice President. Prior to joining the Foundation Mr. Beebe-Center worked for several years in U.S.-Soviet projects ranging from intergovernmental technical exchanges to commercial joint ventures. Mr. Beebe-Center holds a BA in Soviet Studies from Brown University and an MA in Russian Studies from Harvard University.

IRS Commissioner, ret., Oakwood Enterprises, LLC

An attorney with an extensive background in tax and financial services, Mrs. Richardson served as commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service from 1993 to 1997. Mrs. Richardson began her career as a clerk at the U.S. Court of Claims (now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) and then joined the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. She later became the first woman promoted to executive rank in the history of the Office of Chief Counsel. In 1977, she joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan in Washington, DC. She was appointed to the Internal Revenue Service Commissioners Advisory Group, serving as a member from 1988 to 1990 and as Chair in 1990. Currently, Mrs. Richardson is involved with Oakwood Enterprises LLC.

Mrs. Richardson serves on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and on the DC Bar Committee on Multidisciplinary Practice. She is also a member of the Financial Women’s Association, the Washington Women’s Forum and the Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. She serves on the George Washington University Law School Advisory Board and the boards of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the U.S.-Russia Business Council and Eurasia Foundation. She has also served as a member of the Board of the National Cathedral School, the Development Board of the Hospital for Sick Children and the Women’s Campaign Fund. She has been profiled in a number of major national newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. Mrs. Richardson was named “Woman of the Year” in 1993 by the Financial Women’s Association, and she is the recipient of several distinguished awards for her service. She holds a BA in political science from Vassar College and a J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School, where she was also editor of the Law Review.

University of Stockholm

From 1994-1999, Dr. Tarschys was Secretary General of the Council of Europe. He has also served as Secretary of State in the Swedish Prime Minister’s Office, as a Member of the Swedish Parliament and Chairman of its Standing Committees on Social Affairs and Foreign Affairs. In 2000, Dr. Tarschys represented the Swedish Government in the Convention drafting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. He chairs the National Council on Medical Ethics and the boards of institutes concerned with educational mobility, growth policy and aging.

Dr. Tarschys has PhDs from Stockholm University and Princeton and an honorary doctorate from Cluj (Romania). His research interests include comparative politics, human rights, public policy, government growth, accountability and budgetary policy. His most recent publication is Reinventing Cohesion: The Future of EU Structural Policy. From 1983-1985, he was Professor of Soviet and East European Studies at Uppsala University. Currently, Dr. Tarschys is Chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of Stockholm.

International Organization for Migration

Mrs. Sheehan brings more than 30 years experience in the field of migration, including eight years with IOM in the Caucasus. From 1998-2002 she was the Chief of Mission in Yerevan, and from 1998-2002 she was the Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus based in Tbilisi. After a three year break from the region during which she opened the IOM office in Sri Lanka to provide emergency response, and livelihood replacement for tsunami victims, Mrs. Sheehan returned to Tbilisi as Chief of Mission for the Georgia Office where she currently works. She has also served as Deputy Director of Volunteer Programs to the Governor of California on issues related to the influx of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war; Director of the International Catholic Migration Commission training program in Sudan for Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees involved in a U.S. resettlement program; and nine years in a law office dealing with immigration. She began her career with the United Farm Workers Union in California and Arizona, advocating for the rights to unionize and strike, on political campaigns and with voter registration.

KPMG

Andrew Coxshall is the Managing Partner for KPMG in the South Caucasus. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working in a number of different countries around the world including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa and the UK. He specializes in finance and audit issues in the infrastructure, government and healthcare sectors, with additional experience in communications, financial services, industrial markets, consumer markets, World Bank projects and mining. Mr. Coxshall holds a Masters of Business Administration from Heriot Watt University and is a Chartered Accountant.

CEO, Cascade Capital Holdings

Jonathan Stark is the appointed CEO of the cascade Capital Holdings since 2005. In previous years Mr. Stark served as the Executive Director and principal shareholder of the Resolution Consultants Ltd, a start up Armenian licensed Insurance Broker; General Manager at HSBC Insurance (Armenia); Director of Marine and Cargo Division at HSBC Insurance Brokers in London. In 2001-2007 he was the Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia. Currently he is the Advisory Board Member of Children of Armenia Fund and Junior Achievement of Armenia. Mr. Stark has significant international conference, seminar and lecturing experience including Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Baltic States, Mongolia, UK, USA, Greece, Spain.

Belgian Ambassador, Retired

Danielle del Marmol was born in Brussels, of a Wallonian mother and a father who had immigrated from North Caucasus. She has a doctor’s degree in Law from Brussels University. After practicing at The Bar, she joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs and was then appointed attaché at the Bank Commission.

There, she met her future husband, François del Marmol, himself a Belgian diplomat. She accompanied him to Moscow, his first assignment and then decided to take the entrance examinations to the diplomatic career. She passed the examinations and returned to Brussels with their three children to do her training period as a diplomat (1984-1986), while traveling from time to time to Addis Abbeba (Ethiopia), where her husband was posted.

Danielle del Marmol’s first assignment as a diplomat (1986-1990) was at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the European Union. Between 1990 and 1994, she worked as Economic Counselor at the Embassy of Belgium in Rome. In 1993, the year in which Belgium held the presidency of the UE, she worked temporarily at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU, where she participated to the preparation of the first cooperation agreement between Israel and the EU.

Between 1995 and 1999, Danielle del Marmol was appointed Economic and Social Counselor at the King’s Cabinet. Her next assignment, from 1999 to 2003, was Ambassador to the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in Vienna, where she dealt, among other matters, with the fight against racism and antisemitism. Her last post before arriving to Israel (2004-2006) was Roving Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia.

German Ambassador, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, ret.

Dr. Boden was the German Ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna from 2002-2005. He entered the diplomatic service in 1968, completing assignments in the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn, to various diplomatic missions including to Soviet Russia and Italy and as a political counsellor in the German Bundestag. Dr. Boden was the Deputy Chief Negotiator for Germany in negotiations on the reduction of conventional forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna from 1989-1992. In 1995 he became Head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia and, from 1999 to 2002 went back to the Caucasus as SRSG of the UN Secretary General in Georgia and Head ofUNOMIG. Dr. Boden is now retired from the foreign service but continues to work on contracts with the OSCE/ODIHR. He is also an Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the University of Potsdam. He holds a PhD in Slavic Philology from Hamburg University and was appointed Honorary Doctor by the Tbilisi School for Political Studies in 2006.

United States Ambassador, ret., Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College

Ambassador Yalowitz was appointed Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College on July 1, 2003. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin and holds a Russian Institute Certificate, MA and Master of Philosophy degree from Columbia University. He retired from the U.S. Department of State on September 30, 2001 after 36 years as career diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service. He served twice as a U.S. ambassador: to the Republic of Belarus from 1994-1997; and to Georgia from 1998-2001. He was chosen for the Ambassador Robert Frasure award for peacemaking and conflict prevention in 2000 for his work to prevent the spillover of the Chechen war into Georgia. His other foreign assignments included two tours of duty in Moscow, The Hague and the US Mission to NATO in Brussels. His domestic assignments have included Country Director for Australia-New Zealand Affairs, Deputy Director for Economics of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, and Congressional Foreign Affairs Fellow. Ambassador Yalowitz previously taught political science at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He also served as the Area Studies Chair on the former Soviet Union (1993-94) and Dean of the Senior Seminar (1997-98) at the Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. government’s training institution for American diplomats and other professionals preparing for foreign service. He has been adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University, visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, a diplomat-in-residence at American University and a member of the Institutional Review Board of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Microsoft Innovation Center

Yeva Hyusyan is managing the Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in Armenia that promotes IT start-up creation through new technology application and provision of targeted assistance for new product development and sale. Prior to her work at MIC, Ms. Hyusyan worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Armenia) as a Program Development Officer with a wide scope of responsibilities ranging from project management to strategy development to a broader role of USAID liaison with government and other donors. In 1997-2000, she coordinated implementation of several World Bank projects aimed at private sector and institutional development in Armenia. 

Ms. Hyusyan was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia. She holds an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy from Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands, an MA from Yerevan State University, Department of International Economic Relations. She is an alumna of Stanford Executive Institute Program delivered by Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

VivaCell-MTS

Lara Tcholakian holds a Master of Arts degree in Socio-Economic Development from Universite de Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne in France. She also earned a combined Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and French from McMaster University in Canada. 

Ms. Tcholakian has served as a Program Director at CRRC from 2004-2006, prior to which she managed research grants for the Knowledge Development Center, a program of the Canadian Center for Philanthropy. From 2000-2003, as Senior Program Development Officer, she managed Canadian development projects in Peru and in Sri Lanka with the World University Service of Canada, and from 1998-2000 she was the Program Officer for Cultural Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in France, and a Research Analyst at UNESCO. Currently, she holds a position of HR Department Manager at VivaCell-MTS.

Lara Tcholakian and her family moved to Armenia from Canada in 2004. She is married and has 3 children. Her spouse – Raffi Doudaklian, is the Country Director at Mission East that mostly focuses on the support to disabled children and the capacity building of NGOs involved in disability and education issues.

International Organization for Migration

Mrs. Sheehan brings more than 30 years experience in the field of migration, including eight years with IOM in the Caucasus. From 1998-2002 she was the Chief of Mission in Yerevan, and from 1998-2002 she was the Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus based in Tbilisi. After a three year break from the region during which she opened the IOM office in Sri Lanka to provide emergency response, and livelihood replacement for tsunami victims, Mrs. Sheehan returned to Tbilisi as Chief of Mission for the Georgia Office where she currently works. She has also served as Deputy Director of Volunteer Programs to the Governor of California on issues related to the influx of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war; Director of the International Catholic Migration Commission training program in Sudan for Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees involved in a U.S. resettlement program; and nine years in a law office dealing with immigration. She began her career with the United Farm Workers Union in California and Arizona, advocating for the rights to unionize and strike, on political campaigns and with voter registration.

KPMG

Andrew Coxshall is the Managing Partner for KPMG in the South Caucasus. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working in a number of different countries around the world including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa and the UK. He specializes in finance and audit issues in the infrastructure, government and healthcare sectors, with additional experience in communications, financial services, industrial markets, consumer markets, World Bank projects and mining. Mr. Coxshall holds a Masters of Business Administration from Heriot Watt University and is a Chartered Accountant.

CEO, Cascade Capital Holdings

Jonathan Stark is the appointed CEO of the cascade Capital Holdings since 2005. In previous years Mr. Stark served as the Executive Director and principal shareholder of the Resolution Consultants Ltd, a start up Armenian licensed Insurance Broker; General Manager at HSBC Insurance (Armenia); Director of Marine and Cargo Division at HSBC Insurance Brokers in London. In 2001-2007 he was the Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia. Currently he is the Advisory Board Member of Children of Armenia Fund and Junior Achievement of Armenia. Mr. Stark has significant international conference, seminar and lecturing experience including Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Baltic States, Mongolia, UK, USA, Greece, Spain.

Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to Georgia, ret.

After a long career in Swedish and Nordic civil service, mainly in planning and managerial positions in the field Higher Education and Research, Per Eklund, following Sweden’s membership of the EU in 1995, decided to seek a new career in European Commission. This succeeded and in the beginning of 1997 Per Eklund joined the External Relations Directorate General and its Russia Unit. He was mainly working with EU support to develop good governance, the independence of the judiciary, and reforms in the social and health sectors.

After a couple of years, Mr Eklund was appointed to a post in DG AIDCO, responsible for the planning and coordination of all EU assistance to the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.

In 2003, Mr Eklund was appointed Head of the EC Delegation to Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherland’s Antilles and Aruba. After three years, representing the EU in the southern Caribbean, Mr Eklund in 2006 was appointed to the post as Head of Delegation to Georgia and Armenia, later only Georgia as in 2008 the Armenia delegation was upgraded to a full delegation. He retired in October 2011 from his post as EU ambassador to Georgia.

Mr Eklund is now enjoying an active life in Stockholm and is engaged in consultancy and charitable work. He has also accepted a post as trustee of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm, Sweden.

International Crisis Group

Sabine Freizer is the Director of the International Crisis Group’s Europe Program, based in the Brussels Office. Mrs. Freizer entered the Crisis Group as the Caucasus Project Director in July 2004. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and a MA from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), which she obtained as a Fulbright Scholar. She specializes in civil society and conflict prevention and her main areas of expertise include the Balkans, Caucasus, Turkey and Moldova.

Before joining the International Crisis Group, Mrs. Freizer served with the OSCE in several countries of Eurasia. She worked as a Political Officer for the OSCE Election Observation Missions in Azerbaijan and Georgia in 2003-2004; the Human Dimensions/Legal Expert in Tashkent from 1999-2000 and as the Civil Society Coordinator for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo from 1996-1998. Mrs. Freizer has published articles about Kosovo, Serbia and Nagorno-Karabagh in a number of scholarly journals and news media including the EU Observer, the European Voice, openDemocracy.net and IslamOnline.net. Her expert analysis has been sought by local and international media outlets including BBC, Deutsche Welle, RFL and AFP.

World Bank

Roy Southworth is the Country Manager for the World Bank Office in Tbilisi, Georgia. Mr. Southworth has had a long career in the Bank, joining in 1979 as an agricultural economist, and has worked throughout Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He completed field assignments in Tanzania and Croatia before coming to Georgia in January 2004. Mr. Southworth graduated with High Honors from Washington State University with a BA in Economics. After a stint in Peace Corps in Ethiopia he attended Stanford University where he earned a PhD from the Food Research Institute. Mr. Southworth has extensive experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of investment operations in agriculture and rural development. Since 2001 he has been working on country operations and management of field offices in the Europe and Central Asia Region.

PwC Managing Partner

Mr. Pashayev joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in April 1996. He specializes in tax consulting in the areas of corporate and personal income tax planning, foreign exchange, as well as legal consulting including labor legislation. Mr. Pashaev has been leading the company’s Tax and Legal practice in Baku since January 2006. 

Through over 14 years of experience he has served clients in various industries as their tax and business advisor. His knowledge of Azerbaijan’s market and legislation brings an extensive expertise in resolving complex issues foreign investors encounter in Azerbaijan and the wider Caspian region. Mr. Pashaev’s client portfolio includes many major multinational companies in a variety of industries, such as energy and utilities, financial services, consumer and industrial products.

He has long been involved in supporting the government of Azerbaijan in modernizing and reforming the investment climate and tax system in Azerbaijan. He was a member of the working group responsible for the drafting and implementation of the new Tax Code and its subsequent amendments. He also served as a member of the Advisory Council to the Minister of Taxes. 

Mr. Pashaev currently serves on the American Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors. He also teaches courses on taxation and international law at the School of Law, Baku State University. Mr. Pashaev holds a PhD in Law.

Khazar University

Hamlet Abdulla oglu Isayev (Azerbaijani: Hamlet Abdulla oğlu İsayev) was born March 1, 1948, in Kosali, near Gardabani, Georgia. He finished high school with a gold medal and then graduated in 1970 with honors from Azerbaijan State University’s School of Mechanics and Mathematics. In 1973, he defended his postgraduate dissertation “On Problems of Spectral Theory of Operator Pencils” and received his Ph.D. (Kandidat nauk) degree in Physical-Mathematical sciences from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

From 1973 to 1983, he carried out research in mathematics in Moscow and Baku through the Moscow State University, the Steklov Institute of Mathematics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, then Azerbaijan State University. Later he also worked as professor at the Azerbaijan State Institute of Oil and Chemistry (currently the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy) and chaired the department of mathematics in the Baku campus of the Leningrad Institute of Economics and Finance.