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Freedom, Commerce, and Peace:
A Regional Agenda

The Cato Institute, the New Economic School of Georgia, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation are organizing a major international conference in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Tbilisi, Georgia – October 25-27, 2006

Speaker Biographies:

Sabit Bagirov
Sabit Bagirov is president of the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation and the Center for Economic and Political Research in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1971 graduated from the Mechanical Faculty of the Azerbaijani Petrochemical Institute (currently the Oil Academy). Bagirov defended his dissertation at the Institute of Management Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow). From 1992-1993, he served as the state advisor on strategic programs to the president of Azerbaijan, helping establish state committees on antimonopoly policy and support for entrepreneurship, privatization of state property, land reform, and foreign investment. During that time, he was also president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), during which he restructured the company for greater efficiency and was responsible for contracts with foreign investors for the development of oil and gas.

Boris Begovic
Boris Begovic is president of CLDS and professor of economics at the School of Law, University of Belgrade. He received his education at the University in Belgrade, London School of Economic and JFK School of Government, Harvard University. His field of expertise includes industrial organization, economic analysis of law, economics of regulation/antitrust, economics of public utilities, and urban economics. Begovic was a chief economic adviser of the Federal Government of FR Yugoslavia 2000-2002, mainly involved in negotiations with IFIs, WTO accession and foreign trade liberalisation, and foreign debt rescheduling. He took an active part in governmental task forces on new legislation on privatisation and telecommunications in Serbia. As a consultant he has been involved in numerous national and international consulting projects in various real sector industries, including public utilities, and in the area of institutional reform.

Kakha Bendukidze
Kakha Bendukidze was appointed Minister of Economics of Georgia in June 2004; in December 2004 he became State Minister on Reforms Coordination of Georgia. He is a graduate of the Tbilisi University, and holds a post-graduate degree in molecular biology from the Moscow State University.

Mr Bendukidze launched his business career in 1990 and was actively involved in reshaping the Russian industry throughout the nineties. He was one of the architects of the consolidation of the Russian engineering sector that resulted in the creation of OMZ (Uralmash-Izhora Group) in 1996. Mr. Bendukidze saw the Company through significant growth and OMZ is currently a leader in its industry. OMZ is one of few Russian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Bendukidze was Chairman and CEO since the company’s foundation until early 2004 when he withdrew from active management. Mr. Bendukidze is also professor of institutional economics at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).

Lajos Bokros
Lajos Bokros is the COO and senior vice president of the Central European University. He received his Ph.D. in economics and finance from the University of Economics, Budapest in 1980. From 1980 to 1986 he was research fellow at the Financial Research Institute of the Hungarian Ministry of Finance, where he became chief of the Public Finance Division in 1986. In 1987 he became deputy general manager and in 1989 managing director of the Hungarian National Bank. In the first half of 1990s his positions included chairman and CEO of Budapest Bank, chairman of the Budapest Stock Exchange, and director of State Property Agency, Hungary. From 1995 to 1996 he served as minister of finance of Hungary. Since 1996 he has been affiliated with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in various positions, most recently as director of financial advisory services for Europe and Central Asia.

Robert E. Christiansen
Robert E. Christiansen is the IMF resident representative in Tbilisi. Mr. Christiansen assumed the position in summer 2004. He has been working with the IMF since 1998. Prior to taking up his current assignment, he was the mission chief with primary responsibility for design and implementation of fund-supported programs as well as dialogue with authorities in Tajikistan.

Prior to the IMF he worked with the World Bank during 1986-1998. Mr. Christiansen holds Ph.D. in Economics from Indiana University, USA.

Ana Dolidze
Ana Dolidze is president of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA). Established in 1994, GYLA promotes higher standards for the legal profession and supports the professional development of law students and young lawyers in Georgia. GYLA's focus areas include promotion of rule of law, legal reform, developing legal education, building civil society networks, and ensuring transparency and accountability of the government. GYLA also provides free legal consultation and actively participates in drafting legislation.

A graduate of Tbilisi State University, Dolidze has also conducted extensive legal studies abroad, including receiving her LLM (Master of Laws) in Public International Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands. In addition to chairing GYLA, she contributes to the work of a number of other important organizations such as the Media Council, the Stakeholders Committee of the Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund, and the Human Rights Monitoring Council of the Penitentiary and Detention Places. Ms. Dolidze serves as a Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law at the Caucasus School of Business and Georgian American University.

Andrei Illarionov
Andrei Illarionov, former chief economic adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin, is a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. Illarionov has been an assistant professor of international economics at St. Petersburg University, where he received a Ph.D. in 1987. In 1992 he became deputy director of the Center for Economic Reform, the Russian government’s think tank. In April 1993 he became chief economic adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a position he resigned in February 1994. Illarionov has written three books and more than 300 articles on Russian economic and social policies.

Mr. Jabłoński graduated from the Technical University in Łódź and Warsaw School of Economics. He received a scholarship at the Polish Public Administrators Municipal Training at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).

Between 1994 and 1997 he served as a Mayor of the City of Łowicz (Łódzkie Voivodship). Ireneusz Jabłoński was also a Member of the Council for Territorial Self - Government chaired by the President of the Republic of Poland Mr. Lech Wałęsa. He was a member of the Commission for Territorial Self - Government chaired by the Minister of Finance. Mr. Jabłoński was responsible for long and mid term strategy for the city's development. He privatized most of the municipality's companies and created the first in the Polish history regional agriculture market (so called "agriculture exchange"). Ireneusz Jabłoński was awarded a prize by the European Community for the best managed city of 1997(category 30 - 50 thousands inhabitants) in Europe.

Gia Jandieri
Gia Jandieri is vice president and founder of New Economic School – Georgia, a libertarian think-tank. In 1989 Mr. Jandieri with several friends founded the Association of Young Economists of Georgia – the very first NGO in the Soviet Republic of Georgia whose goal was to eliminate the obligatory study of Marxism at the Tbilisi State University.

After several years of working at public offices (parliament, state audit, central election commission) in 2000 he decided to leave the public sector and organize another think-tank with a goal of supporting free market economic education in Georgia and the region.

As an economist Gia Jandieri has participated in various discussions and public forums to promote free market public policies.

Piotr Kaznacheev
Piotr Kaznacheev is the senior editor for CATO.ru. In 2002-2005 he served as a senior adviser in the administration of the Russian president. He worked with Andrei Illarionov, former chief economic aid to the president. In addition to that, until January 2005 he also served as assistant sherpa in the Group of Eight to which Andrei Illarionov used to be President Putin’s personal representative.

Piotr Kaznacheev received his BA and Ph.D. in political philosophy from the Moscow State University. He received a master’s degree in international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and Bologna, Italy. He also received practical training at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Belgium.

Piotr Kaznacheev is currently teaching transitional economics at the Institute of Business Studies-Moscow of the Academy of the National Economy.

Vahagn Khachaturyan
Vahagn Khachaturyan is the vice-president of the Center for Legal, Political and Economic Research and Predictions, established in 2000. Upon graduation from Yerevan State Institute of Economy in 1980, he joined the Yerevan State Institute of Economy as a professor. In 1992 he was elected chair of the Yerevan City Council of People's Deputies, he held that position until 1996. From 1990 to 1995, he served as the deputy to Supreme Council of Armenia, and from 1995 to 1999 as deputy to the National Assembly. As economic adviser to the Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian, Khachaturyan played an important role in Armenia’s reform process. He is one of the founders of the Center for Development of Democracy and Civil Society, Aramat.

He is a graduate of the Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany and holds a post-graduate degree in physics from the same school. Mr Khechinashvili launched his business career in 1989. He founded a Tbilisi-based engineering company MISANI. In 1992 he joined one of the first Georgian insurance companies RINCO. Since 1997 he serves as the chairman of the Georgian Insurance Association.

Zviad Koridze
Zviad Koridze is a Georgian freelance journalist. He worked as an anchor and editor of the morning program “Pikis Saati” (“Rush Hour”) on Georgia Radio. In 1990-1997 Mr. Koridze worked at the weekly newspaper “7 Dghe” (“7 Days”) as a journalist, member of an editorial board and editor-in-chief. Later, at different times he was in charge of news departments of various TV-stations (Rustavi-2, Channel 9, Imedi, Channel 1). In 2004-2005 he worked as a producer of the preliminary planning at the TV-company “Mze”.

Zviad Koridze graduated Tbilisi State University faculty of Journalism. In 1995 he also completed a course on “Media Management and Media Law” at the Berlin International Institute of Journalism. Mr. Koridze is also consultant for a regional weekly newspaper “Batumelebi” (Batumi) and is involved in other educational and consultancy activities.

Robert Lawson
Robert Lawson is professor of economics and holds the George H. Moor Chair in the School of Management at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Lawson is the coauthor of Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2005). He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Florida State University. Prior to joining Capital University he also worked at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio, and at Florida State University.

Dr. Mayora is a member of the Editorial Board and columnist of the daily newspaper Siglo Veintiuno, Member of the Mont Pelerin Society, former President of the Privatization Committee of the Guatemalan Bar Association, Member of the Board of Trustees at Francisco Marroquin University and a Pertner at Mayora & Mayora, S.C. (Attorneys at Law).

Daniel J. Mitchell
Daniel J. Mitchell, McKenna senior fellow in political economy, is The Heritage Foundation's chief expert on tax policy and the economy. Dr. Mitchell advocates supply-side tax policy and fundamental tax reform. He is also the nation's leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations. He was an active proponent for President Bush's tax rate reductions and urges further supply-side tax rate reductions to boost the economy and constrain the growth of government. Dr. Mitchell is one of the nation's leading experts on tax reform and supply-side tax policy.

Dr. Mitchell's articles have appeared in such national publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. Dr. Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University and master's and bachelor's degrees in economics from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining The Heritage Foundation in 1990, Dr. Mitchell was as an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the 1988 Bush/Quayle transition team and was Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy.

Kalman Mizsei
Kalman Mizsei is the former director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He also serves as the Deputy Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl.

Prior to his current position at UNDP, Mr. Mizsei was the chief investment officer for Central and Eastern Europe with American International Group, Inc. He has also served as chairman of the Hungarian Export Import Bank, Ltd. and of the Hungarian Export Credit Insurance Ltd. As vice president for Economic Programs of the Institute for East West Studies as well as in other positions, Mr. Mizsei has acted as a senior advisor to governments of the region on their economic transition and reform as well as on such issues as privatization, debt relief, governance, banking and bankruptcy reform. He served as deputy director of the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was a major participant in the East and Central European Transformation project sponsored by the United Nations University. Dr. Mizsei holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics.

Zurab Nogaideli
Zurab Nogaideli is prime minister of Georgia. He is a graduate of Moscow State University. In 1989 Zurab Nogaideli worked as an assistant in the Institute of Geography of the Georgian Academy of Sciences; later he worked as a visiting research scholar at the Institution of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia, Tallinn, and as senior researcher and head of the laboratory, Niko Berzenishvili Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia, Batumi. His political career started in the environmental movements. In 1992-93 he was appointed executive secretary of the Georgia Greens and in 1995 a member of the Parliament and Chairman of the Committee of Environment Protection and Natural Resources. Nogaideli quickly moved up to become member of the Parliament, Coordinator of the Chairman’s Office (1999), Member of the Supreme Council of Achara Autonomous Republic, and Member of the Parliament, chairmen of the Committee of Tax and Revenue (1999-2000).

In 2002-03 Nogaideli was appointed a board member of the People’s Bank of Georgia. Prior to his appointment as prime minister of Georgia, he served two terms as Georgian minister of finance (2003-05 and 2000-02).

Johan Norberg
Johan Norberg is a senior fellow of the Center for the New Europe and the author of the award-winning book Till Världskapitalismens Försvar (In Defence of Global Capitalism) (Timbro 2001), now translated into the world’s major languages. Between 2000-2005 Mr. Norberg was head of political ideas at the free-market think-tank Timbro, Stockholm, Sweden. From 1999-2005 he was the founder and editor of the free-trade portal frihandel.nu. From 1999-2002 Mr. Norberg was assistant editor-in-chief on the Timbro net-publication Smedjan.com. From 1993-1997 he was editor of Nyliberalen, the journal of Frihetsfronten.

Mr. Norberg is the author and editor of several books exploring liberal themes, including a history of liberal pioneers in Swedish history. His articles and opinion pieces appear regularly in Swedish newspapers and he is a regular commentator and contributor on Swedish television and radio. He is a member of the Mont Pélerin Society. Norberg received his master’s degree from Stockholm University in the history of ideas in 1999.

Ján Oravec
Ján Oravec is the president of the Entrepreneurs Association of Slovakia. He received his education from Commenius University in Bratislava, The Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia and Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Institute of Slovak and World Economy in Bratislava. In 1987 he began his academic career at the Institute of Economics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Throughout the 1990ies Dr. Oravec was active in the financial sector in Slovakia and abroad.

In 1999 Dr. Oravec started working as a chief of strategy at the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. In October 2003 he was elected President of The Entrepreneurs Association of Slovakia, the first organisation of private entrepreneurs in Slovakia after a collapse of communism. He is a member of a Presidium of The National Union of Employers. Dr. Oravec represents Slovak employers in the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, and in the Slovak Council of Economic and Social Agreement in Bratislava. He is also the member of the Economic Council of the Slovak Government, and member of the Collegium of the Finance minister.

He is a founding member of the F.A. Hayek Foundation Bratislava and The Slovak Taxpayers Association.

Djoomart Otorbaev

Djoomart Otorbaev is a senior adviser on Investment Climate in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), based in London. Between 2002 and 2005 he worked as a Deputy Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic on Economic Development, Trade and Investments.

In 1978 Dr. Otorbaev graduated from the Leningrad University, receiving his Ph. D. from Lebedev Physical Institute (Moscow) in 1981. He worked in a few research institutions, including a visiting professor position at the Eindhoven University (The Netherlands) (1992-1996). In 1996 he was the CEO of Philips Electronics local office in the Kyrgyz Republic, later the Vice-president of Philips Electronics office in Central Asia. In 1997 he became the Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in the Kyrgyz Republic. In 2001 Dr. Otorbaev was appointed Special representative of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic on Foreign Investments. He also founded, and became the first Executive Director of the Public Association “Investment Round Table”, the NGO, which is known for its contribution to the economic reform progress in the country.

Tom G. Palmer
Tom G. Palmer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and director of Cato University, the Institute's educational arm. He was very active in the late 1980s and the early 1990s in the propagation of classical liberal ideas in the Soviet bloc states and their successors and continues to be active throughout the region through his work with www.cato.ru, the Cato Institute's Russian-language website. He is currently working to achieve similar successes in the Middle East, as director of the Jack Byrne Project on Middle East Liberty, which sponsors an Arabic-language libertarian website, the Lamp of Liberty (www.misbahalhurriyya.org) and is publishing material in Arabic, Kurdish, and Farsi. Before joining Cato he was an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford University, and a vice president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He regularly lectures in America, Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East on political science, public choice, civil society, and the moral, legal, and historical foundations of individual rights. He has published reviews and articles on politics and morality in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Ethics, Critical Review, and Constitutional Political Economy, as well as in publications such as Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Spectator of London. He received his B.A. in liberal arts from St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and his Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University.

Iurie Rosca
Iurie Rosca is the vice-president of Parliament and the leader of the Christian-Democratic People’s Party (CDPP) of Moldova. After majoring in journalism at the Kishinev State University, he worked for Tinerimya Moldovei newspaper and was a researcher in the literary museum and an editor at Teleradio-Moldova. In 1998 he was appointed chairman of the Christian-Democratic People’s Front (CDPF). In 1994 Mr. Rosca was elected a member of the 13th Parliament, as well as chairman of the CDPF parliamentary fraction and a member of the Parliament’s Standing Bureau. In 1997 he joined with the former President of Moldova Mircha Snegur to organize the Democratic Convention of Moldova electoral bloc. In 1998, he was elected to Parliament as a representative of that bloc and in April he was appointed vice-speaker, a position from which he retired in February 2000. In 1999 Iurie Rosca helped convert CDPF into a political party: the Christian-Democratic People’s Party of Moldova. In 2001 and again in 2005 he was elected into Parliament on the CDPP lists and since 2005 he has been vice-president of Parliament.

Krassen Stanchev
Krassen Stanchev is the executive director of the Institute for Market Economics (since 1993), Bulgaria, former member of parliament, one of the most quoted Bulgarian observers and a nominee for Bulgaria’s Mr. Ekonomika 2004. He was, in 1995, an initiator of the Balkan Network and the European Emerging Economies Network, and has a rich experience in the region (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro), Central Europe, Central Asia and the FSU, and working proficiency in Russian and Serbian/Croatian.

Mr. Stanchev is a former member of Constitutional Parliament (1990-1991), head of the environment committee, and member of the Economic Committee and Constitution Drafting Committee. He was a principle drafter of a number of laws promoting reforms from central planning to market economy, including Environment Protection Law and 38 amendments to then draft Constitution (adopted July 1991). He led or was involved in projects and services related to market oriented and democratic reforms in other countries, Balkans and former Soviet Union.

Currently, Krassen Stanchev teaches two courses at Sofia University – on Liberty as an Economic Phenomenon (with the Economic Department) and On Globalization (with the Department of Philosophy); he also teaches selected courses (on Basics of Market Economics, on Measuring Economic Freedom, and on Lessons for Market reforms) for the Summer Universities of Institute of Economic Studies – Europe and New Economic School – Georgia.

Vesna Škare-Ožbolt
Vesna Škare-Ožbolt is the former minister of justice of Croatia. As a minister of justice, she introduced digital land registry with an Internet access, insisted on independent judiciary, put up an interdisciplinary team, which devised a very comprehensive anti-corruption program for Croatia.

Vesna Škare-Ožbolt earner her Law Degree at the Zagreb School of Law.

In the 1990s she joined the Croatian Democratic Union and became one of the advisors to President Franjo Tudman. In the late 1990s she handled the sensitive negotiations leading to a peaceful return of Serb-occupied areas of Eastern Slavonia to Croatian sovereignty. In 2000 Škare-Ožbolt joined Democratic Center Party and was elected into Parliament. In 2003 she took the leadership of the Party and joined the government of Ivo Sanader as minister of justice.

Vernon L. Smith
Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, 2002, is currently a professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University and a research scholar in the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science in Arlington, VA. He has served as the Distinguished Visiting Rasmuson Chair in Economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage from 2003 – 2006. Dr. Smith is the President of the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, which he helped found in 1997 to support education and research in experimental economics.

Dr. Smith received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology (1949), his masters in Economics from the University of Kansas (1951), and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard (1955). He has authored or co-authored over 250 articles and books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics and experimental economics. The Cambridge University Press published his Papers in Experimental Economics in 1991, and they published a second collection of more recent papers, Bargaining and Market Behavior, in 2000.

He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1995 Dr. Smith was elected a member of the National Academy of Science. He received an honorary Doctor of Management degree from Purdue University, an honorary Doctorate from George Mason University, as well as from universities in other countries. In 1996 he received Cal Tech's Distinguished Alumni Award.

He has served as a consultant on the privatization of electric power in Australia and New Zealand, and has participated in numerous private and public discussions of energy deregulation in the United States and around the world.

John D. Sullivan
John D. Sullivan has been executive director of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, since 1991. In 1983, he was associate director of the bipartisan Democracy Program that created the National Endowment for Democracy that supports CIPE. Once the Endowment was established, John returned to the Chamber to help create the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) where he served as program director. From 1977 to 1982, he worked at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Public Affairs Department and Special Project Division. In 1976, Mr. Sullivan joined the President Ford Election Committee in the research department on campaign strategy, polling, and market research. Prior to this he worked with the Institute for Economic Research and the Office of Minority Business Enterprise (U.S. Department of Commerce) in Los Angeles on projects to stimulate small and minority enterprise. Mr. Sullivan has a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Pittsburgh, and is the author of a number of articles and publications on the transition to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, corporate governance, and market-oriented democratic development.

Ian Vásquez
Ian Vásquez is the director of the Cato Institute's Project on Global Economic Liberty. His articles have appeared in newspapers throughout the United States and Latin America. Vásquez has appeared on CNBC, NBC, C-SPAN, Telemundo, Univisión, and Canadian Television as well as National Public Radio and Voice of America discussing foreign policy and development issues. He is a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Vásquez received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and his master's degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He worked on inter-American issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Caribbean/Latin American Action prior to joining the Cato Institute in 1992.