Welcoming YPARD Country representative for Georgia : Davit Gogilashvili

We are delighted to welcome Davit Gogilashvili as YPARD representative for Georgia.

Let me give Davit the floor, in order for him to introduce himself to you:

"Dear YPARD family members, let me briefly introduce myself as a country representative of Georgia in this wonderful community.

I am Davit Gogilashvili from Tbilisi, Georgia.  I graduated from Agricultural University of Georgia on May 30, 2012 and received my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Right after the completion of my second course I participated in an exchange program, which was financially supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and certified by Texas A&M University. I continued my studies at the Agribusiness Teaching Center in Yerevan, Armenia. There my major was Agribusiness and Marketing. This was the best experience I’ve had in my life. Now I know very well what it means to be an exchange student and to be a part of the international family.

Fortunately for me after going back to Georgia just in 2 weeks period I found a job at the leading international development consulting company called Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG). I had a very challenging two month summer internship and since September, 2012 I am working an Agribusiness Management Specialist. PMC Group provides consulting services in public and private sectors in Georgia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. My responsibilities at this stage include agriculture project management planning, monitoring and evaluating projects. I am directly involved in everyday decision-making, dealing with investors, landowners and other stakeholders of different projects. PMCG has also a subsidiary company called Agro Business Management Group, AGROMAN, which provides management services in agriculture and food processing sector. Since March 2012, I was appointed as an Operational Director of AGROMAN Group. Now I am dealing not only with agriculture project management, but also strategic development of the company. I love the place I am working now because your ideas, opinions, and initiatives about various issues are considered and respected.

Honestly agriculture is very interesting sphere to work and deeper you go more and more knowledge you acquire. My current working experience was the main reason why I have applied for my Master’s Degree in Sustainable International Agriculture at Georg-August University, Germany and successfully was admitted. I have tried the various sources for receiving the finance and fortunately Ministry of Science and Education of Georgia after a taught competition awarded me full grant. I am leaving for Germany at the end of September for my master studies and further development. 

In addition to all this I have recently found Youth Professional Network for Agriculture Research for Development (YPARD) network and decided to join. This global community with young professionals involved in agriculture is a great place for knowledge sharing and learning from other countries’ experience. After having a thorough discussion with the Europe and Global coordinator of this network I was appointed as a country representative. I do believe that young professionals involved in agriculture can play a key role of the sector development and now is the right time for spreading the word about YPARD. I am highly committed to contribute the further development of YPARD activities in the Georgia and worldwide. 

I have tried to be as brief as possible in sharing with you my experience and from now on I am open for cooperation."

Doesn't that all sound exciting? Warm welcome to you, Davit. We trust you will be a strong team player among YPARD team and community. Your knowledge and experience in project planning, M&E and strategic development in agricultural sector at all levels would be invaluable.