David Gamkrelidze
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David Gamkrelidze (born April 2, 1965) is the Chairman of Georgia’s Rightist Opposition, the only opposition political party to surpass the seven percent barrier necessary to enter Parliament during the March 28, 2004, elections.
Gamkrelidze, a pediatrician, has had a tumultuous career as an entrepreneur and political leader. In 1990, before the collapse of the USSR, he founded Georgia’s first insurance company, Aldagi, which grew to become one of the largest private businesses in the country. In October 1999, he was elected to Parliament and was aligned with the then governing Citizens Union of Georgia (CUG). Given his with background in healthcare, for a year he chaired of the Committee on Health and Social Security.
However, on September 17, 2000, Gamkrelidze led 10 MP’s into forming a new parliamentary block called the New Faction, launching the process that led to the disintegration of the CUG, the political party then led by Georgia’s Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and current President Mikheil Saakashvili which was ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze’s political base. On the basis of the New Faction, Gamkrelidze helped form the New Rights Party in June 15, 2001. The New Rights overwhelmingly won the local government elections in June 2002, taking over 40 percent of the total countrywide vote, twice that of its closest rival. In March 2004, after two years of difficult negotiations, Gamkrelidze succeeded in reaching a deal with the Industrialists Party, another pro-business group, to form a united center-right political alliance called the Rightist Opposition.
Active in numerous civic and voluntary organizations, Gamkrelidze is the one of the founders and Chairman of Georgia for NATO, an organization devoted to popularization of NATO membership and lobbying on behalf of needed political and military reforms. He is also Member of the Board of Directors of the Partnership for Social Initiatives (PSI), Georgia’s leading think tank; the Georgian Insurance Association; and the Caucasus School of Business.
Gamkrelidze took his MD with honors from Tbilisi State Medical Institute in 1988. He is married to Dr. Marina Madichi, and they have two children, Erekle and Nino.de:David Gamkrelidse