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Margarita Akhvlediani, Director / Editor-in-Chief
margarita@gogroupmedia.net
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Margarita Akhvlediani co-founded the GO Group Media in February, 2009 along with Thomas de Waal and Mariam Betlemidze, and now she heads the organization. She is also the editor-in-chief of the Eyewitness Reporting Studio. Margarita has been a war reporter, as well as editor and producer for more than 20 years, working through ethnic conflicts and civil wars in the Caucasus region. She was the Caucasus Programme Director for London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in 2002-2008. She also teaches Conflict Reporting, Journalism Ethics and Media Management courses to graduate students at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. In 2006, Margarita won a Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists and spent a year at Stanford University. In autumn 2007, she was a Dart Center Ochberg Fellow in Journalism and Trauma. In 2010 she was elected a member of the Board of the directors of the Dart Society. Margarita has a Master's degree in Political Philosophy from the University of York, United Kingdom.
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Mariam Betlemidze, Go Group Media co-founder
mariam.betlemidze@gmail.com
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Mariam Betlemidze co-founded the Go Group Media in February 2009 with Margarita Akhvlediani and Thomas de Waal. Mariam had been working as an active journalist for various media organizations including online, print and TV media for more than eight years. She was a Country Coordinator for Swiss Peace, Early Warning Program in Georgia in 2007-2008. Earlier she was a staff writer for the Georgian-Abkhazian newspaper Panorama and a member of the Cross-Caucasus Journalism Network established by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. She has a degree in Business Administration from the Tbilisi State University of Economic Relations. Currently, Mariam is studying Communication, Film and Conflict Resolution at the University of Utah as an Edmund S. Muskie Fellow, and expects to earn her Master's degree in 2012.
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Mate Demetrashvili, Eyewitness Studio Manager
mate.demetrashvili@gogroupmedia.net
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Mate Demetrashvili is the Eyewitness Studio Manager, and his job is to support and train professional and citizen journalists, conduct screenings of the films produced by the Studio and facilitate public discussions throughout Georgia and the South Caucasus. Before joining the Go Group Media in May 2010, Mate worked for Tbilisi-based broadcasting company Rustavi-2 as a foreign news reporter. Earlier, while working for various travel agencies as a professional guide, he sharpened his communicative skills and visited almost all parts of Georgia.Mate graduated from the Institute of Asia, Africa and Oriental studies, he is a specialist in Arabic language and international relationships.
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Thomas De Waal, GO Group Media co-founder
tdewaal@ceip.org
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Thomas de Waal is a writer and analyst on the Caucasus, Russia and the Black Sea region and a Senior Associate with the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. In 2009 he worked for the London-based NGO Conciliation Resources and wrote “The Caucasus: An Introduction” published by Oxford University Press in August 2010. From 2002-2008 he worked as a Caucasus Editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, in London. In the 1990s he was a journalist in Moscow for the Moscow Times, The Times of London, and the Economist, specializing in Russian politics and events in Chechnya. Thomas de Waal and Carlotta Gall are co-authors of 'Chechnya, A Small Victorious War', (Pan, 1997 and NYU Press, 1998) and the sole author of the widely respected book on the Karabakh conflict, 'Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War' (NYU Press, 2003), which has been translated into Russian, Armenian and Azeri.
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Diana Petriashvili, Web-Editor
diana.petriashvili@gogroupmedia.net
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Diana has been working as a journalist for over thirteen years. She mainly wrote for print media sources, both Georgian and international, but also has experience in radio journalism. She was a Global Radio News correspondent in Georgia, the country editor at the Caspian Business News, she reported for the Eurasianet online magazine, prepared photo-essays for the popular Ukrainian magazine Focus, and contributed to many foreign newspapers on a freelance basis. Diana has a degree in journalism; she entered Tbilisi State University after completing a high school course in the USA as an exchange student through the FSA/FLEX program.
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David Pipia, Eyewitness Studio Editor
david.pipia@gogroupmedia.net
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David Pipia joined the GO Group Media as an editor from its very beginning and he is responsible for the entire production of the Eyewitness Reporting Studio. He came to the GO Group Media after working as an editor, and producer for the Studio Re in Tbilisi. David also was an editor at the Tbilisi-based television Rustavi-2. David has fifteen years of experience of working as a camera-man, editor and producer for various television and radio companies. He was only 16 when he got his first experience as a camera-man at the television company Odishi, and he also worked as a head of the photo-video department at the non-profit media organization Atinati, in his hometown, Zugdidi, in Samegrelo region. Later he decided to change his career to economics and in 1994 he entered a college in Zugdidi. Soon he realized that the professional filmmaking was his only passion, and continued his studies in Tbilisi at the Television and Radio Institute. Having constant aspiration for raising his professional skills, David participates in various seminars and workshops.
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Natasha Shtykova, Grants manager
natasha.shtykova@gogroupmedia.net
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Natasha's university diploma says she's a teacher of English and French languages, however, she has never worked as one. Just months after graduation from the Ilia Chavchavadze State University of Western Cultures and Languages, she landed a job with the news agency BLACK SEA PRESS in Tbilisi that put her on a career path as a translator. In the subsequent period, Natasha worked for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting for years and cooperated with the International Crisis Group on several occasions. She has joined the GO Group Media in a capacity that will open up new avenues for her professional and personal growth.
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Maka Tsnobiladze, Chief Executive
maka.tsnobiladze@gogroupmedia.net
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Maka Tsnobiladze joined the GO Group Media from its very beginning. She previously worked as the Office and Communications Manager for the Caucasus Programme of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. She has twelve-year experience of working on different positions in governmental and non-governmental organizations. She began her career at the Georgian News Agency 'Sakinformi' as a photo publishing editor. She has a degree in English language and literature from the Tbilisi State University of Western European languages.
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