Expert Categories: Internal
Zauri Marakvelidze
Zauri Marakvelidze is an ISET graduate. In 2025, he completed his internship at the ISET Policy Institute at its Private Sector Development Practice.
Matvii Talalaievskyi
Matvii Talalaievskyi is a Sanctions Team Analyst at the KSE Institute and a student at the Kyiv School of Economics. He has contributed to multiple volunteer initiatives and possesses a professional background in marketing, information technology, and project management. His experience includes team leadership, strategic communication, and the coordination of cross-functional projects.
Last updated: October 2025
Tornike Surguladze
Tornike Surguladze is a senior researcher at the Macroeconomic Policy Center of the ISET Policy Institute and joined the center in September 2023. Tornike holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the International School of Economics (ISET 2021), as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Tbilisi State University (TSU 2019).
Before joining the ISET Policy Institute, Tornike worked as a chief specialist at the National Bank of Georgia. Also, he was a teaching assistant for Master’s degree students at ISET, teaching Microeconomics modules I & II, III, IV, and Introductory Finance. Along with ISET-PI, he works as an invited lecturer at International Black Sea University and as a teaching assistant at ISET for BA teaching Microeconomics and Econometrics.
(Last updated in March 2026)
Natalja Apanasovich
Natalja Apanasovich is a Research Fellow at BICEPS. She holds a PhD from the University of Deusto, Spain. Her research focuses on the green economy, innovation systems, innovation policy, and the innovative performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
(Last updated August 2026)
Daryna Manzhura
Daryna Manzhura is a Research Fellow at the KSE Center for Food and Land Use Research and a Coordinator of the EU-funded and World Bank-implemented “Supporting Transparent Land Governance in Ukraine” project”.
Her research interests cover the land market in Ukraine; increasing its transparency and introducing public monitoring of land relations, strategies for state support in agriculture, access to data, and land-related anti-corruption policies.
(Last updated March 2024)
Yuliia Pavytska
Yuliia Pavytska is the Manager of the Sanctions Program at the KSE Institute. Since the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Yuliia has focused her research efforts on the sanctions imposed on the country, specifically evaluating their effectiveness, the state of the Russian economy, and the development of sanctions proposals. In addition, Yuliia manages the KSE Institute’s Sanctions Team and engages in building partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders, including authorities in coalition countries and other research institutions.
Yuliia joined the KSE Institute in 2020. Before February 2022 she was, as a policy researcher, engaged in diverse projects ranging from the Ukrainian labor market and agriculture sector to European integration and sectoral strategy development for Ukrainian authorities.
Prior to joining the KSE Institute, Yuliia worked at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine (2019-2020). During her tenure, she served as a policy research assistant to the Deputy Minister of Economy, where her responsibilities covered various areas, including economic strategy and labor market policies design.
Yuliia holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Kyiv School of Economics (2019).
(Last updated March 2024)
Benjamin Hilgenstock
Benjamin Hilgenstock is a Senior Economist at the Kyiv School of Economics’ think tank, KSE Institute, focusing on international sanctions on Russia, in particular in the areas of energy, trade, finance, and export controls. Benjamin is also an Associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and a member of the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions. He has written extensively on the topic of sanctions, including enforcement challenges of the G7 oil price cap regime as well as Russia’s continued access to Western technology.
Previously, Benjamin worked for the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC (2018-2022) on the macroeconomic analysis of emerging markets, specifically those in Central and Eastern Europe and including Russia and Ukraine. Benjamin also spent several years with the International Monetary Fund’s (2016-2018) research department working on the publication of the World Economic Outlook.
He holds a Master of Arts in political science, macroeconomics, and German constitutional law from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (2008) and studied abroad at American University in Washington, DC and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
(Last updated March 2024)
Anatoly Kharitonchik
Anatoly Kharitonchik is a Research Associate at BICEPS. Before joining BICEPS, he worked at the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and the Eurasian Development Bank, specializing in macroeconomic analysis, forecasting, economic modeling, and policy support.
He holds a PhD in Banking and Finance from the Belarusian State Economic University. His research focuses on macroeconomics, monetary policy, economic forecasting, and macroeconomic modeling.
(Last updated August 2026)
Mariam Lobjanidze
Mariam Lobjanidze joined ISET Policy Institute in September 2018, where she is currently a Lead Economist. She received her master’s degree in economics (Summa cum Laude) from ISET. She has been actively involved in conducting Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIA) since 2019. Since 2020, she has been actively working on elaborating gender impact assessments (GIA) methodology for Georgia, conducting GIAs, and delivering Gender Impact Assessment Trainings. Her research interests include Labor Markets, Gender Economics and Social Issues, Social Policy, Energy Security, and Climate Change.
Along with her research, she works as an invited lecturer at ISET, teaching Econometrics to second-year BA students.
[Last updated February 2026]
Giorgi Shavreshiani
Giorgi Shavreshiani joined the Agriculture and Rural Policy Research Center at the ISET Policy Institute as a Researcher in August 2023. He received his bachelor’s degree with a Macroeconomics module from Tbilisi State University and completed a Master’s degree in Economics at ISET in 2020.
After graduating from ISET, Giorgi worked at the State Audit Office of Georgia at the Department of Performance Audit. Since September 2021, he has been a visiting lecturer at Ilia State University, teaching Principles of Economics to first-year BA Students.
[Last updated March 2024]