Alexander Kvitashvili

Born in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia, Kvitashvili graduated from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in history in 1992. In the framework of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, he continued his education at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and obtained his M.A. in public management in 1993. Having briefly worked for financial and administrative departments at the Grady Memorial Hospital, Kvitashvili returned to Georgia in 1993 and worked for the United Nations Development Programme, United Methodist Committee on Relief, international fund of the Georgian NGO Curatio, and the EastWest Institute. He consulted various international organizations based in Azerbaijan, Latvia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Greece on the education-, healthcare- and social security-related issues. == Minister of Health ==

Georgia On 31 January 2008, Kvitashvili was appointed by the then-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili as Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia. He resigned on 31 August 2010, citing "a proposal from academic circles" to be an acting rector of the Tbilisi State University, a position he took over in September 2010. He served as an elected Rector of the TSU from 27 December 2010 until his resignation on 12 June 2013. Ukraine On 2 December 2014 Kvitashvili was appointed Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine in the Second Yatsenyuk Government with the hope to reform the country's healthcare system. He was granted the Ukrainian citizenship by President Petro Poroshenko on the same day. Georgia's incumbent Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili reacted negatively to the appointment, accusing Kvitashvili of "destroying" Georgia's healthcare system. On 2 July 2015 Kvitashvili wrote a letter of resignation after losing the support of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc in which he stated "If my resignation helps pass bills that are needed to launch reform, I'm ready to leave". The Ukrainian parliament voted against accepting the resignation on 17 September 2015. On 10 December 2015 Kvitashvili stated in an interview with Ukraine Today about the refusal of parliament to accept his resignation "It doesn't matter though, I have been working since July the same hours, with the same effort that I was before". He publicly withdrew his letter of resignation on 4 February 2016. He did not retain his post in the Groysman Government that was installed on 14 April 2016. == Notes ==