Giorgi (Gia) Maisashvili, an economist and former ally of President Saakashvili, is a newcomer in the Georgian politics.
 
Maisashvili, 45, who lived in the United States since 1993, graduated Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1997 he joined Enron and was head of the corporation’s risk analysis unit before quitting the company in 2001.
 
He returned to Georgia on the eve of the 2003 Rose Revolution and became an economics consultant to the then opposition leader, Saakashvili. He, however, split with Saakashvili shortly after the revolution.
 
Maisashvili then set up a Leadership School with the aim, as the school's website puts it, of fostering the emergence of “a new generation of skilled, wise and courageous leaders.” He has never been associated with any political party. He did, however, establish what was meant to be a grassroots movement, Government of the Future. He has not been active since then and has been seen on the Georgian political scene only occasionally. This July, however, Maisashvili set up a political Party of Future and immediately revealed his ambition to run for presidency.
 
In his election campaign Maisashvili makes major focus on economy and social solidarity and like other presidential candidates (except of Irina Sarishvili) advocates Georgia’s NATO integration.
 
On November 30 Maisashvili said he would support Mikheil Saakashvili in the event of a second-round run-off against “oligarch” Badri Patarkatsishvili.