Robinson Professor Helps Republic of Georgia Build Economy Through Business Education

April 28, 2005 (Atlanta) – Three female entrepreneurs from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia spent the past month as part of a unique mentor program through a partnership between the Caucasus School of Business in Tbilisi and Georgia State's J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

Keti Berulava, an innkeeper and trout farmer; Maia Aladashvili, a loan officer and pawn shop owner; and Mariam Kikacheishvili, a fashion designer were selected from more than 200 women entrepreneurs who attended The Businesswomen's Leadership Training Program in Tbilisi. Each participant submitted a business plan. The three best were brought to Atlanta to participate in a month-long mentor program designed by Dr. Bijan Fazlollahi and Judy Quick with Robinson's Institute of International Business.

During their stay in Atlanta, the women learned first-hand about the challenges of their respective careers.

Their leader and interpreter, Tamuna Gabisonia, an administrator at the Caucasus School of Business, observed the "can do" attitude of her American hosts: "When I come to the United States, I am filled with so much energy.  There is such a feeling that you can do anything here- that nothing is impossible.  I try to keep that feeling alive when I go home to Tbilisi."

While in Atlanta, the women have met with several businesses:

• Keti Berulava gained valuable lessons on hospitality by executives at the Timber Ridge Conference Center.
• Executives from Southern National Bank arranged numerous visits for the delegation, including a tour of the Lockheed-Martin plant, an afternoon with the Community Bankers Association of Georgia and a meeting with the Commissioner of Agriculture. 
• Maia Aladashvili met with executives from Flag Bank and I-Deal Jewelry/I-Deal Brokerage. 
• Berulava and Aladashvili met with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Trout Fish Hatchery in Cumming, Cagle's Dairy Farm in Canton and the Circle M Polled Herefords Farm in Jasper.
• Mariam Kikacheishvili observed operation at AmericasMart.

The Businesswomen's Leadership Training Program is an outreach program initiated by Fazlollahi and managed in partnership with the Caucasus School of Business and the Robinson College of Business through a grant by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It was designed to help raise the economic status of women from Tbilisi and the provinces of Georgia.

Fazlollahi has initiated several projects in the Republic of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Through grants from the U.S. State Department and the Eurasia Foundation, Fazlollahi created the Caucasus School of Business In 1997. Over the past eight years, the school has modeled a BBA and MBA program after Robinson's own nationally ranked programs and recently launched a Ph.D. program.  In 2001, Fazlollahi was asked to establish a program for training a new generation of managers to assist Azerbaijan's transition from a planned economy to a free market economy. Today, the MBA program at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, also modeled after Robinson's program, is a self-sufficient program serving 100 MBA students.

Fazlollahi specializes in Management Information Systems. He has substantial experience in the management of business and government organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Having been an engineer, plant manager and president of numerous companies, he also has extensive experience in the operations of industrial enterprises. Before joining Robinson, Fazlollahi was deputy chief of the Iran Port Authority and a member of the Consumer Protection Board of Iran. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the former U.S.S.R. He has received three Honorary Doctorate degrees in the past several years from the universities in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Last year, President Saakashvili conferred upon Fazlollahi an honorary citizenship of the Republic of Georgia for his commitment and devotion to the educational development of the country.