Biography

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Salome Zourabichvili was inaugurated as the first female President of Georgia on December 16, 2018. 

Zourabichvili was born in 1952 and went to the Institute of Political Studies (1969-1972 – Paris, France) and went onto a master's program at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (1972-1973 – New York, U.S.A.).

From 1974 to 2004, she worked in the diplomatic service for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France in several embassies (Italy, United States, and Chad) and with French representations to international organizations (UN, NATO, Western European Union, OSCE). In 2003, she was appointed as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of France to Georgia. From 2004 to 2005, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. After leaving the post, she founded the political party “The Way of Georgia” on March 11, 2006. 

Zourabichvili was an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, France (2006-2015). At the same time, she led the United Nations Security Council monitoring group on sanctions against Iran (2010-2015). Then in 2016, she won her election as an Independent Deputy in the Parliament of Georgia.

She is fluent in Georgian, French, and English and converses in basic Italian.​