Tamar Zhvania is the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Georgia since 2013. On December 14, 2018 Tamar Zhvania was elected as the CEC Chairperson for the second term. She holds the Master Degree in Sociology and is pursuing the PHD in Sociology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Tamar Zhvania is the fellow of the Centre of Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) in the Democracy and Development Programme (Stanford University, California USA). She is fully accredited BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) Workshop Facilitator.

Before her career in public service, Tamar Zhvania was a Project Manager (team leader) at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). At UNDP, under European Union projects, she designed and implemented programs oriented on development of election environment through raising public awareness, policy development and capacity building; Ms. Zhvania was an executive director of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED); As a leader of the largest civil society organization of Georgia, she supported development of professional non-partisan election observation as well as advocated to improve legislation and transparency of electoral processes. In 2012-2011, Tamar Zhvania served as a Senior Program Manager at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Nigeria. Before, she also served as contracted election consultant in NDI Bangladesh.

Ms. Zhvania gained practical experience in monitoring more than 30 elections worldwide including being the representative of OSCE/ODIHR, NUPI and ENEMO international observation missions. Tamar also participated in “Strategies for Raising Public Trust” programme in London, supported by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS). Her professional training and awards received cover diverse areas including the certificate on Advance Study of Nonviolent Conflict in Fletcher Summer Institute of Tufts University and certificate of Conflict Prevention in Electoral Assistance of EC-UNDP Joint Task Force in Barcelona, Spain. Ms. Zhvania is a winner of annual Joe C. Baxter Award in 2017, granted by IFES for her contributions in advancing election environment as a CEC Chairperson.

Tamar Zhvania is married and has three children.