Sophie Shevardnadze – Keynote Speaker

Sophie Shevardnadze is a television and radio show host, op-ed writer and interviewer for Russia’s leading magazines, a public figure in Europe and Russia.

For the past five years, Sophie Shevardnadze has hosted her own program SophieCo, on Russia’s English language network channel RT (Russia Today) interviewing prominent politicians and newsmakers from around the world. Sophie co-hosted two radio shows on Echo of Moscow, one of the last remaining independent media resources in Russia. Sophie is currently making a special interview series for Russia’s Channel One, the country’s biggest network channel. Previously, on Channel One, she had co-hosted a popular talk show “About Love” with Russia’s legendary rock star Sergei Shnurov.

She moderates various panels and public talks all around the world, dedicated to various subjects, from politics to genome sequencing to international diplomacy to charity. The conferences Sophie worked at include the United Nations forums, Valday discussion club, the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, the WEB summit, International forum Russian Energy Week, Eastern Economic Forum and the Eurasian Forum. She has been invited to be a speaker at Yale and Harvard on matters of modern-day media and international relations.

She often reads lectures, conducts seminars and master classes on journalism and media. Sophie has been heavily involved with Russia’s VERA foundation which focuses on hospice care for both adults and children; she is a Board Member of the Global Teachers Prize Academy and the Russian TV Academy.

Sophie Shevardnadze was born in a political family, she is a granddaughter of the last foreign minister of the Soviet Union and later president of Georgia, Edouard Shevardnadze. Raised and educated between Tbilisi, Paris and New York, she speaks 5 languages (English, French, Russian, Georgian, Italian). She has earned her BA degree in film at Emerson College, and an MA degree from NYU in Broadcast Journalism.