Alan Gillam serves as the country director for Georgia. He comes to NDI with more than 10 years of professional experience in the parliamentary system that governs the United Kingdom and his home country of Scotland. A member of the Scottish and British Labour Party, Gillam has held staff leadership positions with numerous senior politicians, advising on policy development, parliamentary strategy, and building public support for legislative initiatives.Through his parliamentary work, Gillam consistently engaged with policy stakeholders across a variety of sectors and demographics to shape legislation. In 2014, he coordinated a year-long public policy outreach campaign ahead of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum.  In this role, he organized MP townhalls throughout Scotland to engage constituents from industry, trade unions, consumer groups and youth and coordinated an associated media strategy. Following the referendum, he served as the lead staff negotiator for the Labour Party on the Smith Commission, working across party divides, developing positioning on complex policy areas and liaising with civil servants from the UK and Scottish Departments as well as internal management at all levels of the UK Labour Party.Gillam brings unique international experience to NDI Kyrgyzstan. After traveling independently throughout southeast Asia, he settled in Cambodia for five years and, with another expatriate partner, founded and ran a restaurant and bar in the tourist town of Siem Reap, before selling the business as a going concern in 2015.