Marie Kikvadze

Most organizations investing in ESG and CSR face the same gap: strong intent, weak delivery, and nobody to connect board-level commitments with real impact on the ground. Marie Kikvadze founded Upcomrise to solve exactly this.

For over eight years, she has designed and delivered climate, energy transition, and just transition programs across Georgia and the South Caucasus for the EU, FCDO, KfW, UNDP, and USAID. Her flagship work includes Georgia’s first Media Bootcamp on climate reporting, which brought together journalists from 10 major media platforms to produce 16+ investigative features, and leading the Act4Climate campaign engaging businesses, CSOs, and media.

Her regional campaign on energy efficiency across nine regions of Georgia reached over 500,000 people. She also organised the Just Transition Forum 2026 in partnership with the Energy Community Secretariat, and designed an innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy exhibition uniting 20+ regional organizations. 95 grants managed.

She knows donor compliance, MEL frameworks, and how to report impact credibly to international standards. This is what UpComRise brings to corporate CSR and ESG: sector expertise, community relationships, and measurable outcomes.

At UpComRise, she manages all projects personally. Her expertise is not a portfolio item – it is the foundation of the consultancy. When a project requires specialized input in research, video production, gender analysis, or energy policy, she brings in selected independent experts from her trusted network, keeping them within the UpComRise quality framework.