An openly gay Georgian tech entrepreneur is set to become the CEO of dating app Grindr, when the world’s largest queer dating platform goes public next month. 

George Arison’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer was announced on 13 September. 

Arison, 45, is an entrepreneur and father to twins. He was born and raised in Georgia, a country with very high levels of homophobia, before moving to the USA as a teenager. 

After studying political science at Middlebury College in Vermont, Arison spent several years working for Google. He later founded Shift Technologies, an online platform for used cars, and Taxi Magic (currently known as Curb), a precursor to Uber. 

Arison has maintained his interest and ties with the country of his birth, including during his early career as a political scientist. In 2007, under his given name Irakly Areshidze, he authored Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia: Georgia in Transition. 

George Arison is one of a small number of openly gay Georgians with a significant public profile.

[Read more on OC Media: Datablog | Georgia may be the most homophobic country in Europe] 

‘Our community is deserving of amazing business services, and we intend to meet and exceed their expectations’, said Arison. 

Grindr has in recent years become widely used by the Georgian queer community, but many still abstain from putting their faces on their profiles due to safety concerns.