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EAF II: Speaker Bios

Jaroslav Bashta

His Excellency Jaroslav Bashta serves as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ukraine.

Peter Bates

Peter Bates currently serves as the Charge d’Affaires of the Canadian Embassy to Ukraine.

Iryna Bekeshkina

Iryna Bekeshkina is the Deputy Director and Research Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Oleksandr Biletsky

Oleksandr Biletsky is the President of European Movement in Ukraine, the NGO most responsible for promoting the notion of eventual EU membership for Ukraine.

Krzysztof Bobinski

Krzysztof Bobinski works at the Unia & Polska Foundation – a pro-European NGO in Warsaw; he was, for several years, the Financial Times’ correspondent in Warsaw.

Peter Borisow

Peter Borisow is the President of Hollywood Trident Foundation, which enhances Ukrainian visibility globally in the fields of media and entertainment; concurrently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations.

Elmar Brok

Elmar Brok is a German Member of the European Parliament and the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was elected on the CDU ticket and sits with the European People’s Party group.

Ihor Burakovskyy

Ihor Burakovskyy is Chairman and Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting; concurrently, he is Professor of Economic Theory at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Valeriy Chaliy

Valeriy Chaliy is the Deputy General Director of the Oleksandr Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Research; he has served as a non-staff consultant for the Verkhovna Rada Foreign Affairs Committee from 2000.

Valeriy Chechekashvili

Valeriy Chechekashvili, a veteran Georgian diplomat, currently serves as the Secretary General of GUAM .

Oleksandr Derhachov

Oleksandr Derhachov is Supervisory Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethno-national Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Research Programs Coordinator at the Institute of Politics/NASU.

Volodymyr Dubovyk

Volodymyr Dubovyk is currently Associate Professor and Assistant Chairperson at the Department of International Relations, Institute of Social Sciences, Odessa National University as well as Senior Research Fellow and Director at the Center for International Studies, ONU.

Serhiy Dzerdzh

Serhiy Dzerdzh is the Head of the NATO – Ukraine” Civic League, an association of Ukrainian NGOs that share common Euro-Atlantic values, support the goal of full NATO membership and promote the full implementation of the NATO–Ukraine Action Plan.

James Greene

James Greene is the Head of the NATO Liaison Office (NLO) in Ukraine; prior to his current appointment, Col. Greene worked for a year as external co-director for the NATO Membership Action Plan Project.

Volodymyr Horbulin

Volodymyr Horbulin is currently Director of the National Security Studies Institute of Ukraine; during his long tenure in various Ukrainian government posts, Dr. Horbulin was one of the authors of the “Concept of National Security and Defense of Ukraine” and other major strategic documents concerning state-building strategies.

Kostyantyn Hryshchenko

Kostyantyn Hryshchenko currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine; from 2000-2003, Ambassador Hryshchenko served as Ukraine”s envoy to the United States and in the 2003-2004 period, he acceded to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Anatoliy Hrytsenko

Anatoliy Hrytsenko is presently the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense; Deputy Hrytsenko served as the Minister of Defense of Ukraine from January 2005 until January 2008.

Borys Humenyuk

Borys Humenyuk is Rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Dr. Humenyuk is also a member of the MFA Collegium and Head of the International Organization and Diplomatic Service Department at the Institute of International Relations, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.

Kim Do Hyon

Kim Do Hyon currently serves as First Secretary [in Economic Affairs] at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to Ukraine

Valeriy Ivaschenko

Valeriy Ivaschenko currently serves as the First Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

Yevhen Kaminsky

Yevhen Kaminsky is a Doctor of Historical Studies and Head of the Trans-Atlantic Research Department, Institute of World Economy, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Bohdan Klich

Bohdan Klich currently serves as the Minister for National Defense of the Republic of Poland; he comes to the post after long service in both the Polish and European Parliaments.

Jacek Kluczkowski

His Excellency Jacek Kluczkowski serves as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine.

Ilko Kucheriv

Ilko Kucheriv is Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the leading non-governmental public opinion research organization in Ukraine known for its scrupulous poll taking.

Algirdas Kumzha

His Excellency Algirdas Kumzha serves as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Lithuanian Republic in Ukraine. He heads the Taras Shevchenko Foundation for Developing Ukrainian-Lithuanian Cultural Ties.

Nico Lange

Nico Lange is the Director of the Ukraine Programme and Kyiv Office of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Orysia Lutsevych

Orysia Lutsevych is a Director of the Open Ukraine Foundation [OUF]; she is also a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Mutsuo Mabuchi

His Excellency Mutsuo Mabuchi serves as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Japan to Ukraine.

Oleh Medvedev

Oleh Medvedev, a veteran journalist and editor, currently serves as the Vice President of the Ukrainian Public Relations League.