Anders Åslund
Anders Aslund is presently a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics. Dr. Aslund has long engaged in monitoring the transformation of formerly socialist economies to market-based economies. Prior to his tenure at the Institute, Dr. Åslund was Director of the Russian & Eurasian Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Bihun
Andrew Bihun, presently President of The Washington Group (TWG), has enjoyed an extensive career in international marketing, particularly in analyzing global marketing opportunities and stimulating the growth of trade from his position in public sector, i.e. the U.S. Department of Commerce. The highlight of Mr. Bihun”s international career was a posting as Commercial Counselor and head of the Foreign Commercial Service of the US Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine from 1995 to 1999.
Janusz Bugajski
Janusz Bugajski is a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, DC, and host of “Bugajski Hour” and “Bugajski Time” television shows broadcast in the Balkans. Bugajski has authored 19 books on Europe, Russia, and trans-Atlantic relations. His recent books include Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared (2014) and Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement (2013).
Ariel Cohen
Ariel Cohen is a well-known international expert on Ukrainian, Russian, Eurasian, European and Middle Eastern foreign, security and economic affairs; U.S. and global energy security; terrorism; organized crime and other political risk factors. Dr. Cohen is currently Director, Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics and Senior Fellow, Institute for Analysis of Global Security as well as Principal at International Market Analysis.
Keith Crane
Keith Crane is currently Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation. Dr. Crane is one of America”s most prolific authors on the subject of “nation building”, concentrating particularly on issues pertaining to social and economic spheres of activity.
Nadia Diuk
Nadia Diuk currently serves as Vice President, Programs for Europe and Eurasia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit organization funded by the US Congress to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. Dr. Diuk has supervised NED programs since 1987.
Bohdan Futey
Bohdan Futey has served as Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims since 1987. Judge Futey is actively involved with Democratization and Rule of Law programs organized by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Department of State and the American Bar Association in Ukraine and Russia.
Paul Goble
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences at Audentes University in Tallinn. While there, he launched the “Window on Eurasia” series. Prior to joining the faculty there in 2004, he served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau.
Viktor Halasyuk
Viktor Halasyuk is senior economic advisor to Oleh Lyashko, the leader of the Ukrainian Radical Party. Concurrently, Mr. Halasyuk serves at President of the Bionic Hill Project.
Iryna Herashenko
Iryna Herashchenko is a noted Ukrainian politician and journalist. She was named Merited Journalist of Ukraine in 2001. In 2005-2006, she worked as a presidential press-secretary. Since November 2007 she has been a member of parliament. Initially member of the Our Ukraine–People’s Self-Defense Bloc in 2007-2012, during the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, Herashchenko joined the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitali Klitschko. In June 2014, Ms. Herashchenko was appointed President Poroshenko’s envoy to his Peace Plan for Eastern Ukraine.
Anatoliy Hrytsenko
Anatoliy Hrytsenko is an independent member of the current Ukrainian parliament, former Minister of Defense, a member of the Our Ukraine political party and leader of the Civil Position party
John Herbst
John Herbst is former United States Ambassador to Ukraine and presently Director for Eurasia at the Atlantic Council of the United States; immediately prior to the current posting, he served as Director of the National Defense University Center for Complex Operations. Amb. Herbst has worked at several senior diplomatic posts in the Near East and the post Soviet space. He was appointed Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2000 before assuming the post of US envoy to Ukraine in 2003.
Laura Jewett
Laura Jewett is NDI”s Regional Director for Eurasia. Dr. Jewett has traveled extensively throughout her assigned region meeting with political, civic and government leaders to assess political conditions and design democracy assistance programs.
Alexander Kasanof
Alexander Kasanof is the current Director of the Bureau for Ukraine, Molova & Belarus at the Department of State. He comes to the task eminently qualified, having been Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Kyiv during the Euro-Maidan period.
Lewis Madanick
Lewis Madanick is currently Program Manager for the Open World Leadership Development Center, charged with bringing a new generation of leaders from Lithuania, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to the United States for an “internship in building responsible civil society and democratic government”.
William Miller
William Miller is presently a Senior Scholar at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center. Earlier, he served as the second US Ambassador to Ukraine. During his tenure, Ambassador Miller was eyewitness to some of the most fundamental transformations of the Ukrainian State, including the ratification of Ukraine’s Constitution.
Hryhoriy Nemyria
Hryhoriy Nemyria”s career has led to several posts: National Deputy of Verkhovna Rada”s 5th convocation, from April 2006; Chairman of the Subcommittee on European integration; Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Committee on Foreign Affairs (since July 2006); Deputy Prime Minister for Euro-Integration (2007); Deputy Chairman of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc since August 2006.
Steven Nix
Steven Nix is Director of the Eurasian Division at the International Republican Institute. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Nix served as Outside Legal Counsel for the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on Legal and Judicial Reform. Upon his return to the U.S., he accepted a position as Senior Democracy Specialist at USAID, where he assisted in the design and implementation of democracy programs in Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States.
John O’Keefe
John O’Keefe is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister Counselor, who current serves as Executive Director of the Open World Leadership Development Program. Amb. O”Keefe served as U.S. envoy to Kyrgyzstan from August 2000 to July 2003.
Herman Pirchner
Herman Pirchner, in 1982, became the founding President of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), a non-profit public policy organization headquartered in Washington DC. Under his leadership, AFPC has hosted the DC visits of hundreds of foreign officials; conducted hundreds of briefings for members of Congress and their staffs; and organized dozens of fact-finding missions abroad for current and former senior American officials as well as running an extensive publication program.
Oleksiy Skrypnyk
Oleksiy Skyrpnyk is third on the party list of Self Reliance, a coalition of progress minded civil society organizations that have decided to turn to the political arena for solutions. Concurrently, he is an award winning CEO of ELEKS Software.
Keith Smith
Keith Smith is currently Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis; immediately prior to that appointment, he was Senior Advisor in the Europe Division at the Center for Strategic and International Affairs (CSIS). In 2000, Ambassador Smith retired from the State Department’s Foreign Service after serving from 1997 to 2000 as the American Ambassador in Lithuania. In Europe, he was also posted to Hungary (twice), Norway and Estonia.
Oleksandr Sych
Oleksandr Sych is Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine; he comes to the post having served in the Ukrainian parliament as a member representing the “Freedom” party.
William B. Taylor, Jr.
William B. Taylor, Jr. is Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2011 to 2013, Ambassador Taylor was the Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions in the State Department, appointed by the Secretary of State to ensure that U.S. support for the countries of the Arab revolutions was effective. He served as the U.S. envoy to Ukraine, the sixth in a line of distinguished US diplomats, from 2006 to 2009.