On April 21, 2019 Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine with an impressive 73 percent of the vote. In a March 2019 interview with Der Spiegel, Zelensky stated he went into politics to restore trust in politicians and that he wanted «to bring professional, decent people to power» and «would really like to change the mood and timbre of the political establishment, as much as possible».

Prior to his political career, he obtained a degree in law and created a production company, Kvartal 95. Founder of NGO The League of Laughter Youth Center. Mr. Zelenskyy’s movie career includes 10 feature films, over 30 accolades of the Ukrainian National TV Awards Teletriumph and multiple prizes of the international movie-, and telefestivals and media forums. Played the lead role in The Servant of the People TV series that won the WorldFest Remi Award (USA, 2016) and made the comedy film finalist short-list of the Seoul International Drama Awards (South Korea). The Servant of the People also won the Intermedia Globe SILVER award in the Entertainment TV Show category at the WorldMediaFestival in Hamburg (Germany).

Between July 1994 and March 1998, she has held the position of Consultant, Deputy head of department at the Ministry of Economy. From March 1998 to August 2005, she worked as an economist at the World Bank Office in Chisinau. From August 2005 to July 2006, she was the Director of the Directorate-General for Macroeconomic Policy and Development Programs at the Ministry of Economy and Trade. Between 2006 and 2009, she worked as a consultant in various projects in the field of good governance and public administration reform. In July 2012, she became the Minister of Education in the Government of the Republic of Moldova, a position she held until July 2015. In May 2016, she founded the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS). She was appointed PAS Party President until December 2020, resigning after winning the presidential election. 

From February to June 2019, she acted as a Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. In June 2019, she was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, a position she held until November 2019. On December 24, 2020, Maia Sandu was sworn in as the President of the Republic of Moldova, after her victory in the second round of the presidential elections.

Mircea Geoană became NATO Deputy Secretary General in October 2019, after a distinguished domestic and international career. Mr. Geoană is the first Deputy Secretary General from Romania, and the first from any of the countries that joined the Alliance after the end of the Cold War.

Mr Geoană is a strong advocate of transatlantic integration and has held a number of international positions, including OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2001 and personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Georgia in 2005. He is President and founder of the Aspen Institute Romania and has published extensively on domestic and international affairs. In 2000, he was made a Commander of the National Order, The Star of Romania. He has also been awarded the French Legion d’Honneur and the Italian Stella della Soliedarita.

Gianni Buquicchio joined the Council of Europe in 1971. During his professional career (1971-2009), he was responsible for a number of intergovernmental committees dealing with administrative law, international law, free movement of persons, data protection, etc. He contributed to the harmonisation of European law by preparing a large number of international treaties and recommendations. He was also responsible for the Conferences of European Ministers of Justice and for the Legal Advisor and Treaty Office of the Council of Europe.

Mr. Buquicchio contributed to the successful establishment (1990) and the development of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) by ensuring the conception and follow-up of projects concerning constitutional reforms and the setting up of democratic institutions within Europe and beyond. At the end of 2009, he retired from the Council of Europe and was elected President of the Venice Commission. He was re-elected President in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Věra Jourová is currently Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency and deals with democracy, rule of law, disinformation and media pluralism. From 2014 to 2019, she served as EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before arriving to the European Commission, Ms Jourová held the position of Minister for Regional Development in the Czech Republic. Previous to this, from 2006 to 2013, she worked in her own company as an international consultant on European Union funding, and was also involved in consultancy activities in the Western Balkans relating to the European Union Accession. She holds a Degree in Law (Mgr.) and a Master’s degree (Mgr.) in the Theory of Culture from the Charles University, Prague.

Samantha Power was sworn into office as the 19th Administrator of USAID on May 3, 2021.

In leading the world’s premier international development agency and its global staff of over 10,000 people, Power will focus on helping the United States respond to four interconnected challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic and the development gains it has imperiled; climate change; conflict and humanitarian crises; and democratic backsliding. Power will also ensure that USAID enhances its longstanding leadership in areas including food security, education, women’s empowerment, and global health. Additionally, Power is the first USAID Administrator to be a member of the National Security Council, where she will ensure that development plays a critical role in America’s responses to a range of economic, humanitarian, and geopolitical issues.

Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Power was the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the William D. Zabel Professor of Practice in Human Rights at Harvard Law School. From 2013 to 2017, Power served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the 28th US Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During her time at the UN, Power rallied countries to combat the Ebola epidemic, ratify the Paris climate agreement, and develop new international law to cripple ISIS’s financial networks. She worked to negotiate and implement the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, helped catalyze bold international commitments to care for refugees, and advocated to secure the release of political prisoners, defend civil society from growing repression, and protect the rights of women and girls.

Power began her career as a war correspondent in Bosnia, and went on to report from places including Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. She was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and has been recognized as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and by Forbes as one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” Power is an author and editor of multiple books, and the recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.

He was elected to the Latvian Parliament in 2002 and served as Minister for Economics from 2004 to 2006. In 2009 Kariņš was elected to the European Parliament, where has served as MEP for almost ten years. His priorities in the European Parliament have been related to the Anti-money laundering and energy policy issues. Since January 2019 Krišjānis Kariņš is the Prime Minister of Latvia in a five-party coalition government. Following the European Parliament elections in May, the European People’s Party nominated Kariņš as one of the chief-negotiators to direct the discussions on filling the European Commission’s presidency and nearly all of the EU’s top jobs.

In the Government, Olha Stefanishyna is in charge of Ukraine’s integration to the EU and NATO, as well as implementation of the SDGs in Ukraine with special focus on gender equality. Upon her appointment, she has initiated an update of the Association Agreement in order to boost trade between the EU and Ukraine and enhancement of  transborder cooperation. The second part of DPM Stefanishyna portfolio is to ensure all-government coordination  of Ukraine-NATO cooperation and increase the military interoperability between Ukraine and NATO Allies military forces.

DPM Stefanishyna has over 13 years of experience in the field of International and European Law. She used to work in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, served as a Director-General in the Government Office for Coordination of  European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, and used to have a private legal practice. Olha has a Master’s Degree in International law and a Diploma in economics, studied  at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, and at the Estonian School of Diplomacy.

She is well known in the professional circles as one of the most qualified «euro-integrators» of Ukraine.

Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Wendy was first appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development on 13 February 2020. She was first elected as Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills in May 2015.

Wendy was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice from 26 July 2019 to 13 February 2020 and Assistant Government Whip from 9 January 2018 to 26 July 2019.

Diplomat; 1993-2000, Ambassador to the USA and Mexico; 2000-2010, Director of Latvian Institute; 2010-2018, MP, Latvian Parliament, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee; 2017-2018, Chairman of the NATO PA Political Committee ; 2019 — MP, Deputy Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee Also member of European Affairs and Baltic Affairs Sub-committees, Head of the Latvian Delegation to the NATO PA since 2011, Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Previously she served as deputy director general in DG Regional Policy, where she was in charge of cohesion policy coordination between 2007–2010.  Dr. Mathernová has held senior management and advisory posts at the European Commission, at the World Bank (2002-2004 and 2010-2014), and in the reform government of Slovakia (1998-2002), where she was chief institutional and policy advisor to the deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

Dr. Mathernová holds a J.D. from Comenius University in Bratislava and an LL.M. from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the New York Bar and speaks six languages. She started her career in private law practice with distinguished law firms in New York and Washington DC.  She was named Slovak Woman of the Year in 2000 and received the Pro Bono Human Rights Award from the International Human Rights Law Group in 1993. She is a member of several boards and the author of publications on Slovak and Czech economic and legal affairs.  

Ms. Cooper is a career member of the Senior Executive Service. She has responsibility for policy concerning Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova), and Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) as well as Conventional Arms Control.

Ms. Cooper previously served as a Principal Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs, with responsibility for policies on: mission assurance, defense continuity of operations, critical infrastructure protection, homeland counterterrorism, global antiterrorism policy, and the Council of Governors. Prior to joining the Department of Defense in 2001, Ms. Cooper was a policy planning officer at the State Department in the Office of Coordinator for Counterterrorism. She has also served as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

German politician of Alliance ’90/The Greens who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously represented Lower Saxony in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, from 2009 to 2013. In 1996, von Cramon was employed as an assistant to the Ukrainian Government within the economic-political project of German Government in Kyiv. 

In August 2018, von Cramon announced that she would run for a parliamentary seat in the 2019 European elections. Since becoming a Member of the European Parliament, she has been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, von Cramon is part of the Parliament’s delegations to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee and to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. She is also a member of the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG), which oversees the Parliament’s election observation missions. In response to an invitation by President Hashim Thaçi, Federica Mogherini appointed her to lead an EU mission to observe the 2019 elections in Kosovo.

Rasa Juknevičienė was an integral Member of the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis, and, as such, became a signatory of the Act of Lithuanian Independence, while working as a doctor in the Central Hospital of Pasvalys.

She was elected to the Lithuanian Parliament (this Parliament declared the Independence of Lithuania) in 1990 in the first free elections with Reform Movement Sąjūdis, and would be re-elected five times to the seat with the Homeland Union — Lithuanian Christian Democrats Party (which originated from the Sąjūdis movement). During her tenure as a Member of Parliament for many years, she worked in the Committee for National Security and Defence and chaired the Commission for NATO Affairs.

Rasa Juknevičienė served her country as Vice-President of the Parliament as well as Minister of Defence (2008-2012) and would join the NATO Parliamentary Assembly as Head of the Lithuanian Delegation in 1999, becoming its President nineteen years later, the first woman in history to hold this office. She is an active Member of both the Advisory Council of the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Mr. Kubilius was Secretary-in-Charge of the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sajūdis in 1990-1992 and a Member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania from 1992 to 2019. Twice the Prime Minister (1999-2000 and 2008-2012). He served as Chairman of the Homeland Union – Lithuania Christian Democrats from 2003 to 2015. 

Since 2015 – member of the International Advisory Council of Reforms of the President of Ukraine; member of the International Advisory Council, IRI, USA; member of the Advisory Board, EuroGrowth Initiative, Atlantic Council, USA. Author of International Initiatives: “Marshall Plan for Ukraine” (later – “European Plan for Ukraine”), “Trio Strategy For The Future of Eastern Partnership”, “Western Strategy Towards Russia”.

Chris has spent his career in the Senate focused on working across the aisle to get things done for the people of Delaware. In recent years, the Bipartisan Policy Center recognized Chris for his commitment to bipartisanship and awarded him its Legislative Action Award and the independent congressional tracking website GovTrack ranked Chris in the top three most productive Senators of both parties.

Before joining the Senate, Chris spent a decade of successful service in New Castle County government. As New Castle County Council President and New Castle County Executive, he earned a reputation for delivering real results on behalf of Delawareans, preserving critical community services while protecting the county’s finances during the least stable national economic climate in decades.

Prior to serving as County Executive, Chris worked as an attorney for Delaware-based W.L. Gore & Associates, an innovative, science-based business, where he helped the company expand. Chris previously worked for the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, helping at-risk youth stay in school, get to college and build their lives, and with the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Since 1996, Omid Nouripour has been an active member of the German Green Party (Alliance 90/The Greens). He first worked on an initiative for strengthening the rights of immigrants in Germany. From 1999 until 2003 he was the chairman of the Green Party’s Youth Organisation in Hessen, his German home state. In December 2002 Omid Nou- ripour was elected to the board of the federal Green Party and he remained on as a board member until December 2006. From 2002 until 2009 he was also the spokesperson of the Federal Working Committee on Migrants and Refugees of the Green Party.

Omid Nouripour became a member of parliament in September 2006, taking over the seat of Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister. Mr. Nouripour first worked on European issues and Home affairs and was a member of the Budget Com- mittee, the Committee of Defense, and the Commit- tee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.

Omid Nouripour is currently the ranking member of the Green caucus in the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the spokesperson of the Greens on Foreign Affairs. He also serves as head of the German- Ukrainian parliamentary friendship group.

Senator Whitehouse has been at the center of bipartisan efforts to pass laws overhauling federal education policy, rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, reforming the criminal and juvenile justice systems, protecting Americans from toxic chemicals in everyday products, and addressing ocean plastic waste. Representing the Ocean State, Whitehouse plays a key role in crafting policies addressing climate change, environmental protection, and a price on carbon.  

Whitehouse has stood as a staunch defender of Social Security and Medicare, and has made improving care and reducing costs in our health care system a hallmark of his career. Sheldon served as Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney and state attorney general before being elected to the Senate, where he serves on the Finance Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, and the Budget Committee.

From 2004 to 2008 a member of the Hamburg Parliament; spokesman for European, International Affairs and Youth Participation. From 2009 to 2017 spokesman for European Policy and chairman in the European Committee, as well as «Aliance 90 / The Greens» parliamentary group in the German Parliament; since 2018 spokesman for the Eastern European policy of the parliamentary group «Aliance 90 / The Greens».

Since 2009 chairman of the EUROPA UNION group in the German Parliament; since 2009 member of the board of Help Community (Original: Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe); since 2012 member of the board of trustees of the Institute for European Politics (IEP); From 2014 to 2020 Vice President of the Southeast Europe Society; since 2020 President of the Southeastern Europe Society, since 2018 Chairman of the German-Polish parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, since 2019 Vice-President of the European Movement Germany Community (Original:»EBD»); member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation since 2019.

Erik Woodhouse is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Division for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. In that position, he oversees the Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation and the Office of Threat Finance Countermeasures.
Before rejoining the State Department, Mr. Woodhouse was an attorney advising clients on compliance with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering rules and regulations. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the Treasury Department, where he worked on matters across IA’s international economic policy portfolio. Before Treasury, Mr. Woodhouse served as an attorney-adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, first covering human rights and refugee affairs, and then treaty affairs. Earlier in his career, he was an associate in the project finance and litigation practices at a global law firm, a clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and a researcher at the Program on Energy & Sustainable Development at Stanford University.

People’s Deputy of Ukraine, Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Elections, Referendums and Other Forms of Direct Democracy. 

From the beginning of her career from 2007 to 2012 she worked in various positions in the Secretariat of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement Activities. In 2012 she started working in the Central Election Commission, where she participated in the organization and holding of regular elections of people’s deputies of Ukraine. In parallel with her work in the Central Election Commission, she studied the best practices of European countries in electoral law, attended many trainings on the methodology of “BRIDGE” on topics such as “Education in the field of electoral processes”, “Electoral systems of the world”, “Political financing”. Ms. Zagoruyko was an international observer during the elections to the European Parliament in Poland from Ukraine.

Ms. Radina is an expert on anti-corruption, tax law, judicial and law enforcement reforms, member of the National Council for Anti-Corruption Policy. She was one of the leaders of the campaign to establish the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine. Ms. Radina is a member of the Ukrainian delegation at the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). Anastasia Radina was a Head of Advocacy Programs in “Anti-corruption Action Center”, one of the leaders of the campaign for establishing a High Anti-corruption Court of Ukraine.

Vice-chairman of the Committee on Defence and Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. He is also a member of the parliamentary Commission on Hybrid Threats. Furthermore, he is co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. His areas of interest include countering hostile propaganda and disinformation, digitalization and cyber security, screening of foreign investments or the EU Eastern Partnership initiative. 

He studied international relations at the Charles University in Prague and at the University of Kent in the UK. Prior to entering politics, he built a career in the private sector, holding managerial positions in the field of information technology in banking and marketing.

In autumn of 2017,  he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, running for the Czech Pirate Party in the district of Prague.

German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Lower Saxony since 2013. In addition to his parliamentary work, Saathoff has been serving as the German government’s Coordinator for Inter-Societal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership Countries at the Federal Foreign Office in the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2020.

Saathoff became a member of the Bundestag in the 2013 German federal election. He is a member of the Committee for Food and Agriculture and the Committee for Economic Affairs and Energy. In addition to his committee assignments, Saathoff is part of the German Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the ASEAN States.

Olesea Stamate is a lawyer and politician who held the position of Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, Co-founder and President of the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER).

Ms. Stamate has graduated from a master program in Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe, and the Law Faculty of the Moldovan State University. Olesea is a licensed attorney. Her areas of expertise are: justice and home affairs and public administration reform. She previously worked for the Soros Foundation Moldova, as Program Director for Good Governance and, later, as expert in various projects, where, among beneficiaries were the State Chancellery, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education. She also possesses project management and evaluation experience of over 10 years.

Climate Policy Advisor to Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Roman Abramovsky, Deputy Minister for Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine 2019-20, Member of Parliament of Ukraine 2014-19. In October 2014, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada. During his parliamentary tenure he headed the subcommittee on energy saving and energy efficiency of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety, co-chaired the inter-parliamentary group of friendship with The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

He has participated in lobbying and introducing numerous energy reforms in Ukraine.He personally championed initiatives supporting e-mobility, renewable energy and those focused on creating an energy efficiency market in Ukraine. Mr. Riabchyn represented Ukraine in Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Paris, Marrakesh, Bonn, Katowice and Madrid. He is focused on climate change issues, sustainable development, green economy and supporting displaced universities that were relocated from Donbas and Crimea. He has a MSc with Distinction in Innovation and Sustainability for International Development from the SPRU University of Sussex and has worked as an assistant professor at Donetsk National University. He relocated from Donetsk to Kyiv in May 2014 as a result of the war in Donbass.

In 2019, Popescu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. Previously, he worked as a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2013-2018); senior advisor on foreign policy  to the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013); senior research fellow at ECFR’s London office (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007).

Popescu teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University. He is author of the EU foreign policy and post-Soviet conflicts: stealth intervention, and co-editor of Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa and Democratization in EU Foreign Policy.

Honorary President of the Venice Commission, Former First Vice-President and Honorary President of the Venice Commission, Member of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Polish political figure, lawyer, doctor of law, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and Chair of the Constitutional Law Department, former First Vice-President of the Venice Commission. Honorary President of the Venice Commission. Held numerous internships and scholarships, including at Columbia University, the Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Institute of Public Law in Heidelberg, taught, among others, at Georgetown University in Washington. Member of the Club of Madrid since 2001.

She served as the Prime Minister of Poland (8 July 1992 – 26 October 1993). She is the first woman to hold this post in Poland and was the 14th woman to be appointed and serve as prime minister in the world. She served also as a Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General between 1997 and 2000.

Paul Massaro joined the U.S. Helsinki Commission in 2013. He serves as the policy advisor responsible for OSCE “second dimension” issues, or economic and environmental policy. His portfolio includes topics such as anti-corruption, sanctions, finance, trade, Arctic issues, and energy security. He is also responsible for Mongolia and the OSCE Asian Partners for Cooperation (Japan, Korea, Thailand, Australia, and Afghanistan).

His work focuses on countering globalized corruption, specifically transnational authoritarian and criminal networks. He looks for policy solutions, convenes events including hearings, and develops financial and legal frameworks more resistant to authoritarian influence. He also advises Commissioners and liaises with the Executive Branch on relevant legislation. One example of his daily work is legislation like H.R. 6067, the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2018, which aims to establish criminal penalties and civil remedies for doping fraud violations at major international competitions.

Paul holds a Master of Public Policy with a specialization in international security and economic policy from the Maryland School of Public Policy, where he graduated top of his class. He also holds two bachelor’s degrees in government and politics and Germanic studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he graduated summa cum laude.

Sytnyk has investigated more than 300 criminal proceedings, most of which concerned corruption-related crimes. Sytnyk started his career as a district attorney assistant of Leninskiy district, Kirovohrad, then as an investigator and senior investigator of the Kirovograd region. Two years later he headed the investigation department. In August 2008 Artem became a head of the Investigations division in Kyiv regional Prosecutor’s office. He worked there for three years. Sytnyk resigned because of his disagreement with the policies of the Yanukovych regime.

Dr. Michael Carpenter is Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He served in the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense with responsibility for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, the Balkans, and Conventional Arms Control.  He also served in the White House as a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden as well as on the National Security Council as Director for Russia.  

Dr. Carpenter has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, ABC News, Bloomberg, Voice of America and has been cited or published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy,  New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, McClatchy, Atlantic, Politico, The Hill, and Defense One.

Peter Erben, IFES principal advisor, is a leading authority on electoral management and the strengthening of democratic institutions. Erben is one of few international experts ever called upon to direct national elections for other nations. Erben currently works out of Ukraine, where he is also senior country director for IFES and senior adviser to the election commission. He has held similar positions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and Palestine.

He served as the chief electoral officer of Afghanistan during the country’s 2005 parliamentary and provincial council elections. Previously, he directed two out-of-country elections: the 2004 Afghan presidential election for Afghans living in Pakistan and Iran, and the 2005 Iraqi parliamentary elections for Iraqis living in 14 countries worldwide, including Sweden, Syria, Jordan and the U.S.

In 2005, Erben received Afghanistan’s Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan Superior State Medal; in 2008, he was knighted for contributing to the advancement of democracy worldwide. Erben is Danish and graduated from Copenhagen Business School. He is a regular guest lecturer at Harvard and other universities.

Mary Butler is the chief of the International Unit of the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.  As chief, she oversees the Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.  The mission of the Initiative is to recover assets linked to foreign corruption that affect the US financial system and to prosecute those involved where appropriate.  An important goal of the Initiative is to return the net recovered assets for the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption through agreements that ensure the transparent and accountable use of the funds. Prosecutors in the International Unit also enforce foreign court restraining and forfeiture orders against assets in the United States involving all crimes and implement the Department’s international asset sharing program.  International Unit prosecutors also participate in the US delegations to FATF and the UNCAC Conference of State Parties, as well as various informal international networks of asset recovery practitioners.  The Unit works closely with the FBI’s International Corruption Unit and special agents of the Department of Homeland Security and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.    

Mary is a career federal prosecutor. After working as an associate in private practice in Chicago, Mary worked as an AUSA in the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida in Miami for 12 years.  After serving as the chief of the Public Corruption Section, she moved to the Public Integrity Section at Main Justice.  From 2011- 2014, Mary served on a detail in Ukraine as a DOJ OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor. She joined MLARS as the International Unit’s chief in 2014.  

Kenneth Wollack is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and is co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has sponsored the presidential and vice-presidential debates since 1988. He is a member of the advisory committee for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the George W. Bush Institute’s Advisory Council on Human Freedom. He is also a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr. Wollack has been actively involved in foreign affairs, journalism and politics over the past five decades. For more than 25 years, he served as president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to advancing democracy worldwide. He retired in September, 2018. For his efforts on behalf of democracy, Mr. Wollack is the recipient of NDI’s W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, the Presidential Order of Excellence as well as Honorary Citizenship from the Republic of Georgia, the National Order “Faithful Service” from the government of Romania, and the Medal of Honor “Lithuanian Millennium Star” from the government of Lithuania.

Ms. Haykuhi Harutyunyan is a human rights defender and lawyer, currently serving as chair of the Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC) of the Republic of Armenia, a newly established independent body that develops and implements the country’s corruption prevention policies. She previously led Protection of Rights without Borders, one of the most influential human rights organizations in Armenia. She has over 15 years of experience working with local and international civil society organizations on rule of law, judiciary, and human rights issues, including as a member of the Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum from 2016 to 2019. She received the 2018 Universal Rights Award in the Access to Justice category for her work documenting human rights violations, assisting peaceful demonstrators, and identifying systemic police impunity. She was a 2018 Draper Hills Summer Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and a 2011-2012 Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School’s Human Rights Center.

She is a former Director in the Romanian Ministry of Justice. Ms. Stefan is a recognized international anti-corruption, assets recovery and rule of law expert with the European Commission, the World Bank, UNDP and the Council of Europe.Between 2005 and 2007 she was a Director within the Ministry of Justice of Romania and was responsible for anti-corruption policies. She elaborated and supported the adoption of the anti-corruption legislation, developed and implemented various programs for civic awareness and worked to reform the Public Prosecutors’ Office in Romania.

In 2015 she received the title of Brave Woman of the Year from the US Embassy in Bucharest and a fellowship from the Eisenhower Foundation, which included a two month visit in the US. Ms. Stefan graduated from the Bucharest School of Law and the Master program of Cambridge University. Since 2011 she has been a member of the Expert Group on Corruption.

Jerzy Pomianowski has worked in international affairs for almost 30 years as Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland, Director of OECD-UNDP’s Partnership for Democratic Governance and Poland’s Ambassador to Japan. In 2013, he led the establishment of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) and has since served as its Executive Director. 

Pomianowski began his career as a civil servant in 1990, just after the fall of communism, first in the Ministry of Education, and then in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He oversaw the launch of Poland Aid (2006-2008) and served as Director General of the Polish Foreign Service (2005-2006). Before 1989, Pomianowski was an active member of the democratic opposition in Poland. He was Chief-Editor of the Independent

Publishing House at the Warsaw University, his Alma Mater. In his free time, he serves as president of the Polish Aikido Federation.

Mr. Shullman oversees IRI’s work addressing the influence of China and other autocracies on democratic institutions and governance in countries around the world. He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Dr. Shullman previously served for nearly a dozen years as one of the U.S. Government’s top experts on East Asia, most recently as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia on the National Intelligence Council.  Dr. Shullman has testified on China topics before subcommittees of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and has published in numerous outlets including Foreign Affairs and The National Interest.  He earned his PhD in Political Science from UCLA, a MALD from the Fletcher School, and a BA in Government from Georgetown.

Ilya Zaslavskiy is head of Underminers.info, a research project on post-Soviet kleptocracy. He is also Senior Fellow at Free Russian Foundation, first Russian Associate of the Academy of Leadership of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and a former member of the Advisory Council of the Kleptocracy Initiative, Hudson Institute. His prior research on Kremlin-led economic projects and oligarchs has been cited in Senator Benjamin Cardin’s 2018 report on implications of Putin’s assault for U.S National Security173, and his multiple papers have been published by the Atlantic Council, Council on Foreign Relations, Martens Centre, Hudson Institute, Free Russia Foundation and other leading think-tanks and NGOs.

Zaslavskiy has provided policy briefings on post-Soviet oligarchic networks, oil and gas issues, sanctions, kleptocracy and export of corruption to USG officials in the executive and legislative branches, to UK and EU parliamentarians and former UK Prime Minister. He has also shared his insights with US, UK and French due diligence and corporate intelligence companies and US and European human rights groups. He holds an M.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford and an Executive Master in Management of Energy from BI Norwegian Business School.

Alexander Shlyk is an election expert. Before becoming the Special Representative for Elections of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Mr. Shlyk was the head of the Election Department of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which over the last 20 years has observed over 200 elections and worked to strengthen and secure democratic processes across 57 countries. Among them Belarus and Russia. As the head of the department since 2016, he supervised the monitoring of all elections in the OSCE region and helped countries to bring their electoral processes in line with international standards.

As the special representative on elections, Shlyk leads the preparation of the legislative and practical framework for democratic elections, organizes public consultations on approaches to electoral reform, and coordinates work with international partners and electoral experts.

Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Project Development Scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. At Harvard, Benjamin focuses on the development of instrumentation and infrastructure for next-generation Antarctic experimental cosmology facilities at the South Pole, and is a recipient of the Antarctic Service Medal.

From 2015-2019 Benjamin served as European Energy Security Advisor at the U.S. Department of State.  At the State Department, he advanced diplomatic engagement vital to the energy and national security interests of the Transatlantic community, with a focus on supporting Europe’s resiliency to Russian malign energy activities. Benjamin is a Fellow with the Duke University Center for International and Global Studies “Rethinking Diplomacy” program focused on advancing research toward better integrating practitioners of science and technology into the senior U.S. national security and foreign policy enterprise. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Democratic Resilience program at the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank in Washington, D.C.

Tilman Hoppe has supported anti-corruption reforms in more than 40 countries through projects by the Council of Europe, European Union, GIZ, OECD, TI, UN, USAID, World Bank, and others. He has published more than 60 law review articles and book chapters, some of which upper courts and the Venice Commission quoted in their decisions. Mr. Hoppe taught law at the Berlin School of Law and Economics. After completing his Ph.D. in 2000, he worked as a judge in civil and criminal matters, as a manager in the financial sector, and as a senior adviser at the German Parliament.

David Stulík worked for the last 12 years as the Press and Information Officer at the EU Delegation in Kyiv, Ukraine. Prior to this position, he was shortly employed in the Czech Deputy Prime Minister Office, where he dealt with the preparations for the Czech EU Presidency. Before joining the public sector, David acted as the Head of Unit for Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova and the Coordinator of democracy projects in Eastern Europe in one of the largest Central European NGOs, People in Need. Before, he served as the Project Manager at the Civil Society Development Foundation (NROS), which has been predominantly involved in the administration of PHARE programs aimed at the development of civil society in the Czech Republic. There, Mr. Stulík coordinated 3-year projects on preparations of Czech NGOs for EU accession, which was funded by the CEE TRUST program.

His professional experience includes working for the independent Czech think tank, Institute for European policies, Europeum, which he co-founded. Mr. Stulik also served as Project Manager and Executive Assistant to Senior Vice President of the EastWest Institute, a Euro-American think tank. During his studies, he held the position of Vice President of AEGEE-Europe (European Students’ Association). In 1997, he received the award “Young European of the Year” and, as a result, he conducted a 6-month internship at the European Parliament.

Among his fields of interests and competence are EU enlargement and neighbourhood policy, development of civil society, EU communication policies, EU lobbying, civic dialogue, and the socio-economic consequences of post-communist transition.

He simultaneously holds the position of a Dean of the Law School of Ilia State University. From 2010 until October 2012 Irakli Porchkhidze was the First Deputy State Minister for Reintegration. He was in charge of the policy development towards the occupied territories of Georgia. He headed the Georgian delegation to the humanitarian working group of the Geneva Talks between Georgia and Russia.

In 2008-2010 he served as the Deputy National Security Advisor to the President of Georgia and Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia. In this capacity he led the National Strategic Review process, which included the development of the National Threats Assessment Document, the National Security Concept and other strategic documents.

In 2004-2006 he was the first head of the Civil Registry Agency (biggest service delivery unit under the Ministry of Justice). This reform of the agency became the flagship case of Georgia’s transformation.

Irakli holds master’s degrees in international affairs and political science from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University (New York) and Central European University (Budapest). He was a fellow of the Draper Hills Program of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. In 2019 he was a senior fellow at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Drew Sullivan is a social entrepreneur and co-founder and publisher of OCCRP. He founded the organization in 2007 with Paul Radu. Before that, in 2004, he founded and edited the Center for Investigative Reporting, the leading investigative center in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Under his direction, OCCRP has won numerous awards, including the Daniel Pearl Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the Tom Renner Award for Crime Reporting, the European Press Prize, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. OCCRP’s work on the Panama Papers with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism.

Previously, Drew was an investigative reporter for The Tennessean newspaper and the Associated Press’s Special Assignment Team. He has served on the boards of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.

Attorney at Law, served more than 22 years in the FBI as both a Special Agent and a Supervisory Special Agent.  During her time in the FBI, she specialized in conducting and supervising Transnational Organized Crime, Money Laundering, Foreign Bribery, and Foreign Corruption investigations frequently related to Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern Europe.  In addition, she has supervised and staffed  investigative squads, as well as investigators and analysts who worked in Ukraine and the U.S. to assist in the recovery of illicit assets amassed by members of the Yanukovych regime.  During her career, she engaged with civil society, NGO(S), and investigative journalist in their work on foreign corruption and upon retirement from the FBI in December 2018, she started independently consulting with them in order to assist them in their work tackling the world’s growing corruption problem.

Ms. Tsybulska previously worked on a number of Ukrainian TV channels as a journalist, editor, and screenwriter. She was a Strategic Communications Adviser to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Head of the Press Service of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.

Moreover, Liubov Tsybulska served as the head of the Hybrid Threat Analysis Group of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. Among the main directions of her work are the study of Russian disinformation, the study of the main narratives of Russian propaganda and the mechanisms of their influence on the audience, the study of Russian information operations in Ukraine and in the West. She is also an adviser on countering information threats to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba.

Peter Pomerantsev is a Kyiv-born writer and TV producer, award-winning contributor to the London Review of Books. He is the author of “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible” and “This is Not Propaganda”. His writing has been published in the FT, New Yorker, WSJ, Foreign Policy, Daily Beast, Newsweek, Le Monde Diplomatique, among others, and has led to regular media and public appearances. He has also worked as a consultant for the EU and World Bank. 

Bill Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, which was the investment adviser to the largest foreign investment fund in Russia until 2005, when Bill was denied entry to the country and declared a “threat to national security” as a result of his battle against corporate corruption.

Following his expulsion, the Russian authorities raided his offices, seized Hermitage Fund’s investment companies and used them to steal $230 million of taxes that the companies had previously paid. When Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, investigated the crime, he was arrested by the same officers he implicated, tortured for 358 days, and killed in custody at the age of 37 in November 2009. Since then, Browder has spent the last 5 years fighting for justice for Mr. Magnitsky. The Russian government exonerated and even promoted some of the officials involved so Browder took the case to America, where his campaigning led to the US Congress adopting the ‘Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act’ in 2012, which imposed visa sanctions and asset freezes on those involved in the detention, ill-treatment and death of Sergei Magnitsky (as well as in other human rights abuses). This law was the first time the US sanctioned Russia in 35 years and became the model for all subsequent US sanctions against Russia. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed in Magnitsky’s name across the European Union.

Casey Michel is a writer and journalist who works on topics ranging from kleptocracy, illicit finance, and foreign interference to developments in the post-Soviet space and dark money financing networks. He is the author of the forthcoming book “American Kleptocracy: How The U.S. Created The World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme In History,” and recently received a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, where he focused on political, security, and social developments in Eurasia. His writing on the region has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Washington Post, Politico Magazine, Slate, and The Moscow Times, among others. He has also worked with the International Crisis Group’s Central Asia office, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Kazakhstan.

Matthew H. Murray, Esq. Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs and Harriman Institute; co-founder the Columbia New Directions in Anti-Kleptocracy Forum to galvanize U.S. government experts, practitioners, and academics to innovate solutions to transnational corruption.

Mr. Murray has engaged as a U.S. government official, attorney, business executive and civil society activist in countering corruption in high-risk nations for more than thirty years.  His experience includes public service in the Obama-Biden Administration and the Office of and leading investigations and public-private project initiatives on the front line in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Afghanistan and other nations.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Senior Advisor at USAID during the Obama-Biden Administration, Mr. Murray helped develop and execute diplomacy to secure foreign government action to dismantle institutions controlled by oligarchic networks.

Following his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, Mr. Murray was appointed by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and the United Nations Assistance Mission as an International Member of the Joint Independent Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of Afghanistan from 2017-2019.

Kateryna Kruk is a Public Policy Manager for Ukraine at Facebook. She is also a communications specialist and political scientist focusing on Ukrainian post-Maidan transition, international affairs and analyzing Russian misinformation campaigns in Ukraine. She formerly worked with Prague based European Values think-tank and Ukrainian Stop Fake. For over a year she was an author and a TV host of the StopFake News Digest.

Kruk took an active part in the Euromaidan protests in 2013-2014, also known as a Revolution of Dignity. For her active role in communicating the revolution to the international audience, Kruk was awarded the Atlantic Council’s Freedom Award in 2014. As a communications expert, she worked in the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian parliament.

Mr. Gonchar has more than 31 years of professional experience, including service in the Air Force, civil service in the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, research work at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, National Institute for International Security of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In the 2000s he worked in the system of the oil and gas complex of Ukraine, holding responsible positions. He was awarded the Diploma of Naftogaz of Ukraine. Moreover, he has 23 years of professional experience in the field of research on the following topics: energy security, international energy and security relations, oil and gas sector, unconventional hydrocarbons, energy sector reform, global energy markets. He did internships at the European Commission and NATO.

Fly was first named RFE/RL President and Chief Executive Officer on July 10, 2019, effective August 1, 2019. Prior to his appointment, Fly served as a senior fellow, co-director of the Alliance for Security Democracy, and director of the Future of Geopolitics and Asia programs at The German Marshall Fund of the United States. He served as counselor for Foreign and National Security Affairs to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) from 2013-17, serving as his foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign.

Prior to joining Senator Rubio’s staff in February 2013, he served as the executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) from its founding in early 2009. Prior to joining FPI, Fly served in the Bush administration at the National Security Council (2008-09) and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2005-08). His articles and reviews have been published in a wide variety of outlets in the United States and Europe. For his work in the Department of Defense, he was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. Fly received a B.A. in international studies and political science from American University and an M.A. in German and European studies from Georgetown University.

In 2004 he graduated from the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University the Wise with a degree in law. He worked in the prosecutor’s office of Sumy region for about 8 years – from 2004 to 2012. In 2012-2014 he worked as a prosecutor of the Department for the Protection of Financial and Economic Interests of the State Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine.

Since 2014 he served as Prosecutor of the Section of Procedural Management of Pre-trial Investigation and Support of Public Prosecution of the Unit for Supervision of Law Enforcement by Organized Crime Bodie of  the Department for Supervision of Law Enforcement in Criminal Proceedings and Coordination of Law Enforcement of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. In 2019, he successfully passed the certification of prosecutors. On December 16, 2019, the commission for the election of the Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention declared him as a winner of the competition.

Natalia Kaliada is also a writer, diplomat, human rights campaigner and producer. Since its founding in 2005, Belarus Free Theatre has performed provocative plays (often held secretly) that focus on the consequences of state repression and its accompanying culture of fear. Thegroup has repeatedly endured harassment from Belarusian authorities. In August 2007, Belarusian police stormed an apartment during a private performance,arresting all participants. In December 2010, Kaliada and her husband were beaten and arrested by security forces in a brutal crackdown during the 50,000-strong protest following the rigged re-election of Lukashenko. After being released, they were forced into exile and sought political asylum in the U.K. The Belarus Free Theatre has received numerous awards, including a special mention for the 12th Edition of the Europe Theater Prize in 2007, and the 2007 French Republic Award in Defense of Human Rights. Although she was forced into exile, Kaliada continues to fight against the dictatorship in Belarus. She connects with members of the theater group via Skype and works tirelessly to bring abuses in Belarus to the international community’s attention.

She has given various master classes across the U.S. and Europe. Together with her husband, Natalia has co-run campaigns including the Global Artistic Campaign to Free Belarus and Give A Body Back. In 2015, she was nominated for the Innovation Award by the Intelligence Life of the Economist’s Magazine.

Myroslava is an award-winning journalist, champion for democracy and independent media. In addition to her work at the Voice of America, Gongadze often speaks as a subject matter expert in various forums discussing politics, democratization and media in Ukraine. She periodically contributes to NPR and her writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR and Journal of Democracy. 
Equipped with a law degree from Lviv State University, Myroslava has extensive experience in journalism and public relations. She has worked as a journalist, editor, producer and public relations officer in Ukraine and the US for several political and media organizations, including RFE/RL, Internews, IRI, NDI.
Gongadze has been awarded a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship to study the role of the media in Ukraine’s transition to democracy (2001) and George Washington University Petrac foundation scholarship (2003). In 2014 she moderated a series of parliamentary debates with Ukrainian National Ch1. In 2019 Myroslava completed her study at Harvard University as a Nieman fellow. For her outstanding contribution to the development of journalism, active civic stance and professional excellence, Gongadze received the Princess Olha Order, a Ukrainian civil decoration bestowed on women of outstanding personal merit.

Mr. Bonner became chief editor of the Kyiv Post on June 9, 2008. He took on the additional responsibilities of executive director on March 21, 2018, following the purchase of the newspaper by businessman Adnan Kivan, owner of the KADORR Group in Odesa, Ukraine. Bonner also held the chief editor’s job in 1999, three years after first arriving in Ukraine on a journalism exchange program. He spent most of his career with the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, where he covered international, national, and local news for more than 20 years as a staff writer, foreign correspondent, and assigning editor.

Besides Ukraine, he has also reported from Russia, Belgium, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom. In 2007-2008, he served as an associate director of international communications at the Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. He also worked as an election expert on six observation missions with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s ODIHR in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan between 1999 and 2013. From 2017-2020, he served on the boards of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine  and European Business Association. He has a B.A. degree in history from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he wrote and edited for the Minnesota Daily, the student newspaper.

Olga Aivazovska is Chairperson of the Civil Network OPORA NGO, an international expert in electoral matters, parliamentarian, and draft laws on political processes.  Ms. Aivazovska was a director of national, nonpartisan observation missions in Ukraine with over 25,000 activists involved from 2010 to 2020 and participated in electoral observation in more than 10 countries of Europe. She represented Ukraine in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine-Russia-OSCE), settling the conflict in Eastern Ukraine (2016-2018), and she is Head of the Board International Renaissance Foundation and GNDEM (Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors).

Olga was included in the top 100 most influential and most successful women of Ukraine in 2014-2020 ). She often participates in political TV programs, publishes articles and information materials on the electoral legislation reform and advancement of democracy. Olga Aivazovska is an alumnus of the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship on Democracy and Development Program at Stanford.

Eka Tkeshelashvili has served in the government of Georgia as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of the National Security Council, Minister of Justice of Georgia, and Prosecutor General of Georgia. Mrs. Tkeshelashvili also held the position of the Chairperson of the Tbilisi Appeals Court. She has work experience with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Netherlands) and at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (USA). Mrs. Tkeshelashvili is a lecturer at the Civil and Political School in Kyiv, Ukraine, and in the Black Sea University in Tbilisi, Georgia. She has a master’s degree in International Law from Notre Dame Law School (USA), a Human Rights Law certificate from Oxford University (UK), and Diploma in Law from Tbilisi State University.

Nino Evgenidze serves as an Executive Director at the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC). She is a co-founder of Tbilisi International conference together with McCain Institute for International Leadership and Leadership Academy for Development with Stanford University Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of law. Nino is also a co-founder of the Fukuyama Democracy Frontline Center. Nino was a visiting scholar at John Hopkins University at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a Stanford University Fellow in CDDRL Program. She has a Master Degree in Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). Nino has a PhD in Literature from Tbilisi State University. She also holds an MBA from Maastricht University and Master Degree in Public Policy Management from Vienna University.

She worked as an anchor of a daily morning economic show at Radio Free Europe — Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Nino has extensive experience both in working in governmental and non-governmental sectors — she was an advisor at the Center for Economic Reforms of the State Chancellery of Georgia (President Administration), Head of Public Outreach Department of the Anti-corruption Policy Coordination Council of Georgia. Nino is a Chairwoman of the board of first Child Hospice in Georgia.

Prof. Pisarska is a social entrepreneur, civic activist and academic. She is the Founder of the European Academy of Diplomacy, the Visegrad School of Political Studies and a Co-Founder of the Casimir Pulaski Foundation and the Warsaw Security Forum. Currently, Prof. Pisarska chairs the Board of Directors of the European Academy of Diplomacy and the Foundation Council of the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. She is also the Vice President of the European Forum Alpbach in Austria, a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington D.C. and an Expert of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

For her leadership accomplishments in the non-for-profit sector, in 2014 Prof. Pisarska has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and later selected to serve on the YGL Advisory Group. She was also named “99 under 33” most influential world foreign policy leader by the Diplomatic Courier in Washington D.C.

Oleksandra Matviychuk is Chairwoman of the Center for Civil Liberties NGO, member of the Advisory Board on Human Rights of the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine. She is the author of publications on human rights, and the co-author of an annual report on monitoring the political persecution of civil society in Ukraine. She coordinates the Euromaidan SOS civic initiative, which was created after the violent crackdown of peaceful demonstrations on Independence Square on 30 November 2013.

Oksana Romaniuk is a representative of Reporters Without Borders in Ukraine and heads the Kyiv Institute for Mass Information, a non-governmental organization. Protecting freedom of expression and improving citizens’ right to information have long been the focus of her work. The media expert and journalist has been involved in a number of projects dealing with journalistic standards, citizen engagement and digital security. She is a member of the Stop Censorship! movement of Ukrainian journalists.  Oksana is jury member at Deutsche Welle’s The Bobs awards for online activism 2014.

Under her leadership from 2005–2008 and from 2011 to the present and together with her management team, the Basel Institute has grown into an 85+ strong agile and global organisation with programmes across Southern and East Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central and South Asia, field offices and embedded experts in over 10 countries, and an extensive network of partners in anti-corruption and good governance at the highest national and international levels.

She has been instrumental in shaping the Basel Institute’s reputation for evidence-based and innovative anti-corruption and public governance approaches. Many of the organisation’s government partners have made leaps forward in their efforts to deter corruption and recover stolen assets through pioneering uses of tools including unexplained wealth legislation, plea bargaining, non-conviction based confiscation, multidisciplinary asset recovery taskforces and novel information-sharing partnerships. She has also developed the Basel Institute’s role as a leading centre of expertise in Collective Action to improve private-sector integrity and address shared problems of corruption that hinder business and investment. Gretta continues to drive the Institute forward into new areas including the illegal wildlife trade and other forms of environmental crime, where this holistic and integrated approach is already demonstrating solid results.

She has dedicated the last five years of her life to combating and preventing corruption in Ukraine’s judicial system. In 2019, Chyzhyk joined the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a non-profit which works to expose corruption in Ukraine. There, she is responsible for judicial reform. Her main goal is overhauling the procedures for forming judicial bodies that appoint and dismiss judges.

Oliver published his first book: “Let Our Fame Be Great”, which tells the story of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus through the eyes of its people. The book won the Cornelius Ryan award in the United States, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in the UK. His second book – “The Last Man in Russia” – was shortlisted for the Dolman Prize. His third book is called “Moneyland”, and analyses how the world’s richest and least scrupulous people have learned to use the global financial system to hide themselves and their assets from scrutiny, taxation and justice. Much of the subject matter for the book came from his research in Ukraine in the months and years following the 2014 revolution.

His journalism focuses on corruption and financial crime, and he has written repeatedly about Ukraine and the rest of the former Soviet Union for The Guardian, The New York Times, British GQ and other publications.

Bogdana Depo works at the European Parliament on issues relating to the EU’s foreign policy and the future of Europe. She was previously a researcher at CEPS (Brussels), EIPA (Maastricht), ICPS (Kyiv). She is a Marie Skladowska Curie, DAAD, and U.S. Department of State Fellow. She has PhD from Cologne University in Germany and Charles University in Czechia, as well as an MA from the College of Europe and Kyiv National University.