The speakers at VYF 2016
Peter Kormúth, Director of the Second Territorial European Department, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic
Peter Kormúth graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute of International Relations of the Comenius University (Law Faculty) in Bratislava. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic in 1993, where he held various posts (Director of the Department of OSCE, Council of Europe and Disarmament, Deputy Director of the Department of Human Rights) and also serving in various positions abroad (Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Slovakia to Belgium, Luxembourg and Poland; Deputy to the Permanent Representative, Mission to the Council of Europe, Strasbourg).
Piotr Sam
erek, Minister Counsellor, Embassy of Poland to the Slovak Republic
Piotr Samerek graduated in philosophy and later earned a postgraduate degree in international law. After working as a journalist, he became Desk Officer for Italy, the Holy See and Malta in the Western Europe Department of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 2003 and 2010, he served as First Secretary and Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland to the Holy See. In 2010, he became First Counsellor and Desk Officer for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. He was named Head of the Central European Unit in the European Policy Department of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2011. He became Head of the Political and Economic Section at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Bratislava in August 2013, serving as chargé d’affaires a.i. since April 2015 and was named Minister-Counsellor in November 2015.
Michal Vít, Research Fellow, Europeum, Czech Republic
Michal Vít graduated in European studies at the Masaryk University in Brno. He has pursued a doctorate in the joint program of the Masaryk University and the University of Leipzig entitled “East and Central Europe in Transnational Perspective”. He was previously associated with the Institute for European Policy (IEP) in Berlin and served as junior research fellow at the International Institute of Political Science at the Masaryk University. His research focuses on the process of national identities’ forming of political parties in Central Europe. He underwent a research fellowships at the University of Konstanz and the University of Vienna.
Radovan Javorčík, Director of the State Secretary Office, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic
Radovan Javorčík graduated from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and also earned a postgraduate degree in international relations from the Institute for International Relations of the Faculty of Law at the Comenius University in Bratislava. He worked at the Press Department of the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic in 1993. Between 1993 and 1995, he worked at the Department for Foreign Relations of the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic. In 2005, he was named Deputy Head of Mission at the Slovak Embassy in London. He also served as chargé d’affaires a.i. at the Slovak Embassy in London. In 2011, he was named Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Israel, where he served until 2015.
István Gyarmati, Ambassador, Professor, President, Center for Democracy Public Foundation, International Center for Democratic Transition, Budapest, Hungary
István Gyarmati is the President of the Center for Democracy Public Foundation. He has been a Foreign Service officer since he graduated from the Budapest University of Economics, Faculty of Diplomacy. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy in Budapest and Co-Chairman of the International Security Advisory Board for Southeastern Europe of the Geneva-based Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. Between 2008 and 2009, he was the head of the Defense Minister’s Task Force to draft the National Military Strategy of the Republic of Hungary.
Jakub Wisniewski, Vice President of GLOBSEC, Director of GLOBSEC Policy Institute, Poland
Jakub Wisniewski is the Vice President of GLOBSEC and Director of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute. He holds a PhD in social policy. In the past, he served as ambassador of Poland to OECD and also as the head of policy planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. He is a former member of the board of the Polish Institute of International Affairs and the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.
Michal Šimečka, Research Fellow, Institute of International relations Prague, Czech Republic
Michal Šimečka holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, Nuffield College. In the past, he worked as a correspondent and editor for the Slovak daily newspaper SME. Afterwards, he worked as a researcher for the Financial Times in Prague. Between 2007 and 2010, he was a part-time political risk analyst for Exclusive Analysis in London. He served as a foreign policy advisor to Members of the European Parliament in Brussels from 2011 until 2014, while also working as a visiting researcher for the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels between 2013 and 2014.