Graduate of Anthropology at the University in Toronto, studied Archeology at the Jagiellonian University. 1989–1995 worked in the Ontario Parliament in Toronto. 1995- 1996 British Petroleum President’s Assistant and since 1996 Public Relations Manager for British Petroleum Poland. Coordinator of many social projects in BP. Besides that a lecturer at the Tischner European University in Cracow.
Experts
Dorota Adamska
Henryk Bątkiewicz
He holds a PhD degree in Political Sciences. His doctoral thesis was awarded the prize by the Polish Institute of International Affairs. Worked, among others, as a head teacher and as a teacher in a school and in an infant school at the Institute of Children's Diseases in Cracow. In 1990 worked in the Special Schooling Centre at the University Children's Hospital. Recently he has taught at the Brother Albert Memorial College for Social Workers. Since January 2004 Deputy Mayor of the City of Cracow, exercises general supervision over education, culture activities and preservation of the City’s historical monuments.
Nikko Biernacka
A freelance photographer, founder of the Machina Fotografika Foundation, she promotes people who work in photography, supports the creative development of women and performs educational activities in visual arts. A graduate of Cultural Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań and Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic), with a diploma in Dita Pepe’s seminar. She exhibits both in Poland and abroad. She publishes in newspapers: Polityka weekly, Wysokie Obcasy magazine, Tygodnik Powszechny weekly, as well as in books. She strives to make fashion a tool for the promotion of important social, artistic and cultural events and she attains this goal in “artfashion” photo sessions. She has also completed coach training organized by NGO Trainers’ Association STOP, currently participant in the Leaders Program of The Polish-American Freedom Foundation. She works on project „440 km”, which aims to support women’s development with physical disabilities and make them more visible in public space.
Krzysztof Bobiński
Is the President of Unia & Polska, a pro-European organisation. He worked with the Financial Times as its Warsaw Correspondent from 1976 to 2000 and later published Unia & Polska, a magazine devoted to EU issues. He writes for openDemocracy and is associate editor on the Europe section of Europe’s World. He is a co-chair of Steering Committee of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. He studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is a Commander (II class) of the Stella della Solidarieta’ Italiana.
Emil Brix
Holds a doctorate in history from the University of Vienna. Since 1982 he’s served for the Foreign Service of the Republic Austria. 1986 – 1989 he worked for the Austrian Parliament and was the head of the Cabinet of the Austrian Minister of Science and Research. From 1990 to summer 1995 he was the Austrian Consul General in Krakow, Poland. From 1995 to 1999 Director of the Austrian Cultural Institute in London. Later on he was the head of the Department for Cultural Programming at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary General of the Austrian Research Association and a lecturer at the College of New Europe of the International Cultural Centre in Krakow.
Josef Byrtus
Served as the Consul General of the Czech Republic in Katowice until 2007. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the Charles University and the University of Economics in Prague. He worked for the Ministry of Economy and Development (advisor on international cooperation, director of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, director of the board, advisor to the Prime Minister), Chief Director of the Office of the Ministry of International Relations. Subsequently, he begun his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (Director of the Office).
Jerzy Chmielewski
Deputy director in the Department of Europe in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. National coordinator for the Visegrad Group. Former Polish Ambassador in Zagreb, Croatia.
Krzysztof Czyżewski
An essayist, a translator and cultural manager; Initiator and Director of the Borderland of Art, Culture and Nations Centre in Sejny, Poland. Author and coordinator of numerous European projects focusing on multiculturalism in Central-Eastern Europe, regional diversity and cultural heritage. Former Member of, inter alia, the President’s Council for Culture, Council for Culture at UNESCO-Poland, the Council of the Polish-Lithuanian Adam Mickiewicz Foundation and the Board of the Czesław Miłosz Foundation in Lithuania. Winner of numerous cultural and artistic awards, recently (2004) the Aleksander Langer International Award. Contributed significantly to the promotion of Poland in the world (Diploma of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000) and to the development of cooperation between Poland and Lithuania (Grand Prince Giedymin Order in 2001).
Michael Daxner
Professor of sociology and president emeritus of the University of Oldenburg, Germany. Since 2003 he has served on an advisory mission to the Minister of Higher Education in Afghanistan. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the principal international officer for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for the Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo, and in 2002 became special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) office in Belgrade. He first started working with UNMIK as head of the Department of Education and Science while he was an international administrator of the University of Prishtina. He served as a German delegate to the Council of Europe Committee on Higher Education and Research in 1994 and on the board of the European University Association from 1998 to 2001.
Józef Dulak
Head of the Faculty of Biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University. Holds a PhD degree and Habilitation from the Jagiellonian University. His areas of interest include in particular heme oxygenase-1, angiogenesis and gene therapy. Recipient of numerous grants for his research, an author of numerous publications.
