Marko Voljc

CEO, central and eastern Europe and Russia business unit. KBC Group, Brussels.

Mr Voljc, born in 1949 in Jesenice, Slovenia, was trained by the IMF and has moved through the top ranks of the World Bank, focusing on Latin America. He has also acquired a comprehensive knowledge and practical experience in Slovenian, Central and Eastern European as well international finance and banking. He has written a number of articles and papers concerning financial and industrial issues, about export development and promotion, on restructuring and privatization of public enterprises, as well as about restructuring, turn-around management and privatization of banks in Central and Eastern European transition and post-transition economies.

Since 1996 Mr. Voljc serves as Honorary Consul of Mexico to Slovenia. In 1998 he became the Slovenian member of the Trilateral Commission. From September 2000 to September 2003, Mr. Voljc was Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of International Finance in Washington, D.C.. Between April 2001 and January 2004, he held the position of the President of the Managers’ Association of Slovenia. In his capacity as Director General Central Europe for KBC Group he sat on Supervisory boards of KBC’s banking subsidiaries in Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic. He was also Chairman of the Supervisory board of Gorenje, Slovenia until July 2006.

Ralph Johnson

Ambassador (ret.) Ralph R. Johnson
President of the International Practice Group of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, Ralph has deep and long experience working with key policymakers in the foreign affairs arena, including at the Department of State, the National Security Council and in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to his role at QGA, Ralph was the Principal Deputy High Representative in the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo from August 1999 until July 2001. He assumed his responsibilities in Sarajevo following three years (1996-1999) as Ambassador of the United States of America to Slovakia. Following his retirement from the Foreign Service in 1999, Ralph established a consulting firm that provided political risk assessment and political advisory services to U.S. and other investors in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. From 1993 until 1995, Ralph was the Coordinator for U.S. assistance to Central and Eastern Europe where he was responsible for the oversight and coordination of all U.S. assistance to the region. more...

Igor Khalevinsky

Born in Novosibirsk. Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1967. In 1974 he was awarded a degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
From 1967 till 2009 he was on the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, USSR/Russia. 1967–69 and 1974–79 – the USSR Embassy in Pakistan. 1969–74; 1980–83 – in the MFA. USSR. 1983–88 – Senior Counsellor, the USSR Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, USA. Member, Advisory Committee on administrative and budgetary questions, UN. 1988–1991–Deputy Director, Director, Consular Affairs Department, USSR MFA.
In 1992 he was Deputy Minister of Labor and Employment of the Russian Federation. 1992–96 – Deputy Minister of Labor of Russia; 1996–97 – Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Development of Russia; 1997–98 – Ambassador-at-Large and Deputy Inspector General in the Russian MFA; 1998–2003 – Head of the UN Office in Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro; 2003–2009 – Ambassador-at-Large in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including in 2004–2006 – Plenipotentiary Representative of Russia to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in 2005–06 – Chairman of the Permanent Council at the CSTO as well as in 2006–2008 – Member, Advisory Committee on administrative and budgetary questions, UN. Since June 2009-Director, Department of Management,  in the Secretariat of the Customs Union Commission.
Igor has written a number of publications on the issues of international relations, world economy and social policy.
Since 1994 he has been Vice- President of the International Informatization Academy. Since 2002 he has been member of the Management Board of Serbian Society for Fight against Cancer. more...

Miroslav J. Vesković

Rector of the University of Novi Sad

Miroslav ranks among top Serbian scientists, foremost in nuclear physics and is the leader of the NICOLE Group of scientists cooperating within the ISOLDE project of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He has been working as a distinguished researcher with ISOLDE, CERN since 1989.  A PhD in sciences, he was appointed Rector of the University of Novi Sad (UNS) in 2009.

Miroslav was before that an Assistant Minister, Serbian Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Department for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (2008-2009), Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, UNS (2005-2008), UNS Vice-rector (2002-2004), Head of the UNS Institute of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, full-professor of Nuclear Physics, UNS, Head of UNS Nuclear Physics Laboratory…

Miroslav worked abroad also as a Research Associate, Physics Department, University of Oxford,  Research Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, and Research Fellow, Sussex University, Brighton,  and in Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France

His focus is on rare nuclear processes, nuclear structure – nuclear magnetic moments, low temperature nuclear orientation, low background gamma spectroscopy, environmental protection, radioecology

He was the President of Serbian Physical Society), Head of International Committee of Serbian Physical Society, Member of European Physics Education Network and Deputy President of KONUS (Conference of the Universities of Serbia)

Goran Svilanovic

Goran Svilanovic, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, is currently the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. Previously he has been the Chairman of the Working Table I of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and a member of the Serbian Parliament since 2004.

Active in politics for more than a decade, Mr. Svilanovic was a member of the Upper Chamber of the Federal Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro from 2000-2003, President of the Civic Alliance of Serbia from 1999-2004, and before that the party’s Vice President (1998) and Spokesperson (1997). From 1989-1998 he was a Teaching Assistant at the Law School, University of Belgrade.

Mr. Svilanovic also served on the International Commission on the Balkans, and in 2004 was the Laureate of the Sasakawa Foundation Prize for the Young Future Leaders of the World. Mr. Svilanovic has worked with a number of non-governmental organizations, including the Centre for Anti-War Action, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, and the Center for Advancement of Legal Studies. He has published many articles and books on civil procedure and civil law, as well as on the legal status of refugees and issues relating to citizenship.

Milka Forcan

Milka Forcan was born in 1969 in Belgrade. She graduated at the University of Belgrade, School of Economics.

Milka Forcan has been working with Delta Holding for eighteen years. During her career in the company she has held different senior management positions ranging from international sales and finance to marketing and public relations. In 2003 she became Vice President of Delta Holding.

In May 2010, Milka Forcan left Delta company, and focused her professional activities on business and policy consulting and lobbying. Recently, Serbian Society of Lobbyists named her as the representative for the European Union. In May 2011, Milka Forcan became a member of the Executive Board of the Union of Tennis Professionals of Serbia.

Elaine Cruikshanks

Ms. Cruikshanks has over 25 years of public diplomacy and strategic communications experience. Having worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and in Brussels, she then joined Hill & Knowlton International in Brussels. She built the public affairs client base there over a time period of 21 years to being the biggest consultancy on the Brussels scene.  In addition, she had the role of Head of Hill & Knowlton’s global public affairs practice bringing together public affairs practitioners from all over the world.

Elaine has worked for a number of governments and international organisations such as the Global Fund, the Gates Foundation, Temasek (Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund), the governments of Botswana, Republika Srpska, Dubai, Maldives and Turkey.

Ms Cruikshanks served as a Board Member on the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU from 1998-2008. She was also a founding member of the European Public Affairs Consultancy Association. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Euractiv Foundation.

Since January 2010, she is the owner and managing director of Elaine Cruikshanks Consulting, an independent consultancy specialised in providing strategic advice and public affairs and public relations support to governments, associations, corporations and NGO’s.

Aleksandar Simić

Aleksandar Simic, composer and humanist, was born in Belgrade, in 1973. He spent most of his youth shifting between different cultures and continents, from London to Singapore, from St. Petersburg to New York. Half-way through med school he switched to study music and quickly established himself among leading composers of his generation. In his large and versatile opus that encompasses concert, spiritual, world and film music, a special place is reserved for compositions that were used to mark important jubilees such as 50 years of victory in WW II (for the Russian Federation), or 950 years of the East-West split (for the Vatican).

Although he wove his liberal political views and humanism into his music, Aleksandar has been a spokesperson and an activist for some of the most important charity campaigns such as Helping the Blind, the Safe House program or Notes from the Heart. His made a contribution to the global inter-religious dialogue over the many years and in many different countries: be it as a part of the mediating team between the Vatican and the State of Israel, or as a part of the Pave the Way Foundation from New York, to name a few. He was a part time lecturer at the Faculty of Political Sciences teaching Political Philosophy. He is presently assisting the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Special Prosecutors Office for War Crimes in the program called The Last Hope.

Ludvik Toplak

Ludvik Toplak, born in 1942, Slovenia, married with two children, is a University professor of International Business Law, a Rector, an Ambassador, a Manager and a Politician, rolled into one. Ludvik is currently the President of the European Centre in Maribor, Slovenia, since 2007. His education includes University of Maribor and Ljubljana, Slovenia, University of Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia, New York University, NY and State University of New York Potsdam, USA. He specialized in Oslo, Seattle and San Francisco, Atlanta, London, New York, Strasbourg. His professional experience includes: University Professor, University of Maribor, Faculty of Law, Vice-President Iskra Delta Computers (IDC), Ljubljana (1980 - 1987), Vice-President of the Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia (1990 - 1992), Rector of the University of Maribor (1993 - 2002) and Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Holy See (2002 - 2006)

Ludvik is a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts (since 2000), member of the Steering Committee of the I.C.H.E. (International Conference on Higher Education), member of Pan-European Union, member of the Board of European Rectors Conference, Magna Charta Universitatum, member of Collegium, member and President of the Danube Rectors' Conference (1996-1999), member of the international committee European Forum Alpbach (1999- ) and Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovenia (1999-2001). His main activities and focus of interest lie in social reforms, political parties, human rights, diplomacy and his major fields of expertise include Law, Economy, Environment, Management, Small Businesses, Cooperatives, Professional Ethics, University Management, Foundations, Charity.

Alex Machaskee

Alex Machaskee is the retired Publisher, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper. In that capacity, he was responsible for the overall policy, operation and direction of the newspaper.

Mr. Machaskee joined The Plain Dealer in 1960. Before being named Publisher in 1990, he had served five years as Vice President and General Manager. Previously, he served as Director of Labor Relations and Personnel, Assistant to the Publisher and Promotion Director. In June, 2006 Mr. Machaskee retired from The Plain Dealer.

Born in Warren, Ohio, Mr. Machaskee worked as a sports reporter and general assignment reporter for the Warren Tribune before joining The Plain Dealer. He is a graduate of Cleveland State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Mr. Machaskee was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Cleveland State University in 1995, from the University of Akron in 1998 and from Heidelberg College in 2006.

Darko Tanasković

Darko Tanaskovic born in Zagreb, 1948, is the leading Orientalist scholar in this part of Europe. He is a regular or visiting Professor and head of Oriental studies in several universities and institutes in Serbia and abroad, including Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Skopje, the College of Social Sciences (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales – EHESS) in Paris. He is teaching multiple subjects: Arabic, Turkish, Introduction into Oriental Philology, Arabic Literature, Persian Literature, Foundation of Islamic Civilization, and in postgraduate curriculum - Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages, Linguistic and Literary Arabic, Islam and Christianity, Islamic Fundamentalism, etc.

He has published more than a score of books and over 600 pertinent scientific and professional papers in the field of Oriental studies. Darko is a member of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Arabic University in Rome and member of  the European Academy of Arts and Sciences  - Salzburg. He is a corresponding member of the Turkish Language Society in  Ankara and is fluent in several languages. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia.

Darko served as the Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from 1995 till 1999. He was appointed a member of the Yugoslav Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in March 2001. From 2002 till  2008th  served as the Yugoslav Ambassador to the Holy See (the Vatican) and with the Knights of Malta . Pope John Paul II awarded him the with The Order of the Grand Cross of Order of Pius IX (October 2004) and the Grand Master of Malta Knights Order (October 2005), Order of the Grand Cross of the Order for  military merits. Darko Tanaskovic is married with three children

Branimir (Barney) Simić-Glavaski

Branimir (Barney) Simic-Glavaski is the President/CEO of Bionic Information Technologies and of SimiTec LLC from Ohio, USA, but primarily a highly distinguished scientist. He graduated from University of Belgrade, Faculty of Electrotechnics and won his Ph.D. at the Physics Department, University of Kent at Canterbury, U.K.

Barney was a Professor, United Nations University for Peace & Development,  Lecturer, Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics, Instructor in the Department of Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University, Program Brain Coordinator, Case Western Reserve University, Senior Research Associate, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Departments Case Western Reserve University, Visiting Scientist, Laboratorio DI Cibernetica, Napoli, Italy, Consultant to the Chemistry Department, University of Southampton, U.K., Assistant Lecturer, University of Kent at Canterbury, Electronics Department and Research Scientist, Faculty of Technology, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Barney thought Process Control, Biological, Control: Calculus and Electromagnetic Fields: Electrical Circuits

He owns 10 patents and is a member of the Institute of Physics, London: Electrochemical Society; Biophysical Society and the Sigma Xi Society.

Gábor Kovács

Gábor Kovács is a banker and philanthropist from Hungary. After high school he received a scholarship to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) from where he graduated in 1980. Mr Kovács started a professional career at the foreign currency division of the Hungarian National Bank. In 1985 he transferred to Citibank as managing director, later he moved to Citibank London where he was responsible for the bank’s Eastern European investments. In 1991 Mr Kovács returned to Hungary to form an investment company, Bankár Holding, specialized in corporate mergers and acquisitions and investment banking. Expanding his interests beyond the financial sector, Mr Kovács opened the first private hospital in Hungary in 1998. Mr Kovács has been purchasing works of art for fifteen years. Covering the period from the early 18th century to the present, the collection is comprised of nearly 400 pieces. In 2002 he established the Kovács Gábor Art Foundation (KOGART) with a donation of 3 billion HUF (approximately 10 million GBP) with the aim of supporting contemporary artists in Hungary. The Foundation’s gallery is located in a historic villa on Andrássy Avenue in Budapest, bought and renovated by him. Mr Kovács also purchased a monastery in Sopron, Hungary. The project received significant support from the Norwegian Fund and the building was renovated in 2010 to become the home of an international retreat, education and meditation centre of an international organization, World Servers Foundation (WSF) that was enabled by Mr Kovács in Geneva in November 2010. Mr Kovács is very honoured to be a member of the Trilateral Commission since 2006. more...

Ulysses Kyriacopoulos

Ulysses Kyriacopoulos is the Chairman of the companies S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. and Motodynamics  S.A. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission and the General Council of the Bank of Greece. He was the Chairman of the Federation of Greek Industries, UNICE Special Representative for Mediterranean Affairs and former Vice President of UNICE, the leading organization that represents employers΄ interests in Europe.

Ulysses is serving as member of the Board of Lambda Development SA and of Lavipharm SA. and on the Βoard of Air Liquide Hellas S.A., Delta Holding S.A, and J.Boutaris & Son Holding S.A. as well as on the Advisory boards of INSEAD and Athens College. He was also formerly the President of the Greek National Opera and Vice President of the Hellenic Exchnages Holdings SA. .

He studied Mining Engineering at Montanuniversitaet Loeben in Austria and at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. He received his M.B.A. at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France.

Ulysses was born in New York in 1952 and speaks four languages. He is married to Nicole and they have 3 children.

Mihai Tanasescu

Mihai Nicolae Tanasescu has been a Senior Adviser to the International Monetary Fund’s Executive Director for 13 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region and the Middle East since 2007. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Previously, Mihai was a member of the Romanian National Assembly and Chairman of the Budget Committee (2004-07). As Minister of Public Finance (2000-04) he strengthened the macroeconomic stability of Romania and negotiated its entry into the European Union. He also sat on the Board of Governors of a number of international financial institutions including the IMF and the World Bank.

Mihai has taught economics and public finance at Bucharest’s Academy of Economic Studies. He also studied economics and budget planning at the prestigious École Nationale D’Administration (Institute Internationale D’Administration Pubique) in Paris and participated in Harvard’s Business School’s executive development programme. He has written more than 500 articles and interviews, published in leading world papers like the FT, WSJ, Emerging Markets, etc.