Olivia Blanchard

Olivia Blanchard je nadšenkyňa inovácií, ktorá pochádza z Francúzska a v súčasnosti žije na Slovensku. Ako zakladateľka spoločnosti Alizé Advisory prináša jedinečné skúsenosti v oblasti rastu startupov, rozvoja podnikania, prieskumu trhu a inovačných ekosystémov. V Inštitúte pre centrálnu Európu pôsobí ako konzultantka projektového manažmentu, do ktorého vnáša svoje medzinárodné skúsenosti. Olivia je tiež vynikajúcou rečníčkou, ktorá vie zaujať a inšpirovať publikum. Okrem toho je projektovou pracovníčkou na Ekonomickej univerzite v Bratislave a doktorandkou na Obchodnej fakulte: Olivia sa vo svojom výskume zameriava na podnikateľské ekonomiky v Európe. Jej akademické schopnosti dopĺňajú rozsiahle skúsenosti s riadením, vrátane pôsobenia vo funkcii výkonnej riaditeľky Health Venture Lab, kde viedla začínajúce zdravotnícke podniky cez kritické fázy inkubácie. Oliviin záväzok podporovať inovácie sa rozširuje na jej predchádzajúcu prácu výskumnej pracovníčky v GLOBSEC, ktorá prispela k iniciatíve Danube Tech Valley. Venuje sa posilňovaniu ďalšej generácie inovátorov pomocou holistického prístupu, ktorý je podporený magisterským titulom v odbore medzinárodné stratégie a diplomacia z ISIT Paríž. Olivia zároveň významne ovplyvnila európske mládežnícke iniciatívy prostredníctvom svojho takmer desaťročného členstva v správnej rade združení Bringing Europeans Together Association France a BETA Europe.

Martin Kugla

Martin Kugla je politológ, vo svojej publikačnej praxi sa dlhodobo venuje vojenským konfliktom, ozbrojeným silám a zbraňovým nákupom. Pôsobil ako konzultant NKÚ pri hodnotení obstarávania výzbroje MO SR.
Vyštudoval politológiu na Trnavskej univerzite.

Slavomír Šahin

Slavomír Šahin je ekonóm zameraný predovšetkým na obranu a zároveň policy analytik. Jeho práca sa sústredí na obranné výdavky a obranné politiky s dôrazom na plánovanie investícií.

Pracoval na procesoch obranného plánovania na Ministerstve obrany SR, príprave podkladov pre vedenie rezortu a zároveň bol členov viacerých projektových tímov.
Predtým sa venoval ex-ante ekonomickým hodnoteniam obranných nákupov a investičných plánov a tiež Revízii výdavkov na obranu na Útvare hodnoty za peniaze Ministerstva financií SR.

Slavo vyštudoval strategické štúdie a medzinárodné právo (Master of Science) a ekonómiu a politiku (Master of Arts (Hons)) na Univerzite v Aberdeen-e, UK.

 

Katarína Cséfalvayová

Katarína Cséfalvayová is the co-funder and director of the Institute for Central Europe. She served as the Chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Vice-chairwoman of the European Affairs Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. As a strong advocate of Slovakia’s pro-Atlantic and pro-European foreign policy underpinning, she has frequently voiced criticism of populist and extremist politicians and movements that question Slovakia’s membership in the EU and NATO.
Prior to joining the National Council she served as Vice Dean for Foreign Affairs at the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Bratislava. She holds a Master´s degree in economic diplomacy and a PhD in international relations. Having lived, studied and worked in different countries and specializing in foreign and european affairs in her professional life, she strongly believes in international cooperation and dialogue as the way forward. Unafraid to call herself european federalist, she is looking for ways to enhance european cooperation and to make Europe great again.
In her research as well as in her political agenda, she emphasised the importance of dealing with climate change as the major challenge of our times. She also advocates the role of women in society, aiming to raise public awareness on these issues in the central European region.

François Gemenne

A specialist of environmental geopolitics and migration dynamics, Dr. François Gemenne is a FNRS senior research associate at the University of Liège, where he is the Director of the Hugo Observatory. He also serves as co-director of the Observatory on Defence and Climate of the French Ministry of Defence. He lectures on environmental and migration policies in various universities, including Sciences Po (Paris and Grenoble) and the Free University of Brussels, where he holds the Bernheim Chair on Peace and Citizenship.
His research deals mostly with environmental and migration governance. He’s a lead author for the IPCC and has been involved in a large number of international research projects on these issues. In 2015, he was recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to pursue research at Princeton University. Previously he worked as a research fellow at Sciences Po (as the executive director of the Politics of the Earth research programme), the University of Versailles (UVSQ) and IDDRI.
He has also been the scientific advisor of the exhibition ‘Native Land. Stop Eject’ at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, in Paris. He has consulted for several organisations, including the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, the ACP Observatory on Migration and the British government (Foresight). In 2010, he was awarded the ISDT-Wernaers Prize for achievement in the communication of science to the general public.
He holds a joint doctorate in political science from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Liege (Belgium). He also holds a Master in Development, Environment and Societies from the University of Louvain, as well as a Master of Research in Political Science from the London School of Economics. Between 2008 and 2010, he was awarded a post-doctoral scholarship from the AXA Research Fund. He has published in various journals, including Science and Global Environmental Change, and has authored several books and he is also the director of the Sustainable Development series at Presses de Sciences Po.

Martin Fedor

A convinced supporter of closer European cooperation, also in the field of security and defense. Advocate for strong security ties with allies across the Atlantic.
During his active public (political) life, he has supported reforms in the area of police reform and new system of its accoutability. He has been active in the field of strengthening citizens’ rights to protection from eavesdropping. While served as a parliamentarian he held position of the Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee as well as the Chairman of the Special Control Committee for the Control of Military Intelligence. He also served as the chairman of the Slovak delegation to the parliaments of the NATO Assembly and the chairman of the Slovak-Polish Friendship Group. He also held the government posts of State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, later Minister of Defense.
He earned his diploma in Polical Science at the Comenius University in Bratislava, later he finished postgradual studies of Europen Economic and Public Affairs at Dublin European Institute (UCD) (MEconSc.). He defended a rigorous thesis (PhD degree) on the topic of Perspectives of closer cooperation in the field of security and defense of the EU member states at the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica.

Nina Zmajkovič Kučeráková

Nina Zmajkovič Kučeráková has experience in research and project management. She holds two Master’s degrees in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Amsterdam, which has provided her with a strong understanding of international affairs, political theory, research and social issues. Her first master’s thesis was focused on irregular migration in the context of dominant discourse and the second one was from the area of sustainability. She previously worked in GLOBSEC as grants and funding specialist and currently is employed at Comenius University in Bratislava, where she is responsible for project management support, external communication and research support. Having worked in business, non-governmental and public sector, she brings a diverse set of skills and experience including research, project management, organization of events and summits, handling financial aspects and specialisation in external communication and data processing. At ICE she is responsible for ensuring the success of the ACRONYM project.

Dominik Lelkes

Dominik je študentom magisterského štúdia na Ústave európskych štúdií a medzinárodných vzťahov na Fakulte sociálnych a ekonomických vied Univerzity Komenského. Je občianskym aktivistom Kancelárie Európskeho parlamentu na Slovensku a  členom European Democracy Youth Network a Nadácie Roberta Schumana. V rámci svojich štúdií sa zameriava na fungovanie uhlíkového trhu v EÚ, energetiku, zahraničnú a obrannú politiku Európskej únie. Bol slovenským zastupiteľom na konferencii NATO-EU Roundtable 2020 v Estónsku, publikuje pre neziskovú organizáciu v Bruseli – Stand Up for Europe – a funguje aj ako politický analytik pre maďarský denník Bumm.sk. V rámci ICE sa zameriava na oblasť obrany a bezpečnosti, ako aj migrácie.

Jessica Kriška

Vysokoškolské štúdium absolvovala na bratislavskej pobočke University College Prague so zameraním na medzinárodné a diplomatické štúdiá. Je držiteľkou titulu PhD., ktorý obhájila na Univerzite Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici na fakulte politických vied a medzinárodných vzťahov. V súčasnosti sa venuje písaniu rigoróznej práce.

Vo svojej dizertačnej práci sa zameriavala na výskum v oblasti politického a digitálneho marketingu, politickej komunikácie, dezinformácií a volebnej integrity. Jej vedecké práce a publikácie sa zaoberajú témou politického marketingu v svetovej politike so zameraním na Spojené štáty americké, ale aj marketing političiek a rodovú rovnosť v politike. Jessica bola súčasťou organizačného a marketingového tímu Slovenského olympijského a športového výboru počas olympijských hier v Rio de Janeiro. Absolvovala stáž a pracovala na veľvyslanectve SR v Belehrade v Srbsku. Pôsobila aj na Ministerstve zahraničných vecí a európskych záležitostí SR na odbore diplomatického protokolu a v Kancelárii NR SR na odbore zahraničných vzťahov a protokolu počas predsedníctva SR v rade Európskej únie a jarného zasadnutia Parlamentného zhromaždenia NATO ako koordinátorka podujatia a protokolárneho zabezpečenia.

V minulosti pôsobila ako redaktorka v médiách.