Speakers of our 2025 conference

Krzysztof Bledowski

Visiting Adjunct Professor, University of Rseszow, Rzeszów

Krzysztof Bledowski is the Visiting Adjunct Professor of economics and finance at the Rzeszów University of Information Technology and Management (WSiZ). He is also the Treasurer and Executive Committee member of the Board of Trustees of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. His 30+ years of experience span transition economics, finance, and industrial policy. Dr. Bledowski’s prior appointments included work at the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, International Monetary Fund, Pioneer Funds, and others.

Tamás Boros

Executive Director, Equilibrium Institute, Budapest

Tamás Boros is the executive director and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute. He was the co-founder and co-owner of Policy Solutions, a consultancy and research institute. He is a recurring guest on a variety of political talk shows and often comments about public affairs for leading international media. He previously worked for the European Commission and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an expert on communication and EU affairs. His research focuses on Hungarian and EU political communication and populism.

Matthew G. Boyse

Senior Fellow, Center on Europe and Eurasia, Hudson Institute; Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, State Department, Washington DC

Matthew Boyse is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute in Washington, DC and an Adjunct at Johns Hopkins SAIS and George Washington University. A former Senior Foreign Service Officer, in his last role as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European Bureau, he oversaw U.S. policy toward Central Europe and the Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues and was Sherpa for the Three Seas Initiative. He also served as Chargé d’Affaires in Switzerland, Finland, Romania, and the U.S. Mission to NATO, among others.

James Jay Carafano

Senior Counselor to the President and E.W. Richardson Fellow, Heritage Foundation, Washington D.C.

Dr. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges. He currently serves as Senior Counselor to the President for International Engagement and E.W. Richardson Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Dr. Carafano is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and served 25 years in the US Army, retiring as a Lt. Colonel. His recent research has focused on developing the national security required to secure the long-term interests of the United States.

Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka

Presidential Ambassador and Special Envoy for Three Seas Initiative; Chancellery of the President Duda, Warsaw

Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka is a Presidential Ambassador - Special Envoy for the Three Seas Initiative. In her career, between 2016-2024 she has been a President of the Polish State Development Bank (BGK), which initiates and implements programs aimed at sustainable economic development. She has prepared and executed a new bank strategy mostly focused on increasing the competitiveness of the Polish economy. She is the creator of the financial project - 3 Seas Investment Fund, which financing transport, energy, and digital projects.

Paul Domjan

Founder and Chief Policy and Global Affairs Officer, Enoda, London

Domjanl brings more than two decades of experience in energy, energy security and climate policy and research to his role as Chief Policy and Global Affairs Officer at ENODA. Prior to founding ENODA, he was Chief Strategy Officer at Tellimer, CEO of 4Cast-RGE, and Managing Director and Co-founder of Country Insights. Paul served as the First Energy Security Adviser to the U.S. European Command of the U.S. Department of Defence and represented the US both at NATO, and with senior government and corporate stakeholders in the Europe and the US.

Konstantin Eggert

MBE, Columnist and Programme Host, Deutsche Welle, Vilnius

Konstantin Eggert MBE is a Russian affairs analyst for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. Mr Eggert’s previous positions include programme host and commentator for TV Rain, Russia’s groundbreaking independent TV channel (2016-2018) as well as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Kommersant FM radio (2011-2015). In 1998-2009 Konstantin was with the BBC World Service, including 7 years as the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau Chief in 2002-2009. In 2008 HM the Queen created MR Eggert Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Carrie Filipetti

Executive Director, Vandenberg Coalition, Washington D.C.

Carrie Filipetti currently serves as the Executive Director of the Vandenberg Coalition. Prior to this role, she was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cuba and Venezuela in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Deputy Special Representative for Venezuela at the U.S. Department of State, where she received a Superior Honor Award. From 2019–2020, she also served as the Senior Advisor to the Havana Incidents Task Force, coordinating an inter-agency effort to address unexplained health incidents affecting U.S. personnel and develop long-term care mechanisms.

Rumena Filipova

Chairperson, Institute for Global Analytics, Sofia

Dr. Rumena Filipova is the Founder and Chairperson of the Institute for Global Analytics in Bulgaria. Her research focuses on the politics and international relations of Central and Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on identity, media, and hybrid threats, as well as authoritarian influence by Russia and China in the region.
She holds a DPhil and MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford. Dr. Filipova has extensive experience in the think tank sector, including her time as a Denton Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Dr. Christina Catherine Krause

Head of Department International Politics and Security Affairs, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Berlin

Dr. Christina Catherine Krause is Head of the Department for International and Security Affairs at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in Berlin. Having joined KAS in 2005, she served in multiple positions at KAS headquarters and abroad as representative in the KAS Sarajevo Office from 2005-2009. Prior to joining KAS, she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Berlin mainly dealing with protection and resettlement of refugees from former Yugoslavia. Christina Krause holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Kiel.

Michał Kurtyka

Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council, Washington DC; Former Minister of Climate, Poland

Michał Kurtyka served as the first minister of Poland’s Ministry of Climate, responsible with energy and climate. In 2018 Kurtyka was appointed as Government Plenipotentiary for the Presidency of COP24—the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Poland. From July 2018, he also held the position of Secretary of State in the Ministry of Environment. In December 2018, he became the COP24 President. In 2019 he assumed the role of Ministerial Chair of the International Energy Agency and in 2021 he was designed as Ministerial Chairman of the United Nations of Food and Agriculture.

Nico Lange

Senior Fellow, Zeitenwende-Initiative, Munich Security Conference

From 2019 to 2022, he served as Chief of Staff at the Federal Ministry of Defense of Germany.
Previously, he held several senior positions including Deputy General Manager of the CDU Deutschlands and Director of Strategic Planning and International Politics at CDU Headquarters. He also served as State Commissioner for Innovation and Strategy to the State Government of Saarland, Director of the USA office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Washington D.C., and Deputy Director for political consulting at its headquarters in Berlin.

Petr Luňák

Deputy Section Head, Engagements, NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Brussels

Petr Luňák is a Deputy Head of the Engagement Section at NATO Public Diplomacy Division. He is responsible for overseeing public diplomacy endeavours of the Alliance. He is a member of the Czech Foreign Service and he was a Deputy Head of the Planning Staff of the Foreign Ministry before joining the NATO International Secretariat in 2000. Mr. Luňák holds a Ph.D. from Charles University in Prague where he taught international relations and modern history.

Dora Meredith

Director, Overseas Development Institute Europe, Brussels

Dora is Director of ODI Europe the new global affairs think tank in Brussels, bringing research, ideas and dialogue with the wider world into the European policy debate. Dora’s work focuses on the European foreign policy agenda and global governance.
Before joining ODI, Dora was the Head of Programmes at the Institute for the Future of Work. Prior to this, she worked in a variety of public policy roles in the UK and internationally. She was based in Brussels for the UK’s national innovation agency, and she undertook a secondment to the British Embassy in Washington D.C.

Krisztián Mészáros

Director for Partnerships, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO, Brussels

Krisztián Mészáros is the Director of Partnerships and Global Affairs at NATO Headquarters. In his capacity, he leads five outstanding teams within the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division of the International Staff responsible for overseeing NATO’s political relationship with partner and non-partner countries across the globe. He has worked six years in the NATO Secretary General’s Private Office. Prior to joining the International Staff, Krisztián worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, dealing with NATO and security policy.

Balázs Nagy

CEO, NewPush, Google Digital Transformation Leader, Washington

Balázs has worked with billion-dollar corporations as well as start-ups, building a strong professional background in cybersecurity. After co-founding NewPush in 1999, Balázs went on to design and supervise the deployment of complex cybersecurity solutions, fast credit card payment systems, fare collection systems, and analytics systems. More recently, he has designed compliance systems for SOX, PCI, HIPAA, and leveraging the HITRUST CSF. Balázs now focuses on the Connective Platform™.

Zsolt Németh

Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee, Hungarian National Assembly, Budapest

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian National Assembly since 2014. Founding member of Fidesz in 1988, Member of Parliament since 1990. 1998-2002 State Secretary for Political Affairs, 2010-2014 State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2014 he has been the head of the Hungarian delegation in the Council of Europe and between 2014-2022 the deputy leader of the group of the European People’s Party, and since 2022 the European Conservatives Group / Democratic Alliance.

Aleksander Olech

Head of International Cooperation Defence 24, Warsaw

Dr. Aleksander Olech is a lecturer at both national and international universities, a NATO associate, analyst, and publicist.
Previously, he served as Deputy Director of the Department of Africa and the Middle East at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has worked closely with various NATO centers, including NATO ENSEC COE, NATO StratCom, NATO CCD COE, and NATO COE DAT.
Dr. Olech is a graduate of the European Academy of Diplomacy and the War Studies University. His main research interests include French-Russian relations, security challenges in Africa, and NATO security policy.

Bryan Roberts

Senior Economist, Devtech Systems, Washington, D.C.

Bryan Roberts is a Senior Economist at Devtech Systems with four decades of experience advising governments and think tanks on a broad range of public policy challenges. In the 1980s, he analyzed the economies of Soviet-bloc countries; in the 1990s, he supported post-communist transitions through the development of new economic policies and institutions. In the 2000s and 2010s, he worked with the U.S. government on immigration, international trade, and border management. Most recently, his research has focused on industrial policy in developing countries and pharmaceutical sector supply chains.

Boris Ruge

Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, NATO, Brussels

Ambassador Boris Ruge became Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy in September 2023. He leads the team responsible for political affairs within NATO’s International Staff, including partnerships, enlargement, policy with regard to Russia, as well as arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. From September until December 2024, he served as Acting Deputy Secretary General.He previously served as Vice Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, German Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Director Middle East/North Africa at the German Foreign Office in Berlin, and Deputy Chief of Mission of the German Embassy in Washington, DC.

Adam Sikorski

Co-founder, UNIMOT Capital Group, Zawadzkie

Co-founder of the UNIMOT Capital Group (since 1992) – one of the largest private companies on the energy market in Poland.
In 2012, he became the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and the main shareholder of PZL Sędziszów S.A. – a leading domestic automotive filter manufacturer, and from 2015 to 2018, he assumed the position of the President of the Company’s Management Board.
Since August 2018, Adam Sikorski has been the President of the Management Board of UNIMOT S.A.
In 2023, he received a PhD degree in social sciences in the discipline of management and quality at the Faculty of Management of Czestochowa University of Technology.

Vladimir Socor

Senior Analyst of East European Affairs, Jamestown Foundation, Washington DC

Vladimir Socor is a Senior Fellow of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation and its flagship publication, Eurasia Daily Monitor (1995 to date). An internationally recognized expert on the former Soviet-ruled countries in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia, he covers Russian and Western policies, focusing on energy, regional security issues, Russian foreign affairs, secessionist conflicts, and NATO policies and programs. Mr. Socor is a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defense College and at Harvard University’s National Security Program’s Black Sea Program.

Attila Steiner

State Secretary for Energy and Climate Policy, Ministry of Energy, Budapest

Between 2015 to 2018, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Paks II Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. From July 2019, he served as State Secretary for European Union Affairs at the Ministry of Justice. From 2021, he was the State Secretary responsible for the development of the circular economy, energy, and climate policy at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology. From 2022, he served as the State Secretary for energy and climate policy at the Ministry of Technology and Industry, and later at the Ministry of Energy.

Tibor Stelbaczky

Ambassador at large, Principal Adviser on Energy Diplomacy, MD Global, European External Action Service, Brussels

Since 2022 September Tibor Stelbaczky is working at the European External Action Service (EEAS) as Principal Adviser on Energy Diplomacy. Before joining the EEAS, Ambassador Stelbaczky was the Permanent Representative of Hungary to the EU in Brussels between 2019 and 2022 and Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary to the EU between 2015 and 2019. He was a member of the accession negotiation team at the State Secretariat for EU integration. Between 2011 and 2014 he was Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Réka Szemerkényi

Director of International Relations, Equilibrium Institute, Budapest

Réka Szemerkényi is the Senior Foreign and Security Policy Advisor at the Equilibrium Institute. She is a leading geopolitical expert on transatlantic security and Hungary’s former Ambassador to the United States, with over 20 years of experience in governmental, academic, and private sector roles. She previously served as Executive Vice President of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a Washington-based think tank. Her governmental roles include serving as Hungary’s Ambassador to the U.S. and as Senior National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary. In the private sector, she has been a senior advisor to the Chairman and CEO of the MOL Group and a consultant to the World Bank.

Péter Sztáray

State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Budapest

From 1993 he worked as a NATO and Western Europe Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 1996 to 2000 he served as a diplomat in Brussels as a seconded diplomat of the Permanent Mission of Hungary to NATO. From 2002 to 2003, he served as Head of the NATO Department. From 2007 to 2009, he was appointed Deputy Director of Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Head of Department. Since 23 June 2018, he has been State Secretary for Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Mark Voyger

Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Center for European Policy Analysis; Director of the Master of Science Program in Global Management, American University, Kyiv

Mr. Mark Voyger is the Director of the Master’s Program in Global Management and Associate Professor at American University Kyiv. Mr. Voyger holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, with a focus on Russia-NATO relations, and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He has read for a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge University, UK. Mr. Voyger is fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Turkish, French, Spanish, and Italian.
Mr. Mark Voyger is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Washington, D.C. In the Spring of 2021, he taught International Security and Politics at the US Army College, Carlisle, PA. Previously, he was the Vice President for Strategic Studies and Multi-National Programs with TheTacNet.com online training company, Virginia, US. In 2019 – 2020, he was a Senior Scholar at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. In 2018 – 2019, he taught Russian and Eastern European politics and security as the Senior Lecturer at the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia.
Prior to his academic career, from 2013 – 2018, he served as the Special Advisor for Russian and Eurasian Affairs to the Commanding General of US Army Europe in Wiesbaden, Germany, and as the Cultural Advisor and Senior Russia Expert at NATO’s Allied Land Command in Izmir, Turkey. In the period 2009 – 2013, he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as an advisor and social scientist with the US Army. He also worked for Senator Mitt Romney's Presidential campaigns as a member of the Executive Department (2007 – 2008) and the Russia Advisory Group (2011 – 2012).
Mr. Voyger’s areas of academic and professional expertise include Eastern European, Balkan, and Middle Eastern politics and security issues, Russian foreign and security policy, Russian military strategies and doctrine, hybrid warfare, as well as trans-national Islamist ideologies and movements. He has published articles on the above topics in journals in Ukraine, the Baltic States, Poland, and elsewhere, and he gives regular TV interviews and talks across think tanks, universities, and military commands in the United States and Europe. Mr. Voyger is the editor of a book on NATO, Russia, and the Baltic States published by the Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia, in 2019.

Michael Wesley

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global Culture & Engagement, University of Melbourne, Melbourne

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement at the University of Melbourne, Professor Wesley provides leadership across the University, with overall responsibility for strategic guidance on external and global engagement. His research and writing focuses on

Australian foreign policy and the international affairs of Asia and the Pacific. His 2011 book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia won the John Button Prize for best writing on Australian politics and policy, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. His most recent book is Helpem Fen: Australia and the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

More speakers coming soon