Speaker Biographies - Ec.europa.eu

Speaker BiographiesEvent OrganizersIstván Székely, Principal Advisor, DG ECFIN, European CommissionIstvan P. Szekely is currently a Principal Adviser in the EuropeanCommission, Directorate General for Economic and FinancialAffairs. Previously he was a country director in DG ECFIN. He isan economist by training with a PhD from the University ofCambridge.Prior to joining the European Commission, he worked at theCorvinus University in Budapest, where he is currently anhonorary Professor, the University of Bonn, the UN Secretariatin New York, the National Bank of Hungary, and theInternational Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He has a number of academic publications, includingseveral books.Lúcio Vinhas de Souza, Head, Economics Team, EPSC, European CommissionLúcio Vinhas de Souza was invited to join the European PoliticalStrategy Centre (EPSC), the internal think tank of the Presidencyof the European Commission, where he leads the EconomicsTeam, from Moody's Headquarters in New York, USA, where hewas until March 2015 Managing Director and Chief Economist.Before that, he coordinated the economic analysis and forecastingfor Developed Economies at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.,where he co-authored the flagship “Global Economic Prospects”publication. Previously, Dr. Vinhas de Souza was Head of theRussia and Belarus Desk at the Directorate General for Economicand Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission, andbefore that he was a Research Area Coordinator at the Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW) inGermany. His first work experience was as an international economist at the United Nations Secretariatin New York.Dr. Vinhas de Souza was also a visiting researcher and visiting fellow at a number of institutions,including the Central Banks of Estonia and Germany, the New Economic School in Moscow and theEuropean Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics at the ULB in Brussels. He haspublished widely in noteworthy economic journals in different languages and has organized andparticipated in numerous international meetings, seminars and workshops. A Portuguese citizen, heholds a Ph.D. in economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Master andBachelor degrees in economics from the NovaSBE in Lisbon, Portugal.

Michael Landesmann, WIIW and Johannes Kepler University LinzMichael Landesmann was from 1996-2016 Scientific Director of theVienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) and is Professorof Economics at the Johannes Kepler University. He has a D.Phil. fromOxford University, was a Lecturer and Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridgeand Senior Research Officer at the Department of Applied Economics atCambridge University. He held visiting Professorships at Harvard University(where he was J. Schumpeter Professor 1988-1989 and Pierre KellerVisiting Professor 2008-2009) and a wide range of other universities(Brandeis, Basel, Osaka, Padova, Jerusalem, Central European University,CERGE-EI Prague, Mumbai, etc.). He was a member of the Group ofEconomic Policy Advisors under the chairmanship of former EUCommission President Romano Prodi and participated in and coordinated a wide range of EU projectson different aspects of European integration. He is a member of the Italian Academy of Sciences. Hisresearch focuses on European economic integration, international economic relations, structuralchange and economic growth, globalization and labour markets and migration.Opening of EventRadko Kuruc, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, SlovakiaRadko Kuruc is currently serving as State Secretary of the Ministry of Financeof the Slovak Republic, a position he has held since 2014. Previously he heldthe position of Director and Advisor to the Minister within the Slovak Ministry ofFinance. He also worked as an analyst in the Economic Policy Institute, advisedthe Governor at the National Bank of Slovakia and was editor and economicanalyst at Ecopress. He is currently Chairman of the Supervisory Board forSZRB Asset Management and Slovenská konsolidačná and Vice Chairman ofthe Supervisory Board for TIPOS.He received an MA in Economics from the University of Economics inBratislava, where he also did his post graduate degree in InternationalBusiness and taught as Associated professor between 2001 and 2005.

Erik Berglöf, Director of the Institute of Global Affairs, LSE, and former Chief Economist, EBRDProfessor Erik Berglof is the inaugural Director of the Institute of Global Affairs(IGA) and its newly launched Global Policy Lab at the London School ofEconomics and Political Science (LSE). He has published widely in top journalson economic and political transition, corporate governance, financialdevelopment and EU reform. He was a member of the Secretariat for the G20Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance.Prior to joining the LSE, Professor Berglof was the Chief Economist and SpecialAdviser to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD) and Director of the Stockholm Institute of TransitionEconomics (SITE) and Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. He isalso a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Research Fellow of the Centre for EconomicPolicy Research (CEPR) and Senior Fellow of the European Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFR). In 2013 hewas awarded the Leontief Medal (2013) for his contributions to economic reform.First PanelMary Veronica Tovšak Pleterski, Director, DG ECFIN, European CommissionMrs Tovšak Pleterski is a director in the European Commission, at DirectorateGeneral for Economic and Financial Affairs in charge of investment, growth andstructural reforms.At the European Commission, she also held a position of director for Europeanand international carbon markets at DG CLIMA and a position of principal adviserat DG CNECT. Before joining the European Commission, Mrs Tovšak Pleterski wasthe Deputy Permanent Representative in the Permanent Representation ofSlovenia to the EU. In this capacity she also chaired the COREPER1 (committee ofdeputy permanent representatives) during Slovenian Presidency of the EU in2008. She started her career in the Ministry of foreign affairs of Slovenia andserved as a Slovenian diplomat in Strasbourg, New York and Brussels.Mrs Tovšak Pleterski holds a Master degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, School ofInternational and Public Affairs (New York) and a Master of Arts degree in European Studies fromKatholieke Universiteit in Leuven (Belgium). Earlier she acquired a degree of a Bachelor of Science inComputer Sciences at the University of Maribor, Slovenia.

Miroslav Kiraľvarga, Vice-President, U.S. Steel KošiceMiroslav Kiraľvarga graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Universityof P. J. Safarik in Košice 1987. Until 1995, he worked at the PhysicsDepartment, Technical University Košice, at which he was deputy head ofdepartment for two years.During the period 1995 - 1997 he worked for Procesna automatizacia VSZ a.s.,VSZ Keramika, s.r.o. (General Director’s Assistant) and VSZ a.s. (Vice President’sOffice Director). Mr. Kiraľvarga was appointed Director of Controlling at Stabilitasupplementary retirement insurance company in 1998. Towards the end of1999, he started to work as Senior Manager Personnel and Compensation in theVSZ U. S. Steel, s.r.o. joint venture. During 1998 – 2000 he attended the Masterof Business Administration program at the University of Pittsburgh, KatzGraduate School of Business.In November 2000, he was appointed General Manager for Compensation at U. S. Steel Košice. In March2003, he took the Management Academy Program at U. S. Steel in Pittsburgh. In the same year, hebecame Vice President Human Resources at U. S. Steel Košice. In November 2005, he successfullycompleted the U. S. Steel Leadership Development Program. He was appointed Vice President ExternalServices and Administration in 2007. Mr. Kiraľvarga has been President of the Association ofMetallurgy, Mining Industry and Geology of the Slovak Republic, Vice President of theNational Employers Association, a member of the Board of Directors of Stabilita, and President of HCKošice ice-hockey club. In 2011 Mr. Kiraľvarga relocated to USA and took up the position of GeneralManager - Global Materials Management and Procurement Support at U. S. Steel headquarters inPittsburgh. Effective October 1, 2013 he was appointed Vice President External Affairs, Administrationand Business Development U. S. Steel Košice and returned to Slovakia. In 2015 he was elected to theposition of President of the National Union of Employers.Filip Dvorak, Managing Director, BASF CzechiaFilip Dvorak is the Managing Director of BASF Czechia since 2015. Hepreviously worked as Head of the BASF Corporate Affairs in Business Centre inVienna and later on in Czechia, a position he held since 2010. He also workedat the BASF Belgium coordination Center and as Manager of the Marketingteam in the CEE region for BASF’s Agricultural Products division.He previously consulted at CEC Government Relations – a leading independentpublic affairs agency in Central Europe - and held a post at the Ministry ofInterior, in the Security Policy & International Relations department.Filip Dvořák was born in Prague, the Czech Republic, in 1975. He studiedeconomics and international studies at Faculty of Social Sciences of CharlesUniversity. He is married and father of three kids

Robert Stehrer, Scientific Director, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)Robert Stehrer is Scientific Director at wiiw. His expertise covers a broad area ofeconomic research, ranging from issues of international integration, trade andtechnological development to labour markets and applied econometrics.His recent work has focused on the analysis and effects of internationalisation ofproduction and value added trade on economic performance and labour markets.He has published in leading journals in these fields and has been working onnumerous projects funded by European Research Framework Programmes,notably in EU KLEMS (FP6), WIOD, SPINTAN and PRONTO (all FP7), as well as forinternational and national clients, such as the European Commission, the JointResearch Council, the European Central Bank and OECD.He studied economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, and sociology at the Institute forAdvanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna and is lecturer of economics at the University of Vienna.Elena Kohútiková, Deputy Chairman, Supervisory Board, VUB BankaElena Kohútiková has been a Vice-chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of VÚBa. s. since March 2018. From October 2006 to October 2017 she worked atvarious top management positions in the VUB bank: first as a member of theManagement Board and Head of the Financial and Capital Markets Departmentand since March 2009 as a Deputy CEO responsible for supporting and controlactivities of the bank. She entered in the banking sector through theCzechoslovak State Bank and is one of the key personalities who founded theNational Bank of Slovakia, where she worked as vice-governor in the period of2000 - 2006.Elena Kohútiková is a holder of many prestigious awards, among others of thehigh state distinction Ľudovít Štúr Decoration of the 2nd degree forextraordinary merits in the development of banking and economy of the Slovak Republic, granted by thePresident of the Slovak Republic.