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Keynote Speakers  Dr. Oleh Shamshur Ambassador of Ukraine to the Uninted States
Oleh Shamshur is leading Ukrainian Embassy to the US since March 2006. Prior to this appointment, he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the head of Ministry's European Union department. In 1998-2003 Shamshur was a Minister-Counselor at the Embassy of Ukraine to the Benelux Countries. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University, Department of International Relations and International Law. In 1982, Oleh Shamshur earned his Ph.D. in history from Kyiv University. more  Professor Myroslav Popovych Director of H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy in Kyiv
Myroslav Volodymyrovych Popovych serves as director of H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy in Kyiv since 2001. He is also an Academician of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, as well as an editor-in-chief of “Philosophical Thought” journal. During his active scientific life, Popovych wrote and published more than 100 works devoted to issues in logic, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy and history of culture. His recent monographs include “Ukraine and Europe: Rightists and Leftists” (1996), “Rationality and Dimensions of Human Being” (1997), and “Red Century” (2005). Fundamental book by Myroslav Popovych “Essays in History of Ukrainian Culture” (1999) had a very strong public and social impact and withstood two publications. In 2001 the efforts of the author were honored by the National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine. The book describes how Ukrainian culture has developed over time since ancient times until now at the backdrop of Indo-European and Slavic mythology. Popovych received a B.A. in Philosophy from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko State University in 1953 and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Institute of Philosophy under Ukraine’s Academy of Sciences in 1960. In February 2008, in recognition of his strong contribution to developing modern philosophy and theory of culture, Myroslav Popovych was honored by the highest award of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences – the Vernadskyy Golden Medal. more  Mrs. Chrystia Freeland Managing Editor of Financial Times
Chrystia Freeland is the US Managing Editor of the Financial Times. She leads the editorial development of the paper’s US edition and of US news on FT.com. Previously, Freeland served as Deputy Editor in London. Other notable positions Freeland has held at the FT include, Editor of FT Electronic Services, Editor of the FT’s Weekend edition, Editor of FT.com, UK News Editor, Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent. Freeland began her career working as a stringer in Ukraine, writing for the FT, The Washington Post and The Economist, before working as deputy editor of The Globe & Mail, Toronto, Canada. She received her bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University, and earned a Master of Studies degree from St. Anthony’s College at Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Freeland is the author of Sale of a Century: the inside story of the second Russian revolution (2000), which details Russia’s journey from communism to capitalism. Her piece on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which appeared in the FT Magazine, won ‘Best Energy Submission’ at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards in 2004. Recently, she has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. more  Mr. Morgan Williams President of US-Ukraine Business Council
Morgan Williams serves as President/CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). He was elected Chairman of the USUBC Executive Committee in 2005 and as President in 2007. Under his leadership the USUBC has significantly increased its membership and programs. Williams is Director, Government Affairs, for the Washington Office of SigmaBleyzer Emerging Markets Private Equity Investment Group. He became a consultant to SigmaBleyzer in 2001 and joined the company in 2004. SigmaBleyzer has been active in Ukraine since early 1990's and manages around 1 bn dollars of investment in Ukraine. Williams has worked in the field of international economic and business development for almost thirty years. He was born in Kansas, USA, and holds a BA degree from Ottawa University in Kansas and a MA degree in economics from the University of Kansas. Williams started his work regarding Ukraine in 1992 as senior advisor to a major food system development project in Russia and Ukraine working with U.S. agribusinesses that were investing in the former Soviet Union. From 1997 to 1999 Williams was president/ceo of a private agricultural input finance company in Kyiv. Williams is founder and publisher of the Action Ukraine Report (AUR), an electronic news and information service that has been distributed worldwide for the past six years. Williams serves as a member of President Yushchenko's Committee for the 75th Commemoration of the Holodomor 2007-2008 and as chairman of the Exhibition Committee of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) International Holodomor Committee. In 2007, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Williams was presented a state award, the Distinguished Services Order, by President Viktor Yushchenko for his contribution to Ukraine's development. Morgan Williams came to Washington from Kansas in 1977 to serve as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee for the ranking Republican on the Committee, Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan). In late 1980 he started his international work as president of a cooperative development organization in Washington that designed and implemented food system development projects, financed by USAID, in several countries including India, Haiti, Indonesia, and Egypt. Prior to 1977 he spent the previous 15 years working in important private and public sector positions in his home state of Kansas. more  Dr. Serhii Plokhii Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History Harvard University
Serhii Plokhii, a prolific scholar whose studies have opened up a new pathway of studying Ukraine's relationship with Eastern and Central Europe, has been appointed Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University in July 2007. Plokhii, came to Harvard from the University of Alberta, where he was a professor of history and associate director of the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research. He previously taught at Harvard as a visiting professor in 2005 and 2003. Plokhii first earned his scholarly reputation through several writings on the early modern religious history of Ukraine completed years before the beginning of some transformations and the collapse of the Soviet Union. After relocating to Canada, this study culminated in a sweeping book, "The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine" (Oxford University Press, 2001). He is also the author of "Unmaking Imperial Russia: Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the Writing of Ukrainian History" (University of Toronto Press, 2005) and "The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus" (Cambridge University Press, 2006). The latter book represents a culmination of a decade's work on how elite political discourse and history-writing create and shape cultural identities. In March 2008 Plokhii has published his new piece of work, “Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past,” and in the meantime has already begun work on a book about the history of the 1945 Yalta conference, which he intends to explore from a cultural perspective. Plokhii received a B.A. in history and social sciences from Dnipropetrovsk University in 1980; an M.A. in history from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow in 1982; and a Ph.D. in history from Kiev University in 1990. more |
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