Experts

Studied under Csaba Onczay, Sándor Devich and Ferenc Rados in Hungary, then at Indiana university in the U.S. and also as a Fulbright scholar at Yale University and under Aldo Parison at the Julliard School in  New Yorku. Among other prizes, Tamás Mérei is the youngest winner of the prestigeous Popper Cello Competition, international competition of the Hungarian Public Radio, and the winner of the main prize at the Piatigorsky Festival in Los Angeles. As a soloist, he has performed in Europe, USA, Israel and Japan. As a world premiere, he recorded Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Hungaroton Classic. He teaches at Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Wyborcza. Historian, "Solidarity" activist during the '80ties member of the Round Table Talks 1989. Doctorate honoris causa (The New School for Social Research in New York, the University of Minnesota, University of Michigan and Connecticut College). International awards e.g.: the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award 1986, OSCE Price on Journalism and Democracy awarded by the OSCE Assembly, 1996 and Carl Bertelsmann Prize, as a tribute for his outstanding merits during the transformation process which leads Poland into democracy and free market economy. Author of numerous books e.g. Chances of Polish Democracy, London 1984 or La Deuxième Révolution, Paris 1990. His articles were published in Der Spiegel, Le Monde, Libération, El Pais, The Washington Post and many other journals and magazins.

Natalia Mileszyk heads up the Digital & Technology practice at CEC, the longest-standing public affairs company in Poland. She has an in-depth understanding of tech-sector regulation which combined with broader experience in public affairs both in Poland and the wider European Union makes her aware of the complex dynamics between national and regional policymaking levels. ​

She previously worked as a public policy expert at Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation, a leading Polish "think-and-do" tank dealing with the social aspects of technology, and advocating for a human-centered digital policy. A lawyer by training, she graduated from Warsaw University and the Central European University in Budapest (where she gained her LLM). 

Her legal expertise relates to tech-sector regulation and intellectual property law – and she enjoys sharing her knowledge of the latter with cultural heritage institutions and representatives of the creative sector. ​

Educated at AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, graduating from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automatics. Ever since 1990 his professional involvement has been one with public administration. He held the position of Director of the Organization and Supervision Division, and also he served as Director of the Małopolska Province Office in Krakow. Between 1993-1998 he worked as Vice-Governor of the former Kraków Province. From 1998 he was Undersecretary of State, and then Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance, later to be appointed Government Plenipotentiary for Decentralization of Public Finance. In 2001-2003 he acted as advisor to the President of the National Bank of Poland. In 2003, he was appointed President of the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. He held the post of Director of the Department for Social Communication of the National Bank of Poland and in 2004 he went on to act as a Member of the Management Board of the NBP. Between 2004-2006 he performed his function as President of the National Health Fund. From 2006 he was Deputy Mayor of the City of Warsaw. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as the Governor of the Małopolska Province. From 2009 he was Minister of the Interior and Administration. In 2012 he was appointed Governor of the Małopolska Province for the second time.