Experts

He is the Executive Director of Vaclav Havel Library in Prague and former President of Aspen Institute Central Europe (2012-2015). Previously he was the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom (2009-2015), to Israel (2003- 2009) and to the United States (1992-1997). In 1989 he was a founding member of the Czech chapter of P.E.N., the international organization of writers and translators that was banned in Czechoslovakia during the Communist era. In November 1989 he was a founding member of the Civic Forum, an umbrella organization that coordinated the overthrow of the Communist regime. In January 1990 he became the Spokesman and Press Secretary for President Václav Havel. In 1996 he was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and served as the chairman of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security. Žantovský studied psychology at Charles University in Prague and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and worked as a research psychologist. Beginning in 1980. He was a contributor to the samizdat press and the Prague correspondent for Reuters. In 2003 he co-founded the new Prague-based think tank Program of Atlantic Security Studies (PASS) and served as its first Executive Director. In 2014 he published to wide acclaim the biography of the former president Havel: A Life in English, Czech and several other languages

Tom Zia serves as the Political and Economic Officer for the United States Consulate General in Krakow. Prior to coming to Krakow, he served on the staff of the Secretary of State as a Line Officer in the Executive Secretariat. Tom has also served as a Desk Officer covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, as a Vice-Consul at the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara, Mexico, and as Vice-Consul at Embassy Warsaw. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the Arizona State University and a juris doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Zia grew up in Oregon and California and worked as an attorney in Arizona and Washington, D.C., prior to joining the Foreign Service.

Dr. Viera Žúborová (1984) is political scientist by background. She operated at the Faculty of Social Sciences of University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava since 2008. During these years she operated at the faculty also as the vice-dean from research and strategic project, and leaded the Department of political science and European studies. She also works as managing editor of Slovak Journal of Political science. Since 2016 she operates as senior research fellow at the think- tank Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA). She focuses on issues of political communication, and migration discourse, tranzitology and question on post-communism. As a visiting PhD scholar, she operated at the The Université libre de Bruxelles (2010). Viera Žúborová is the co-founder of non-profit organization Trnavska alternativa, and also the co-founder of non- profit organization Mladá Archa, she served there as director from 2015. Both non-profit organization focus on organising the various educational and creative activities supporting critical thinking of the students and youth, including realization of project that are focusing on the development of public space and active participation at the local level. Viera Žúborová is also from 2015 regular columnist at the online newspapers Aktulity.sk.