Freelance writer, translator of both Czech and Slovak and a journalist. Currently Deputy Director of the International Visegrad Fund, he has had a long career working throughout the Visegrad countries. Educated in Krakow, where he completed a Masters of Arts in Comparative Religion. Following on from the completion of his Master's, he briefly thought Polish literature for a few years, before becoming Deputy Director of the Polish Institute in Prague in 1991. Since then, he has spent his time between helping organise Krakow's hosting of the European capital of culture in 2000, and returning to the Polish Institute in 2000. After leaving the institute again in 2004, he spent a couple of years focusing on journalism and writing. In 2006, Mr. Machej became Director of the Polish Institute in Bratislava where he remained until 2010.