WHO WE ARE

dr. ISTVÁN UJHELYI

president of council of CEA

is Former Member of the European Parliament. He was an MEP from May 2014; he has been the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, member in the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, substitute member in the Public Health subcommittee, and he is the inventor of the European Health Union Network. Up until his mandate in the EU Parliament, he held several significant offices in Hungarian national politics.

First, István was member of the Municipality Government of Szeged, then became a member of the Hungarian National Assembly from 2002. In 2006, he became State Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, then the President of the National Tourism Committee.

In 2009-2010, he was State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, and between 2010-2014, he was Deputy Speaker in the Hungarian National Assembly. István is currently UN Tourism Ambassador to the EU, President of Board of Bella Vista Institute of Higher Education Switzerland (BVIS), Global Vice-President of Hiseas International Tourism Travel Group, and member of the Global Humane Society Advisory Council. He holds a law degree from József Attila University of Szeged. Married, father of six.

GÁBOR BODOR

member of council

chief policy advisor

is a senior EU policy expert with a background in international relations. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from the Corvinus University of Budapest, he pursued Postgraduate studies at the University of Antwerp in Climate and Energy. In the past years he worked in the European Parliament as a strategic policy advisor on the fields of budget, rule of law, energy and climate. As a result, he gained outstanding knowledge on the following topics: Multiannual Financial Framework, Recovery and Resilience Facility, direct EU funding opportunities, Article 7 procedure, Conditionality Regulation, European Green Deal, Fit for 55 and REPowerEU.

He is passionate about EU affairs and has developed a holistic view of the intricate inner workings and inter- institutional relations of the EU capital which he confidently navigates thanks to his excellent networking skills and result oriented approach. This led to a well-established direct contact to a great number of EU officials, EU Commissioners, MEPs and Permanent Representations. As climate discussions became the forefront of EU policy-making Gábor’s focus shifted towards renewable energy sources and green transition which are key to achieving the EU’s target for becoming the first climate neutral continent by 2050.

LILLA HARANGOZÓ

member of council

head of office (CEA)

is an international relations expert, political analyst. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations at Corvinus University of Budapest and a master’s degree in Political Science: European and International Governance at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

In the past years, she has been working in the European Parliament in the cabinet of a Member of the European Parliament in the fields of tourism and health care. Her excellent problem solving, and diplomatic skills are paired with great networking abilities, resulting in complete set of theoretical and practical knowledge.

She holds great leadership skills; she completed NDI’s Youth Political Leadership Academy, and she was a European Parliament Program Leader in BVIS International Future Leaders Summer School in Switzerland. Lilla has bilingual proficiency in Hungarian and English, and intermediate proficiency in French and Spanish languages.

TAMÁS LAJOS SZALAY

member of council

strategic consultant

worked as a journalist for more than fifteen years, among others as parliamentary correspondent for the then leading Hungarian political daily Népszabadság. He was a member of the founding team of NOLTv, a pioneer in the production of video content on the online version of the referred daily, which won numerous awards.

In addition to his bachelor’s degree in humanities, he holds degrees in Election Analysis and New Media Graphic Design, and is also a qualified graphologist. He is an accomplished copywriter and an experienced communications, marketing and brand management professional, having completed short studies in the latter fields at the University of Arts in London and at the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Tamás is the author of several investigative and documentary reportage books and has also published a political novel. He constantly develops his skills in the field of visual communication, for example in typography and in creative graphic design; as a result, his design works have been selected for the second time for display on the billboards of the outdoors ARC-exhibition in Budapest. For the past ten years, he has worked as chief of cabinet and political adviser for MEP István Ujhelyi in Brussels.

MAJLIND LAZIMI

member of advisory board

is an experienced C-level executive, senior economic adviser and management consultant with a solid 14-year professional achievements in complex project management, corporate management, public administration, political and business sphere. His in depth- expertise includes integral economic investment appraisal and project finance related to tourism, infrastructure, and energy projects. Since December 2021, Mr. Lazimi holds the position of the Managing Partner of Horwath HTL – ALBANIA. Previously, he has held important positions such as: Economic Adviser to the President of the Republic of Albania; Deputy Minister of European Integration;
CEO of Albanian Post; Chief of Cabinet to the Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy; Economic Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; Business Development Manager for a regional consulting company in the Western Balkans etc. Mr. Lazimi has a Master of Science and B.A degree from Eastern Mediterranean University, and professional certificates from Cornell University, Queen’s University (Canada), Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

LAURA VAN DER MEER

member of advisory board

is a specialist in international environmental law and policy and has more than thirty years of experience assisting companies, associations, and non-profit organizations with international and national government relations strategy, advocacy, coalition building, and regulatory compliance. Her consulting work today focuses primarily on positioning clients to contribute positively to legislative and policy processes and fully comply with the resulting laws and regulations. Laura lived and worked in Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Switzerland for more than twenty years before returning to the US in 2022. Some of her current professional activities include advising conservation organisations and biotechnology companies regarding proposed legislation and implementing regulations in the EU, U.S. or via multilateral agreements, including those impacting the tourism sector.

She holds a law degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William & Mary with several honors and bar admissions.

MARIANA OLESKIV

member of advisory board

is a Ukrainian high-ranking official who has been working in the field of tourism with a focus on convention and marketing sectors for over 20 years. In addition, Ms. Oleskiv worked at the three largest Ukrainian tourism centers – Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv. In March 2020 she was appointed Chairperson of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine. The main task of the Agency is to implement state policy in the field of tourism and resorts of Ukraine. In 2008 she was responsible for technical support organization for EBRD annual meetings in Ukraine. From 2013 to 2015 she was head of the Travel Agencies and Travel Bureaus „Slupskyi”. From 2016 to 2018 she was head of KP „Lviv Tourism Development Center” of Lviv City Council Under Mariana Oleskiv’s leadership, Lviv was granted the privilege to host participants of the 5th European Cities Marketing (ECM) organization’s meeting for Tourist Information Centers of European Cities. Mariana attended Lyceum No. 2 with an emphasis on English language studies from 1988 to 1999. She attended the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv from 1999 to 2004. She is fluent in Ukrainian and English.

TOMÁŠ PETŘÍČEK

member of advisory board

is the director of Progressive Analytical Centre, a Prague- based independent think- tank. He is also a senior non-residential fellow at the Centre of Global Political Economy of the Institute of International Relations in Prague and an associated researcher at the Sciences Po Paris. Since 2022 he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. He served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic between 2018 and 2021. He has more than 10 years in senior management positions in the private, public, and civic sectors. He received a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and M.A. degree in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick. His research interests are in the fields of international political economy, geoeconomics, and geopolitics.

HISHAM ZAAZOU

member of advisory board

started his career in the banking sector (CitiBank Cairo) after his graduation in 1976 from the faculty of commerce (Ain- Shams University). In 1980 he traveled to the USA (Los Angeles) to start his career in tourism by joining R&H Voyages, a tour operator specialized in the Middle East. After a successful career in the private sector, both as an international tour operator (USA) and as professional ground handler (in Egypt), one of the highlights of his civilian career was that he became the Executive Director of Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF). Zaazou later joined the government as an assistant minister of tourism in 2007, promoted to senior assistant minister of tourism in 2009; being the first to assume this position in the history of the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt. Later on Mr. Zaazou became Minister of Tourism of Egypt in 2012 till 2016 and served in this position under three presidents and four prime-ministers.