President

Advisers

Marián Leško

Marián Leško

Advisor on Internal Politics

Political commentator and journalist, he worked for the Pravda newspaper, later for SME; he cooperated with Radio Free Europe and most recently worked for the TREND weekly magazine. He writes for and appears on the TV discussion show “Sedem” (Seven). He has worked in the foundation “Zastavme korupciu” (Let’s stop corruption) and he has written several books about Slovak politics.

Vladimír Talian

Vladimír Talian

Advisor on Internal Politics

In 1998 and 2003 he worked for the civic campaigns “I vote therefore I am” and “We care” and he worked with the Hlava 98 association to assist the democratic opposition in Belarus. He worked in radio broadcasting for several years. In 2006 he became the head of the Broadcasting Council of Slovenský rozhlas (Slovak Radio) and he worked for the station Radio_FM. He was an advisor to Lucia Žitňanská as minister of justice and member of parliament. He helped with the communication strategy for Matúš Vallo’s mayoral election campaign in Bratislava.

Martin Burgr

Martin Burgr

Advisor on Communications

He graduated in political science and media studies from Masaryk University in Brno in 2016 and as a student he taught classes on presenting arguments and critical thinking. He has previously led the Slovak Debating Association and actively participated in debating competitions. In 2010 he was awarded the title of best speaker in the Slovak Debating League. He is the founder of the Academy of Critical Thinking and hundreds of students and businesspeople have completed his communication training. He became an assistant to a member of parliament in 2015. Later he was responsible for communication in Matúš Vallo’s successful campaign to become mayor of Bratislava and Zuzana Čaputová’s presidential election campaign.

Jarmila Lajčáková

Jarmila Lajčáková

Advisor on Human and Minority Rights

A lawyer specialising in human and minority rights. She worked for over 10 years in CVEK – Centre for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture, where alongside research she cooperated with local authorities and schools in eastern and central Slovakia on practical programmes for Roma integration. In 2013, she launched a programme to support Roma students, “You too have a chance”, in cooperation with the University of Economics. This programme has already helped several Roma students to graduate successfully. She has taught human rights, justice theory and minority rights at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University since 2007.

Radovan Pala

Radovan Pala

Advisor on Law and Justice

He studied law at Comenius University in Bratislava, with stays at Charles University in Prague and the Free University of Berlin. He received an LL.M. degree summa cum laude in international commercial law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen in 2003. He is a founder managing partner of the law firm Taylor Wessing, which has become one of the largest international law firms operating in the Slovak market since its establishment in 2004. He is the co-author of a monogram on cross-border mergers and extensive commentary on the Slovak Commercial Code. He was involved in drafting legislation to restrict the activity of “letterbox” (shell) companies.

Norbert Kurilla

Norbert Kurilla

Advisor on the Environment, Energy, Climate Change and the Business Environment

An environmental diplomat and economist. He is an experienced international expert in policymaking on environment and climate change. He was an employee of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic for many years, where he also held the post of state secretary. He spent 8 years in Slovakia’s Permanent Representation to the EU and was the Slovak representative in the Management Board of the European Environment Agency. He is currently vice-chair of the OECD Green Action Task Force.

Martin Strižinec

Martin Strižinec

Spokesperson

He joined the radio station Rádio Expres in 2001, the television station TA3 in 2009 and state broadcaster RTVS in 2013. He presented news and commentary programmes, including 5 years on the most popular political discussion programme “O 5 minút 12” (Five to Twelve). He is currently a doctoral student in journalism in the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.

Oľga Gyárfášová

Oľga Gyárfášová

Advisor on Social Affairs

Sociologist, researcher and university teacher focusing on political sociology, social inclusion, minority rights and the situation of vulnerable and marginalised groups. She works at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava and cooperates with the Institute for Public Affairs on research projects on a wide range of social and political issues. She has participated in several civil society campaigns.