Keynote Speakers at NISPAcee Conferences

Nijkamp Peter Nijkamp is a Professor in Regional and Urban economics and in Economic Geography at the VU University, Amsterdam. His main research interests cover quantitative plan evaluation, regional and urban modelling, multi-criteria analysis, transport systems analysis, mathematical systems modelling, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, environmental and resource management, and sustainable development.Over the past years he has focused his research in particular on new quantitative methods for policy analysis, as well as on spatial-behavioural analysis of economic agents. He has a broad expertise in the area of public policy, services planning, infrastructure management and environmental protection. In all these fields he has published many books and numerous articles.

20th Conference in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, 2012

Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Education, Poland.Prior to becoming the Minister she represented Poland as a Deputy of the European Parliament. She served for many years in the Committee of Experts in Public Administration of the UNDESA. She holds a full Professor degree and served, for many years, as Rector of Bialystok School of Public Administration, Poland. During her academic carrier she served in the NISPAcee Steering Committee in the years 2000–2006 and as the NISPAcee President from April 2002 till May 2004.

19th Conference in Varna, Bulgaria, 2011

Topic: Performance and Accountability in Times of Economic Crises

Geert Bouckaert is Professor of Public Management at the KU Leuven, Belgium. His research topics include public sector reform and performance in the public sector. He is past president of the European Group for Public Administration and currently chair of the scientific committee of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.

18th Conference in Warsaw, Poland, 2010

Topic: Public Administration in Time of Crisis

Wolfgang Drechsler is Professor and Chair of Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia (TUT), and Vice Dean for International Relations of its Faculty of Social Sciences. He has served as Advisor to the President of Estonia, as Executive Secretary with the German Wissenschaftsrat during German Reunification, and, as an APSA Congressional Fellow, and as Senior Legislative Analyst in the United States Congress. Wolfgang Drechsler has been a consultant to several international agencies, most recently to the EU, the OECD, the Council of Europe, SIGMA, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the UNDP. He has worked, in various capacities, on the national development plans of Estonia, Peru, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, and Norway. He has received NISPAcee’s Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence and its Merit Award; the Estonian National Science Award, Social Science category; the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Bridgewater College; the Maarjamaa Rist, Estonia’s Order of Merit; and the German Federal Merit Cross. One of his current areas of interest is non-Western, especially Chinese and Islamic, Public Administration. He is also dealing with Public Administration, Technology, and Innovation; with Web 2.0 Governance; and with Public Management Reform.

17th Conference in Budva, Montenegro, 2009

Topic: Bringing the State Back in One more Time: The Changing Role of State, Society and Markets in Governance

Peters B. Guy Peters is Maurice Falk Professor of American Government at the University of Pittsburgh and Professor of Comparative Governance at Zeppelin University.He previously taught at Emory University, the University of Delaware and at Tulane University, and has had visiting appointments at a number of universities in Europe, Latin America and Australia.He has also worked as a consultant for the UNDP, World Bank, OECD, UNICEF and a number of national governments.Professor Peters has been active in NISPAcee for some years, including as co-chair of Working Group 1.He has received the NISPACEE Lifetime Achievement Award.

Topic: Europeanisation and Democratisation in ECE: Towards the Multilevel and Multiactor Governance

Attila Agh is a full Professor in the Political Science Department at the Budapest Corvinus University and the Director of the Research Centre "Together for Europe” at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His major research interest is comparative democratisation and Europeanisation - summarized in the latest book, Eastern Enlargement and the Future of the EU27: EU foreign policy in a global world (2006). He was the main coordinator of the "Hungary 2015” strategic project (2005-2007). At present he is the project leader for the strategic preparation of the Hungarian EU presidency in 2011 in the Prime Minister’s Office and Hungarian Academy of Sciences and he has edited The prospect of the team presidencies: Integrative balancing in the new member states (2008).

16th Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, 2008

15th Conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2007

Topic: Values, Standards and Competences

Christopher Pollitt is BOF/ZAP Research Professor of Public Management at the Public Management Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Previously, he was Professor of Public Management at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (1999-2006). He is also Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of Administrative Sciences. Christopher is author of more than 60 scientific articles and author or editor of more than a dozen scholarly books.

14th Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2006

Derry Ormond, Advisor in Governance, Former Director of Governance and Public Management Programmes in OECD, Paris, France. At the OECD, 1962-98, he founded and directed the Organisation’s work on public management and governance from 1979 on. This included the creation of what is now the Committee on public governance, and Working Parties respectively of heads of prime ministers’ offices, national budget directors, administrative reform directors, and other related groupings. This became the leading intergovernmental forum on central management functions. In 1992, he oversaw the setting up of the joint EU/OECD SIGMA Programme providing support for public administration to the newly independent Central and Eastern European countries.

13th Conference in Moscow, Russia, 2005

Barbara Kudrycka, Rector, Bialystok School of Public Administration, Poland, Member of the European Parliament

12th Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2004

Bob Bonwitt is the founder (1991) and Director of the Sigma Programme, which is a joint OECD/EU initiative, principally financed by the EU. It assists post-communist countries with their transition to a democratic, rule of law state with a market economy. It assists the countries prepare for membership of the European Union. Sigma was one of the founding institutions that supported the creation of NISPAcee. Prior to Sigma, Bob was one of the founders, Deputy Director of the OECD’s Public Governance Directorate.

11th Conference in Bucharest, Romania, 2003

Topic: Gearing Governments for Weaving the Future

Tony Verheijen, The World Bank, USA

Dror Yehezkel Dror, Hebrew University, Israel

10th Conference in Cracow, Poland, 2002

Topic: Renewing Public Leadership: The Context for Service Delivery Reform

Jabec Jak Jabes started his academic career at the University of Ottawa where from between 1973-1993, he undertook research, which focused on organizational renewal, rewards in the work place, job motivation, public policy issues and surveys of managerial attitudes. His best-known work is a book, in partnership with David Zussman, entitled The Vertical Solitude which describes management practices in the federal public service of Canada and compares them with those in the private sector. He has been Editor in Chief of Optimum: The Journal of Public Sector Management and also the Associate Editor of the International Review of Administrative Sciences where he is currently on the Editorial Board. He is the author, co-author or editor of a dozen books and 60 book chapters, articles, papers and reports.His book entitled Traité des Organisations received the special mention by Harvard l'Expansion for Best Books in Management published in France in 1982.

Geert Bouckaert is Professor of Public Management at the KU Leuven, Belgium. His research topics include public sector reform and performance in the public sector. He is past President of the European Group for Public Administration and currently Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.

Topic: Delivery of Public Services with Social Responsibility

Debicki Marek Debicki, University of Manitoba, Canada