The NISPAcee Steering Committee
President:

E-mail: hintea@fspac.ro

Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Phone: +36-1-282 5115
E-mail: gyorgy.hajnal@uni-corvinus.hu
Gyorgy Hajnal is a Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Management, Corvinus University of Budapest and Senior Researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Political Science. Prior to his current positions he worked as a Senior Researcher/ Head of Department for 15 years at the Hungarian Institute of Public Administration and its successor organisation. Besides his full-time academic positions he has been and continues to be extensively involved in international research cooperation projects in topics relating to comparative public management reforms. He has also served as a consultant to various international academic, governmental and business organisations.

Phone: +420 549 49 1710 Fax: +420 549 49 1720
E-mail: juraj.nemec@umb.sk
He is one of top CEE and SEE academic and research persons (according to unofficial scientometric ranking between top 10). During his academic and professional carrier he gained a lot of experience with the political and administrative situation in these regions, European integration process and EU enlargement. In 2010 he received important reward for his performance – NISPAcee Alena Brunovska Award. He is Vice-President of the International Research Society for Public Management, Vice-President of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), project director of the IASIA permanent working group and served for many years as a member of the Accreditation Committee of the European Association of Public Administration Accreditation till 2015.

E-mail: polona.kovac@fu.uni-lj.si
Polonca Kovač is an Associate Professor of administrative law, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana in 1995, completed a specialist 18-month international programme on the reforms of public administration, MSc studies on New Public Management in 1999 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and her doctoral studies on delegation of public authorities in 2005 at the Faculty of Law, Ljubljana. She has over 20 years of working experiences in public administration and in higher education, including guest lectures in foreign universities and serving as an OECD, WB, SIGMA and ReSPA expert regarding Europenisation of public administration and modernisation of administrative (procedural) law. She is a (co)author and editor and reviewer of numerous scientific monographs, articles and conference papers, including monographs Contemporary Governance Models and Practices in Central and Eastern Europe, Administrative-Legal Dilemmas, Commentary on the Slovene Constitution, Regulatory Impact Assessment, etc. She also acts as a co-director of PSG PA and Law within EGPA.

E-mail: kylli.sarapuu@ttu.ee

Eka Akobia is Dean of the Caucasus School of Governance and a Director of the Institute of Peace Studies (IPS) at Caucasus University. She is also an Associate Professor at Tbilisi State University (TSU). She teaches theories of international relations (MA and PHD), international organizations, EU external relations and UN Peacekeeping Operations courses. She has published a number of academic articles as well as contributed to three edited volumes in the European Union series. She also regularly contributes news analysis to such media platforms as civil.ge and the Clarion.
Eka Akobia obtained her PHD in International Relations from Tbilisi State University. She acquired her MA degree in International Relations from Baylor University, USA and her BA degree in Political Science from Hartwick College, USA. She has participated in several senior level non-degree programmes, such as the Qualitative Research Methods Course (ICQRM) from Syracuse University, USA (2011); the Summer University on "Federalism, Constitutionalism and Conflict Transformation in Multiethnic Societies” University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2005) and the NATO Senior Executive Master Course, Bucharest, Romania (2004).
Besides academia, Eka Akobia has extensive public service experience. She worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from 2005 until 2016 and has a broad experience in Georgia’s foreign policy. She holds a diplomatic rank of Counselor. Amongst other positions, she has worked as the Deputy Director of the Department of the Americas (2009-2010), the Deputy Director of the Political Department (2010-2012) and as the Director of the Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Department (2012-2016).

Prof. Alexey G. Barabashev teaches courses at the Research University - Higher School of Economics - on the civil service, including civil service reforms in Russia. His research interests are concentrated in the area of the theory of bureaucracy and applications of the theory towards Russian practical needs and methodology of reflexive systems. From 2004 until the present he has served as President (from 2011) and Dean (2004-2011) of the School of Public Administration and Managementand as the Chair of the Department of Civil and Municipal Service at Higher School of Economics. From 1997 to 2014 he served as a member of the advisors’ expert group forpublic service reformunder the Administration of the President of Russia. He is a member of several attestation commissions and expert councils for federal governmental bodies. He was a Woodrow Wilson (Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies) scholarin 1992 and 2013,President of the Kennan Russian Alumni Association (1992-1996), and President-elect of the Alumni Association for Russia-US Academic Exchange Programmes(1996-2000). From 2015 till the present he has served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies.