Dr. Jozef Bednar

(President)

Experienced project manager with a history in international projects and regional governance.

In 2008 I helped to found Machaon International in order to help protected areas, in particular national parks and nature reserves. In the organization, I am engaged in a range of fundraising, management and expert roles. I am the language hub of the organization being proficient in English, Spanish, Russian, German, Polish, Slovak, Czech and I have a working knowledge of Dutch.

In the period 2019-2023, I was active in the public sector. Initially as a deputy mayor of Gánovce (through elections in 2018) and then in 2020 I was appointed by the Slovak government the governor of the Poprad district to take over the crisis management dealing with such unprecedented challenges as the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic or influx of Ukrainian war refugees in the district. In both positions, I was dealing with local governance issues. I was also involved in community-level participatory processes and multi-stakeholder dialogue linked to land use planning and in addressing environmental challenges in the district such as looming climate change and unbridled sub-urbanization affecting the Tatra Mountains area compromising its UNESCO biosphere reserve status.

I have over twelve years of experience in designing and implementing public and private sector projects focused on ecological management, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. For six years I acted as the project manager of the largest ecosystem restoration and climate mitigation project in Russia (and one of the largest in the world) under the International Climate Initiative on behalf of the German government (BMU) and funded through KfW Development bank. Under my guidance, the project, which restored over 100,000 ha of formerly drained peatlands in European Russia using ecologically sound methods, received UN Global Climate Action Award (Momentum for Change) in 2017 for helping the planet and for sharing state-of-the-art replicable expertise and outstanding achievements in peatland restoration.

I have educational background in environmental sciences (MSc degree) with specialization in environmental planning and management, and in economics and management (MA degree). I obtained my PhD (DPhil) at the University of Oxford in environmental geography.

In addition, I capitalize on my relevant experience working in the private sector (personal assistant to the CEO in Volkswagen Slovakia, a junior auditor at Ernst & Young, a project manager at a private farm in Slovakia). I am a keen traveller and nature photographer.

CURRICULUM VITAE of Jozef Bednar 

Jozef in action