File:Bohdan Hawrylyshyn at the conference 'Has the transformation begun?'.JPG" by Valeria Herasimenko is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ukraine needs to be transformed, not reformed.
Bohdan Hawrylyshyn
Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was a Ukrainian, Canadian, and Swiss scholar in economics and political science, as well as a Ukrainian public figure.
He was born on October 19, 1926, in the town of Koropets in what is now the Monastyryska district of the Ternopil region.
During World War II, he was taken to Germany as an ‘Ostarbeiter.’ He spent two years in the DP camps and immigrated to Canada in 1947. Initially working as a lumberjack, he later obtained a higher education in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto. Local press reported that he was the first lumberjack to enter the university.
He pursued an education in economics at the University of Geneva, earning a Ph.D. in Economics in 1976. He subsequently worked at the International Institute for Management Development in Geneva, one of the world’s top business schools, and became its director in 1968, holding the position for 18 years.
Hawrylyshyn had a brilliant career as an economist, educator, advisor, and public figure. He was one of the co-founders of the Davos Forum and a full member of the Club of Rome. He advised numerous world leaders and contributed to the development of various economic reforms that significantly influenced several countries worldwide. Furthermore, he consulted entities such as General Electric, IBM, Unilever, and Philips, teaching and advising governments and corporations in over 70 countries.
He considered himself a “citizen of the world,” feeling at home in Canada, Switzerland, and Ukraine but always identifying himself as Ukrainian.
From the late 1980s until his final days, Hawrylyshyn spent most of his time in Ukraine, involved in various initiatives aimed at educating Ukrainian politicians and society on economics. He served as an advisor to Ukrainian presidents and prime ministers.
Towards the end of his life, he mainly focused on the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Foundation, which designed and implemented programs for Ukrainian youth. The foundation’s motto was to break down barriers, integrate successful European and global experiences, unite thought leaders, foster systemic thinking, change Ukraine’s image globally, and create an ecosystem to accelerate change.
Hawrylyshyn`s family continued his legacy by founding the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation in 2017. The foundation’s founders include Hawrylyshyn wife Leonida and his children: Christine, Patricia, and Leslie.
He passed away on October 24, 2016, in Kyiv, and was buried in Koropets.
