Katalin Bogyay

State Secretary for International Affairs

Katalin Bogyay, MA, FRSA is the newly designated State Secretary for International Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Culture, and will be moving to this position from her current role as Director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in London.

The Hungarian Cultural Centre, which she opened in 1999 in the heart of London's Covent Garden, was uniquely and recognisably successful in putting Hungary on the cultural map of the United Kingdom. To mark Hungary's entrance into the EU in 2004, Katalin masterminded Magyar Magic, a 17 month long festival celebrating Hungarian talent throughout Britain under the dual patronage of Her Majesty the Queen and the President of Hungary. In this period she gave a platform to over two thousand Hungarian and British artists in a cross cultural bridge-building exercise, and organized more than five hundred events with more than 300 British partner organizations. The audience for these in Britain alone topped one million!

Katalin graduated in Economics in Budapest, and holds a postgraduate diploma in Journalism. She subsequently received an MA in Communications from London's Westminster University. After ten years in Hungarian National Television, presenting producing and hosting her own shows, she went on to become an international broadcaster and documentary film-maker. She worked throughout the 1990s as an independent producer based in London, notably for European Business News TV, BBC Radio, Global Vision Network, MTV and Danube TV. In 1999 she led the UNESCO Communication Campaign for the World Conference on Science.

In 2005 she was awarded the Knight's Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary for her services to cultural diplomacy and for introducing Hungarian culture to Britain.

In the course of her multifaceted activities she has become convinced that her bridge-building philosophy and approach can be extended to other key countries as well as to the fields of science and education, which today are becoming increasingly interlinked with culture.

In Britain she was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and to membership of the prestigious "Athenaeum". Her educational interests currently include the Liszt Academy Network, which she co-founded and launched at Kensington Palace with the support of Prince Charles.

In addition to her native Hungarian she speaks English and German. She has also written and published three books one of which covers some of the world figures she has interviewed.

For further information: http://www.okm.gov.hu/main.php?folderID=137