Anton Bendarjevskiy /Curriculum Vitae/
1. Personal Details
Name: Anton Bendarzsevszkij (Bendarjevskiy)
Birth date: 07.01.1985., Minsk
Nationality: Hungarian (EU)
Tel.: +3630-389-8804
E-mail: anton.bendarjevskiy [AT] gmail.com
Family: Married, father of five children
2. Education
Time: 2015 – (pending)
Education: PhD in Geopolitics
University: University of Pécs, Faculty of Sciences, Doctoral School of Geography, Geopolitics, Geoeconomics and political geography from Central-European perspective
Time: 2010 – (not finished, put on hold in 2011)
Education: PhD in Historical Sciences (PhD)
University: University of Pecs, Faculty of Humanities, Hungary, Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of Science, History
Time: 2004 – 2010
Education: Master of Arts in Communication Science (average degree: 4.25 – good)
University: University of Pecs, Faculty of Humanities, Hungary
Time: 2004 – 2010
Education: Master of Arts in Teaching History (average degree: 4,92 – excellent)
University: University of Pecs, Faculty of Humanities, Hungary
Time: 2009
Education: Faculty of Political Science (one semester scholarship)
University: University of Leicester, UK
Time: 2000-2004
Education: High School
Avg. School: Gymnasium Klára Leőwey, Pecs, Hungary
3. Work experience
Time: 2020 October –
Employer: Oeconomus Economic Research Foundation
Position: Director
Job details: I am leading the Oeconomus Economic Research Foundation as the director of the Foundation. The Oeconomus Economic Research Foundation is a Hungarian economic research and analysis institute. Our goal is to research and analyse domestic and international economic and financial trends, especially the economic policy models of recovery from the global financial shocks; to use and present the data and our analysis in an understandable way in order to develop and support Hungarian competitiveness and the knowledge-based economy; to analyse the current geopolitical events, with the goal of explaining the potential consequences and economic challenges for Hungarian and regional economies; to examine the different schools of economic policy in connection with crisis management and catching up, particularly regarding the presentation of the Hungarian models of economic policy; to collect and analyse the foreign examples of successful economic policy measures given to social challenges, in order to promote sustainable domestic economic development. Understanding complex issues with the relevant theoretical background with the help of highly professional experts seem to be one of the most valuable assets in our rapidly changing world economy.
Time: 2021 June – August 2022
Employer: Danube Institute
Position: Director of Research
Job details: Danube Institute, a Hungarian think tank established in 2013 aims to focus on the perspective of Central Europe and V4 countries in their interpretation of foreign affairs, economics and national security policy. I was appointed as head of geopolitics research group from November 2020, and became the Director of Research of the institute from June 2021, leading the research work of Danube Institute and its nearly dozen researchers.
Time: 2020 November – August 2022
Employer: Danube Institute
Position: Head of Geopolitics research group
Job details: Danube Institute, a Hungarian think tank established in 2013 aims to focus on the perspective of Central Europe and V4 countries in their interpretation of foreign affairs, economics and national security policy. I am heading the geopolitical research group of the Danube Institute, leading a team of four researchers.
Time: 2020 February – 2021 July
Employer: Magyar Nemzet
Position: Journalist, foreign desk
Job details: I was working at the foreign desk of Magyar Nemzet – one of the biggest daily newspaper in Hungary. My articles were published both in print and online. The main focus area of my materials were the post-soviet region.
Time: 2016 June – 2019 April
Employer: Pallas Athene Innovation and Geopolitical Foundation
Position: Director
Job details: I was the director of Pallas Athene Innovation and Geopolitical Foundation, created by the Central Bank of Hungary. As part of this, I led the Foundation’s work organization (including selection and management of a team of nearly 30 people), coordinating the Foundation’s research, education and support activities in line with the Foundation’s objectives and the Board’s decisions. My task was also the creation of the yearly budget of the Foundation, which had a capital of 70 billion HUF (around 220 million EUR), as well as the budget discipline. Research tasks included the management of a research institute of 12 researchers, the definition of research directions, the regular publication of research materials, the coordination of major professional projects and the establishment of an international research network. Educational tasks included the coordination of the Foundation’s two doctoral schools (together with the University of Pécs and the University of Corvinus), where more than 150 students completed their doctoral studies. In addition to this, I supported the Foundation’s fame and reputation with my foreign policy expertise as well as with international conference attendance and publications.
Time: 2015 March – 2016 June
Employer: Pallas Athene Geopolitical Foundation
Position: Head of Institute, Pallas Athene Geopolitical Institute
Job details: Pallas Athéné Geopolitical Foundation was created in 2014 by the Central Bank of Hungary, with a main objective of encouraging the creation of geopolitical knowledge, which helped promoting the economic development in Hungary and in the Central-Eastern European region. The main goal of the geopolitical Research Institute was to become one of the most influential geopolitical think tanks in the region. The Institute started with ten young researchers who were covering different regions. Researchers mainly supported the work of the PAGEO Foundation and the Central Bank of Hungary, while also working on their own geopolitical fields of research. I was leading and coordinating the work of the researchers and the analitical direction of the Institute, while focusing on my own research mainly on Russia and the post-soviet countries.
Time: 2009 October – 2016 June
Employer: Kitekinto.hu
Position: Editor, journalist, columnist
Job details: I was the editor-columnist of the Kitekinto.hu, Hungary’s largest foreign policy online portal, author of more than 500 articles – analytics and publications. I was the editor of the the post-Soviet countries column at Kitekintő from the end of 2009, writing mainly about Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and their relations with EU, Hungary or NATO. Many of my publications of international relations, investigation journalism and historical researches were also published in print. Starting from 2010 I became the invited expert on foreign politics, appearing regularly at Hungarian television and radio.
Time: 2014 February – 2015 March
Employer: Agoda (Priceline Group)
Position: Market Manager, Business Development team
Job details: Agoda is major hotel booking engine in Asia, which has a network of over 400.000 hotels worldwide, belonging in the top 5 online travel agencies in the world. Agoda is the sister company of Booking.com, and both of the companies are part of Priceline Group, which is the biggest travel company in the world. At Agoda I was working as market manager for Russia, building and maintaining relationships with the hotels in my area, analyzing traffic data and finding the best solutions to boost bookings and revenue.
Time: 2011 September – 2014 January
Employer: IBM Hungary
Position: Bid Manager / TSM Project Officer / Internal Communication Focal / Team Supervisor
Job details: Since my start at IBM in 2011 I was involved into several projects in the company including scope extensions, dragon testing, SaaS related tasks, TSM project office, new system testing like PQO and PGS, STG Labs and etc. All these besides my other tasks as Bid Manager for CEEMEA team. I was also strongly involved in social life of the Budapest STS Center, making PR videos and photos for the center on regular basis, organizing events and other programs. From May 2013 I have also became the Communication Focal for the Center, responsible for the internal communication, writing articles, blog posts and organizing the company’s monthly newsletter. I have also prepared a company video for IBM’s new transformation project, the Blue Harmony. Since the end of 2012 I was also acting as team supervisor for the team of 11 people, managing the administrational tasks together with TL and first line manager.
Time: 2011 February – 2012 January
Employer: Chernobyl’s Heritage: the Zone DOCUMENTARY
Position: Director / Script writer / Reporter
Job details: With my colleague and friend Maczelka Márk we have created a documentary film about the Chernobyl’s catastrophe and the life in the Chernobyl’s Zone 25 years after the ’86-s catastrophe. Starting from December 2011 our film was screened in 16 cities’ cinemas around Hungary, and after the cinemas’ screenings, it was introduced on all major Hungarian Televisions: M1, M2, DunaTv and HirTv, and reached over 2,5 million of people, both on television and online. The film can be viewed here in English (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkzm_Vf5AFs).
Time: 2009 April-August
Employer: Selfridges London, Oxford street
Position: Brand-expert, Sales Assistant
Job details: I was a brand expert and a sales assistant of a luxury shopping centre in the heart of London – in Selfridges. I had to deal with customers, communicate with them and sell sun glasses. It was a good chance to improve my language skills and to get experience from the retail. We received comissions from our sells, so I had to be really good. On my first commission month I became the top seller there, and remained top seller until I quitted.
Time: 2006-2008
Employer: Robinson Tours
Position: Program and Accommodation Manager of Sarafovo Holiday Resort, Bulgaria
Job details: I was an appointed manager, leading a holiday resort in Bugaria. It was a joint venture of Hungarian and Bulgarian companies, accommodating groups coming mainly from Russia, Bulgaria and Hungary. I was organizing the everyday life in the resort dealing with all sort of problems 24h a day, organizing transportations, excursions, accommodation, catering and many more. I have also also worked on organisation conferences at Sunny Beach and in Budapest for big corporate clients.
Time: 2006-2007
Employer: MTV television regional studio, Hungary
Position: Reporter
Job details: I made my internship at the regional studio of the Hungarian National Television, MTV, working as a TV reporter. I made materials for TV news, scripted, handled the camera, and took part in film-editing.
4. Personal Skills
Native language(s): Russian, Hungarian
Other languages: English fluent, German basic, Latin basic, Belarussian basic
Driving license: EU licence (“B”)
Personal skills: leadership skills, presentation skills, flexibility, motivation, complex, strategical thinking
Social Skills: communicational skills, multiculturality, reliability, straightness, good humour, intellectual skills
Computer skills:
– Microsoft Office instruments (Word, Excel)
– Presentation instruments, infographics (PREZI, PowerPoint, Keynote, Infogram,Pictochart)
– Picture- and photo editors (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom)
– Video editing software (Adobe Premiere)
– Audio editing software (Audacity)
– Web editing sotfware (WordPress, Dreamweaver)
– basic programming (Dos, HTML)
Technical skills: I can handle quite a big range of digital devices, cameras, video cameras, etc.
Artistic skills: High skills in handling an analog and digital photography (photography is one of my hobbies, high skills in writing and composition.
Other skills / hobby: photography, reading, traveling, squash, strategic boardgames.
Academic interests: Geopolitics and transformation of the post-soviet space in XX-XXI. century. Integrational processes in the post-soviet countries, the future of Eurasian Economic Union. Mass media, media-influencing techniques, transformation of media in the XXI. century. Situation of the foreign policy media. Information warfare.
5. Major projects
• 2008: Archival research in St. Petersburg, Russia. Research topic: the history of the Bolshevik press, the rhetoric of “Pravda” 1910-1920’s, and the rhetoric of “white” Newspapers 1918-1920-ies.
• 2010: Archival research in Minsk, Belarus. Research topic: the democratization of Belarus after the 1986. Massacres in Kurapaty, the formation of the Belarusian opposition groups
• 2011: Creation of the documentary: “Chernobyl Heritage: The Zone”, finding the finance and conducting the complete marketing campaign. The film was seen by nearly 2.5 million people.
• 2011-2012: European Integration Fund project in which we examined the situation of minorities living in Hungary and in articles and video series.
• 2016-2019: I was the managing editor of Hungarian Geopolitics (HUG) magazine. The quarterly magazine was published in print in English and Hungarian and was designed to promote geopolitics. By April 2019, there were 12 issues published.
• 2016-2019: Creation of www.geopolitika.hu website, managing content and developing a readership base
• 2017-2019: Teaching at Corvinus University (Geostrategy)
• 2017-2018: Organizing and conducting four major international conferences in geopolitics
• 2017-2019: Geopolitical Opinion Survey project: mapping foreign policy knowledge of Hungarian population based on a representative sample of one thousand people
• 2018-2019: One Belt One Road research project. As part of the project, we began a comprehensive research on how China’s initiative works and what opportunities China has created for Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe. We started the project by researching the Eurasian central corridor. During the field research phase of the project, we visited railway companies, logistics centers, free trade zones and trading companies in China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland, from which a comprehensive research material were created.
• 2018-2019: Creating radio program and podcasts in collaboration with TrendFm radio. The broadcasts were listened by around ten thousand people per week.
• 2019- : Teaching at Pázmány Péter Catholic University (International Relations Theory course)
• 2019/2020: Eastern Partnership project together with Res Publica and Visegrad Insight (Poland).
• 2020: Think Visegrad project: “V4 countries and anti-regime revolution in Belarus”, together with OSW (Poland) and SFPA (Slovakia).
6. Publications, conferences, lectures, and media appearance
• 2010- : around two dozen publications in Hungarian and international scientific journals and online magazines.
• 2012- : presentations and participation in Hungarian academic conferences and professional forums
• 2012- : presentations and participation in international academic conferences in more than twenty countries around the world
• 2015- : regular invited lecturer at summer universities and colleges
• 2009-2016: more than 500 foreign policy articles and analyzes published on Kitekinto.hu
• 2009- : foreign policy expert in the main Hungarian media outlets (television: M1, HírTv, Rtl Club, TV2; Radio: Kossuth Rádió, TrendFm, InfoRádió).
For detailed major publications please see the publications section.