WHEN:

24 February 2017 at 5:30 pm

WHERE:

Umney Theatre, Robinson College, Cambridge Unversity

Admission:

The event is free and open to the public, but online registration is required. Please register here

Please join us for The Fifteenth Annual Stasiuk Lecture in Contemporary Ukrainain Studies.

This annual lecture series explores the internal dynamics and international implications of events in today’s Ukraine and features the foremost experts in the fields of Ukrainian politics, history and society.

Cambridge Ukrainian Studies will welcome Natalie A. Jaresko, Finance Minister of Ukraine (2014-16) who will deliver an open public lecture ‘Ukraine in Transition’.

Twenty-five years since Ukraine regained its independence and the transition to a rule of law democracy and competitive market economy is underway. The last three years have seen more reform than in the previous twenty, yet much remains unfinished if Ukrainians are to enjoy improving real wages, a boost in domestic and foreign investment, and satisfactory health and education services. What remains incomplete? Is the process irreversible and what are the risks, domestic and international, to the rapid completion of this process?

Natalie A. Jaresko has enjoyed a distinguished international career in public service and private industry. As Ukraine’s Finance Minister (2014-16) she served at a particularly critical moment when the post-revolutionary state was rocked by deep recession and war on part of its territory. During her tenure she led the successful negotiation of the largest IMF program in the institution’s history, as well as a complex debt restructuring. Her government’s success in restoring macroeconomic stability enabled the creation of a broad international financial coalition to support Ukraine’s transition. She led the reduction of public spending, cutting the deficit by more than 75% to 2.1% of GDP in 2015. She also advanced tax reform resulting in an almost 50% reduction in payroll tax, eliminated tax privileges which favored vested interests, implemented a transparent e-data system placing all treasury transactions online in real time, as well as initiated corporate governance reform in state-owned banks.

Previously, she spent two decades working as Horizon Capital co-founder and CEO, a fund with over $600 million under management and as Western NIS Enterprise Fund President and CEO, creating a platform for private equity investment in the region. She began her career in public service in the United States, serving in the State Department from 1989-92, then as Economic Section Chief of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine from 1992-95. Currently, she serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Institute Kyiv. She is a Nonresident Distinguished Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Financial and Monetary Systems.

Organised by Cambridge Ukrainian Studies

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