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New Board Members
Frederick N. Frank, Esquire serves as a Director of the Czech-Slovak American Enterprise Fund (CSAEF), having been nominated to the post by President Clinton in 1998.
He has traveled extensively throughout Slovakia inspecting the sites of the Fund's various investments. In addition to his travel for Board meetings, Mr. Frank works virtually daily as a director reviewing potential investments and monitoring the Fund's portfolio.
Mr. Frank has been recognized for his service as a Director of the Fund when President Bush awarded him the 2006 Call to Service Award. Mr. Frank also is the recipient of the Slovak Ambassador's Medal of Honor, the Medal of Honor of the Friends of Slovakia, a certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the U. S. Congress; and the Business Award of the Western Pennsylvania Slovak Cultural Association. Professionally, Mr. Frank, who is a founding partner of the Pittsburgh law firm, Frank, Bails, Murcko, Gubinsky and Gale, P.C., has had a distinguished legal career. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for 12 years. He also has been named by Philadelphia Magazine one of Pennsylvania's Super Lawyers, the top 5% of PA attorneys, for every year since the award began. In 2006 Philadelphia Magazine named him one of Pittsburgh's top 50 lawyers.
Scott Thayer is an independent consultant on international affairs and government relations. During 2008, he was deputy head of the Mitrovica office of the International Civilian Office, a joint U.S.-EU mission supporting the independence of Kosovo.
Mr. Thayer was a career Foreign Service Officer for over twenty-seven years. He was Chargé d'Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia from August 2002 to August 2005. Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan awarded him the Ministry's Gold Medal in recognition of his personal contribution to U.S.-Slovak relations.
Mr. Thayer concluded his State Department career as Director of the Department's Liaison Office on Capitol Hill, prior to which he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. His other assignments abroad included the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Vienna, Austria and postings to the U.S. Embassies in Madrid, Spain and Tegucigalpa, Honduras and the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara, Mexico. His assignments in Washington included Director of Policy and Resource Planning in the Bureau of European Affairs and Senior Adviser in the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Program. He also served in the US Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Mr. Thayer holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego, an M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and an LL.M. in European Community Law from the University of Edinburgh. He is bilingual in Spanish and conversant in Slovak.
He says that his primary hobby is acting as assistant gardener to his wife, Nena, a painter, at their Maryland home. He also says he's still struggling to become a good golfer and tennis player. The Thayers have a daughter in grad school at the University of Chicago and a son working in the film industry.
Roger Kodat, a native of Chicago, Roger Kodat has enjoyed an 18 year international banking and finance career focusing on Eastern and Central Europe. During the 1990s, he lived nine years in Prague, serving as JP Morgan Chase's Senior Country Officer for both Czech and Slovakia. During the 1990s, he concluded important funding transactions in both countries, including an international bond financing for the Government of Slovakia and several substantial syndicated loans for Slovak companies.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury responsible for government financial policy from 2001-2007. At present, he leads JP Morgan's team delivering technology-based financial and document management operating solutions to the Federal government in Washington, DC.
Mr. Kodat has been a member of FOS for several years and is active in various US-based Czech and Slovak organizations. He holds an M.A. in Political Science and an M.B.A. in Finance from Indiana University, Bloomington. He speaks Czech and German. His hobbies include fresh water fishing, reading, and swimming. He and his wife, Betsey, are residents of Herndon, VA. One daughter is in high school there; the other studies at the University of South Carolina.