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FOS Leadership

At the annual Friends of Slovakia (FOS) Board of Directors meeting on February 12, 2008 "Fraternalist of the Year" Joe Senko was elected chairman and treasurer of FOS, succeeding Jan Erik Surotchak who had served as chairman from its inception in 2001. Bill Tucker was elected FOS president in addition to his duties as vice chairman.

In the past seven years FOS has grown into a financially viable organization that yearly sponsors two or more outstanding Slovak students at a Georgetown University/Fund for American Studies summer studies and internship program. FOS also sponsors receptions and other events giving FOS members and related U.S. industry executives interested in investing in Slovakia an opportunity to meet with visiting senior Slovak government officials.With support from U.S. Steel, FOS has published an authoritative booklet about investing in Slovakia. It also publishes a newsletter three times a year which is mailed to approximately 1,200 people in the U.S. and Slovakia. FOS and the American Friends of the Czech Republic sponsor an annual Czech and Slovak Freedom Lecture at the WoodrowWilson Center to honor the values of the Velvet Revolution. FOS has also sponsored numerous seminars on USSlovak and US-Central European relations, including the visa waiver issue, in cooperation with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

FOS has organized and sponsored three black-tie gala fundraising dinners in Bratislava and created three awards that are presented at these dinners. The awards are for achievements in Politics/Diplomacy, Business/Economy and Culture/Sports. Keynote speakers at the gala dinners have included former U.S. Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright, former NATO Secretary General George Robertson, Chairman and CEO of U.S. Steel John Surma, and Kenneth Walsh, ChiefWhite House Correspondent for U.S. News &World Report. The FOS Wall of Honor with handsome bronze plaques honoring FOS supporters of the gala and other contributors to our varied friendship programs stands in the garden of the Slovak Embassy.

The FOS Board of Directors thanks the outgoing chairman, Jan Surotchak, for his contributions to FOS and wishes him well in his important work with the International Republican Institute.