Pavol Demeš serves as the Senior Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Slovakia. Prior to this position, he had been the Director of Bratislava office for Central and Eastern Europe of the same institution since January 2000. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Slovak Academic Information Agency-Service Center for the Third Sector, a leading NGO in the country. He also served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic (1993 - 97), and from 1991 - 92 he was the Slovak Minister of International Relations. An internationally recognized NGO leader, Demeš served as the elected spokesperson of the Gremium of the Third Sector, a volunteer advocacy coalition, and has served on the boards of national and international associations and foundations. In 1999 he was awarded a six-month public policy research fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. Prior to the "Velvet Revolution" in November 1989, Demeš was a bio-medical researcher at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is a graduate of Charles University in Prague (1980). He received the EU-US Democracy and Civil Society Award (in 1998), the USAID Democracy and Governance Award (1999), Royal Dutch decoration Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau (2005), Yugoslav Star of First Class (2005).