H.E. Prof. Dr. Iveta Radičová

H.E. Prof. Dr. Iveta Radičová

H.E. Prof. Dr. Iveta Radičová is a distinguished public figure who made history as the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Slovakia. She held the office of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic from 2010 to 2012, concomitantly also holding the post of Minister of Defence.

Her political career includes serving as the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Slovak Republic (2005–2006), Deputy Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs and Housing in the Slovak National Parliament (2006–2009), and Vice-Chairwoman of the Slovak Christian Democratic Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ-DS), where she was responsible for social affairs and healthcare (2006 onwards). She has also served as an expert on social policy for the European Commission. 

Throughout her career, H.E. Iveta Radičová has devoted herself to social and family policies. She has taught as a visiting professor at universities in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2013, she was a Fellow at Oxford University for the “Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe” project.

In 1992, she founded the non-profit Social Policy Analysis Center, leading it until her appointment in 2005 as Director of the Slovak Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Sociology. She has advised various government bodies on social and family policies and contributed to the approximation of European legislation in employment and social affairs ahead of Slovakia’s EU accession.

She has conducted poverty studies for the World Bank and published and edited numerous books and studies mapping the transformation of social systems in Slovakia and other post-socialist countries.

She also serves as the European Coordinator for the TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor and is a member of the World Council for Women Leaders. 

In addition to her role as European Coordinator, she has been the Dean of the Faculty at the Pan-European University in Bratislava since 2017 and serves as European Coordinator at the European Commission. 

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Ms. Radičová holds a PhD in Sociology and the title of Professor from Comenius University in Bratislava. She deeply believes in the power of politics as a force of change toward enabling concrete solutions that can improve everyday life for different social groups. In her career, she has been the coauthor of several such legislations that have improved the lives of many, especially the marginalised.