Michael Bociurkiw – Keynote Speaker

Global Affairs Analyst. Opinion Writer, Television Commentator and Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council (Washington, DC)

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Specialist Subjects

  • Current affairs
  • Ukraine and Russia
  • Digital media
  • Global politics
  • US relations
  • War crimes
  • Crisis management
  • China Geopolitics
  • Israel and Gaza

Language

  • English

Biography

Michael Bociurkiw writes today from a lifetime of experience of news-gathering in some of the most dangerous and difficult regions of the last quarter of a century – on the frontline of history. He sees his mission as connecting the geopolitical dots – making sense of an ever complex and unpredictable world through opinion making on television and radio, in print and on panel discussions worldwide.

His impactful writing encompasses geopolitics, the humanitarian sector, developments in technology, and global health challenges, including recently, the Coronavirus outbreak. Bociurkiw is also a regular on CNN, CNNi, BBC World Television, Sky News, BBC World Service Radio, National Public Radio, Bloomberg TV and Al Jazeera. Since 2016, he has been a regular contributor to CNN Opinion.

As far back as January 2020, Bociurkiw was one of the first commentators to focus attention on the outbreak of a mysterious virus in China’s Wuhan province – which quickly spread to most of the countries and territories of the world, triggering a global public health emergency and causing massive economic dislocation. He wrote one of the first real time accounts of the outbreak and the response in a book entitled Digital Pandemic – Covid 19: How Tech Went From Bad to Good. Bociurkiw brings insider knowledge to his writing and speaking, having worked on the frontlines of man made and natural emergencies. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that Bociurkiw founded the podcast Global Impact.

Bociurkiw’s professional life can be divided into two pillars: journalism and humanitarian aid/public affairs. Working with UNICEF and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, he worked the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the crash of MH17, the South Asia earthquake in 2005, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 and the Afghanistan emergency in 2002. For UNICEF, Michael served in the capacity of consultant and staff member in several duties stations – including in Geneva as global spokesperson and for more than two years in East Jerusalem.

As a journalist and opinion writer, his work has been published by some of the finest media outlets in the world – including The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Newsweek, MSNBC, Asia Times, the South China Morning Post and The Globe and Mail. In his years as a correspondent, Michael was one of the few journalists to have been granted several interviews with the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. Over the years, he has secured highly-profile interviews with leaders from Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Ukraine, Lithuania and Canada. He has covered many major world events of consequence, including: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the explosion of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt, the World Cup in South Africa, and the anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019/2020.

Since before the start of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, Bociurkiw has been based in Ukraine providing commentary and opinion to global media, becoming one of the most recognizable and authoritative faces of the conflict. He has participated in several talks and panels globally, providing perspective on a conflict which has caused the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

Michael Bociurkiw has spoken and moderated at several high-profile international fora, including at the British House of Commons, the Oxford University Alumni Conference in Vienna, the Frontline Club in London, the Halifax International Security Forum, the World Communications Forum in Geneva and Istanbul, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, the Atlantic Council, and the SXSW Festival.

He is a two-time TEDx speaker (Canada and Poland), shedding light on migration and the impact of technology on the future of work.

Michael Bociurkiw studied television news and mass communication at Carleton University and Columbia University.

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