Skip to main content
Cowhey Center on Global Transformation CCGT

Sviatoslav Vakarchuk

Co-founder, Center for Economic Strategy; Lead Vocalist for Okean Elzy

Residency: Feb. 20-22, 2018

Public talk:
"Visions of Ukraine With Slava Vakarchuk"
Feb. 20, 2018
Pacific Leadership Fellow Sviatoslav (Slava) Vakarchuk is a Ukrainian civic activist, musician and the lead vocalist and founder of the band Okean Elzy. He spoke candidly on the domestic and geopolitical challenges facing Ukraine.

Biography

Sviatoslav "Slava" Vakarchukis is a Ukrainian civic activist, musician and the lead vocalist and founder of the band Okean Elzy. He is a co-founder of Center for Economic Strategy (CES), an independent policy think tank aimed at supporting reforms in Ukraine in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, and founder of a charity fund called “Lyudi Maybutnyogo” (People of the Future). 

Vakarchuk was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in 2007-08 and a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information. In 2003, he became an Honorary Ambassador of Culture in Ukraine and in 2005, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program. Vakarchuk is also known for his social and cultural projects. Together with the members of the band he actively supported the preventive campaign by International Organization for Migration and MTV Europe’s “People Are Not For Sale.”

He holds a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

During his residency, Vakarchuk focused on domestic and geopolitical challenges facing Ukraine.