Speakers
Mark Brzezinski
former United States Ambassador to Poland, Member of the UNIMOT Strategic Advisory Board
Ambassador (ret.) Mark Brzezinski has a distinguished career in public service and the private sector. He currently is President and CEO of Brzezinski Global Strategies, a boutique strategic consulting firm.
Mark served as U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 2021-2024. This was a period when Poland hosted over 13,000 U.S. troops, and President Biden announced the first permanent U.S. military installation in Poland. Mark spearheaded the selection of American-firms Westinghouse and Bechtel to build Poland’s very first civil nuclear power plant, a $30 billion deal. During his time as U.S. Ambassador to Poland, the Polish government transitioned from a semi-authoritarian system to a democratic form of governance. During the Obama Administration, Mark served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden between 2011-2015. This was a period in which the U.S.
Embassy in Stockholm was recognized for spearheading innovative new approaches to advance U.S.-European trade and landing key Swedish investments, including Volvo's decision to invest $1 billion to build a factory in South Carolina, the first time ever Volvo will have an auto assembly plant in the U.S. During his tenure as Ambassador, U.S. commercial diplomacy efforts in the Nordic region were consolidated in the U.S. Embassy in Sweden. Mark arranged the first-ever U.S. Presidential visit to Stockholm in 2013, which brought together all five heads of governments of the Nordic countries for a summit that galvanized a U.S.-Nordic strategic approach on energy, innovation and sustainability. For his service, Mark was awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the King of Sweden, a high honor rarely bestowed on a foreign ambassador. In 2015, Mark was asked by the White House to lead a strategic effort on the Arctic.
As the first Executive Director of the White House's Arctic Executive Steering Committee, Mark spearheaded President Obama's historic engagement in the Arctic and was the driving force behind the White House's hosting of the first-ever Arctic Science Ministerial. His leadership resulted in new markers being set for commercial development in the fragile Arctic region. From 1999 to 2001, Mark served on President Clinton's National Security Council staff, first as a Director for Russia and Eurasia, and then as a Director for the Balkans.
In the private sector, Mark was a Managing Director of Makena Capital Management where he spearheaded the firm’s sustainability efforts and assisted in responding to the growing demand for environmentally and socially responsible investment portfolios. Before joining the Obama Administration, Mark was a partner in Washington, D.C. at McGuireWoods LLP, where he helped build the law firm's international compliance practice.
Mark received his BA from Dartmouth College, his JD from the University of Virginia (where he was a member of the Law Review), and a Doctorate in Political Science from Oxford University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he has served on the board of advisors of CFR's Corporate Program. Mark was a Fulbright Scholar in Poland in 1991-93, and in 2010 President Obama named him to the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board which oversees the Fulbright and other U.S. government exchange programs. In January 2018, Mark served as a University of Virginia adjunct professor, co-teaching the “World of Investing” course at the McIntire School of Commerce.
Mark has published articles in the Financial Times, NYT, Washington Post, WSJ Europe, Int'l Herald Tribune, POLITICO, Huffington Post, and has been interviewed on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, BBC and others.
