Governing Board

Per Unckel served as Chair of the Governing Board since its establishment in 2008 and until his sudden death on September 20, 2011.

During 18 years (1976-1986, 1994-2002) Per Unckel was one of the most vivid members of the Riksdag (Parliament) of Sweden. In 1991-1994 he served as Minister of Education of Sweden, in 2003-2006 — Secretary-General at the Nordic Council of Ministers. After his retirement from the Swedish politics in 2007, Per Unckel was appointed as Governor of the Stockholm region.

He combined this office with his long-standing efforts to consolidate the donors’ support to EHU since the re-establishment in Vilnius.

Prof. Dan E. Davidson is an American expert in higher education and linguistics who served the Governing Board of EHU since its establishment and held Acting Chair’s office in 2012.

In 1976, Prof. Davidson co-founded the American Council of Teachers of Russian, which later has become the American Councils for International Education, one of the US leading non-profit networks promoting international education and social inclusion in more than 90 countries.  Prof. Davidson is also Professor Emeritus of Russian and second language acquisition at Bryn Mawr College (PA, USA).

In 2015, Prof. Davidson was named to the Commission on Languages, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is an elected foreign member of the Russian Academy of Education, the Ukrainian Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, vice president of the International Association of Teachers of Russian (MAPRIAL), and past chair of the College Board World Languages Advisory Committee, the Joint National Committee for Languages, and the Alliance for International Education Exchange.

Since 2017, Prof. Davidson serves as the director of American Councils Research Center. He is the author/editor of 24 books and 65 scholarly articles in the fields of language, culture, and educational development, including a major 20-year longitudinal analysis of adult second language acquisition during study abroad.

Prof. Daniel Tarschys joined the Governing Board in 2012 and held the office of the Chairman since 2013 until January 2016.

During the course of his political career in 1978-1979, Prof. Daniel Tarschys serves as State Secretary in the Government of Prime Minister of Sweden Ola Ullsten and has been a member of the Riksdag (Parliament) of Sweden n 1976-1982 and 1985-1994.

In 1994-1999, Prof. Tarschys has served as Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus of Political Sciences at Stockholm University.

Prof. Tarschys has joined EHU Governing Board in 2012 after its former Chair Per Unckel has suddenly passed away. In January 2016, the Government of Sweden has appointed Prof. Tarschys to lead an official inquiry into the governance of migration issues. Due to this appointment, Prof. Tarschys had to step down from the EHU Governing Board membership.

Anne Lonsdale, a long-standing member of the EHU Governing Board since 2008, served as Acting Chair of the Governing Board in 2016.

Anne Lonsdale is a distinguished British sinologist and higher education expert. She has served as the President of the New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), University of Cambridge, in 1996-2008, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1998-2003, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor until 2008.

Previously, Mrs. Lonsdale was Secretary-General of the Central European University and joined the team creating Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, where she was appointed Founding Provost in 2010-2012 and returned to that position in 2015. Mrs. Lonsdale is also a long-standing member of the Council of CARA (Council for At-Risk Academics).

For her service to the advancement of higher education, in 2004 Anne Lonsdale was awarded as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Renowned Danish diplomat Per Carlsen joined EHU Governing Board in 2016 and held its Chairmanship until the end of the Board’s mandate in December 2019.

During his diplomatic career, Mr Per Carlsen held a number of diplomatic postures in Eastern Europe, including as Ambassador to Lithuania (1997-2001), Ambassador to Russia (2005-2010), Ambassador to Latvia (2010-2015). Until 2005, he has also led the Danish Institute for International Studies, one of the world’s top research institutes and think tanks. Prior to these appointments, Mr. Carlsen worked at the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

Mr. Carlsen has also served at a number of leading Nordic foreign policy and development cooperation-aimed institutions, including the Baltic Development Forum and the Danish Foreign Policy Society. Per Carlsen passed away on December 11, 2020.