Board of (vice) rectors
CENTRAL is governed by a Board of (vice) rectors, one of each partner university.
This steering group oversee the mission and general strategy of the network.
They also give impetus content-wise, by jointly defining CENTRAL Agenda that sets the scene for multifaceted research and outreach activities within the partner institutions.
Team of five coordinators
This team ensures smooth running processes and collaboration within the CENTRAL network.
Regular meetings of this managing group facilitate the exchange of ideas, balancing of wishes and needs, and the careful planning of upcoming activities.
CENTRAL Executive Committee
A team of five coordinators together with the Heads of the International Offices, they form the CENTRAL Executive Committee.
General network’s coordination is a rotating role that passes on after four years.
After a very successful period 2021 - 2024 at the University of Vienna, Charles University has taken over the presidency in January 2025 for next four years.
Dr. Emil Brix, born 1956 in Vienna, diplomat and historian, is the Director of the Diplomatische Akademie Wien – Vienna School of International Studies since 2017. After joining the Austrian diplomatic service in 1982, Mr Brix worked as political secretary for the parliamentary group of the Austrian People’s Party. In 1986, he was appointed Head of Cabinet at the Ministry of Science and Research. From 1990 until 1995, he served as Austrian Consul General in Cracow, Poland. Subsequently, he was Director of the Austrian Cultural Institute in London, a position he held for four years. In 2002, Mr Brix was appointed Director-General of Foreign Cultural Policy at the Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria. After serving five years as the Austrian Ambassador to the UK from 2010-15, he became Austrian Ambassador to the Russian Federation in 2015. He is deputy chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe and member of the governing board of the Austrian Research Association. He holds a PhD from the University of Vienna and was awarded Dr. hc. by the University of Drohobytsch, Ukraine and by the University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He is an alumnus of the Diplomatische Akademie Wien and published numerous books and articles on Austrian and European history of the 19th and 20th century.
Dr. Heinrich Kreft M.A., B.A. (USA), holds the Chair for Diplomacy at Andrássy University Budapest and is the Director of its International Relations and European Studies program. He is also the Director of its Center for Diplomacy. Previously, he was Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (July 2016 - August 2020), Special Ambassador for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue and for International Academic Relations, and Deputy Head of the Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Foreign Office. Other assignments in his 38-year diplomatic career have taken him to Washington, Tokyo, Madrid and La Paz.
In between, he was a visiting fellow at the Henry L Stimson Center, the Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institutions, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC. He studied political science, modern history and sociology at Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (USA), the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris and the Institut des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine of the Sorbonne Nouvelle as well as at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität in Münster and has published widely on Europe, transatlantic relations, China and the Middle East.
