Богдан Гаврилишин

Activity: State Activity, Economics
Date of Birth: October 19, 1926
Date of Death: October 24, 2016, Kyiv
Navigator: Modernity

Economist, Philanthropist, Visionary, Public Figure

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn. The Ukrainian Who Influenced the World

“I have always introduced myself the same way: Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, a Ukrainian.” A man who advised presidents and prime ministers of dozens of countries, stood at the origins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, belonged to the Club of Rome community, and most importantly—proved by personal example how one can carry their roots across the entire world.
Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was born in the small town of Koropets in the Ternopil region on October 19, 1926—at a time when Western Ukraine was under Polish rule. Family traditions and the Plast (Scouting) movement had a significant impact on the formation of the young boy’s personality.
Sundays in the Hawrylyshyn family were a true ritual. His mother would cook delicious meals, then everyone would sing on the veranda, and she would quote Shevchenko and the Bible. In the evening, his father would tell his friends about the countries he had seen during World War I. Little Bohdan would quietly hide in the kitchen, catching every word. This is how his vision of the big world and his dream of traveling it freely were formed.
In 1937, thanks to his older brother Misko, eleven-year-old Bohdan attended his first Plast camp. By the campfire, he listened to stories about prominent and tragic pages of Ukrainian history, and about the age-old dream of independence. Meeting Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky also had a significant influence on the formation of his personality. Throughout his life, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn belonged to the “Lisovi Chorty” (Forest Devils) fraternity.
In 1944, during World War II, Hawrylyshyn ended up in displaced persons camps in Germany. In 1947, with a tiny suitcase and a big dream, he left for Canada to enter a university and get an education.
Bohdan Hawrylyshyn worked as a lumberjack and learned English using his own formula: 40 new words every day, which he then had to tell others, teaching them in the process. Newspapers would later write: “The first lumberjack to enter a university.” By 1960, he had earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Toronto, and later a PhD in Economics from the University of Geneva.
For 18 years, Hawrylyshyn headed the International Management Institute in Geneva. It was he who founded the European Management Forum, which grew into the World Economic Forum in Davos—a platform where world leaders still discuss challenges in the economy and other fields. His books I Remain a Ukrainian and Towards Effective Societies influenced tens of thousands of people worldwide, and his consultations were sought by governments from Japan to Brazil.
In 1988, after decades abroad, Hawrylyshyn arrived in Ukraine. Together with Ivan Dziuba and Dmytro Pavlychko, he approached philanthropist George Soros with the idea of opening a foundation for the development of Ukraine. Thus, in April 1990, the International Renaissance Foundation was established, with Hawrylyshyn becoming the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
That same year, he founded “MIM-Kyiv”—the International Management Institute—in Kyiv to train a new generation of Ukrainian managers according to global standards. After the restoration of independence, Hawrylyshyn repeatedly served as an advisor to presidents and prime ministers. However, the more he observed the Ukrainian authorities, their lack of openness to learning, and their inability to listen, the more convinced he became that Ukraine’s future lay in the hands of its youth.
In 2010, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn established a charitable foundation, and in 2012, he launched the “Young Generation Will Change Ukraine” program. At that time, there were no alternative programs in our country that offered the opportunity to learn from successful European practices and implement one’s own projects upon returning to Ukraine based on this knowledge. The program, mentored by Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, was completed by Taras Prokopyshyn, co-founder of The Ukrainians Media; Solomiya Bobrovska, Member of Parliament of Ukraine; Vadym Miskyi, Secretary of the Supervisory Board of Public Broadcasting, and others.
In 2011, on the 20th anniversary of the referendum on Ukraine’s independence, the “First of December” Initiative Group was created, with Hawrylyshyn among its members. Together with Liubomyr Huzar, Ivan Dziuba, Myroslav Marynovych, and others, they presented the “Ukrainian Charter of a Free Person” in 2012, outlining the vital guideposts for Ukrainian society.
Shortly before the Revolution of Dignity, Hawrylyshyn emphasized that the world was in a crisis of values, and the system of international relations was not working for the benefit of humanity. It was then that he initiated the creation of the Declaration of Human Responsibility—a document intended to revive the values of freedom, dignity, the rule of law, and social justice.
The events on the Maidan confirmed his foresight: Ukrainians, uniting around a sense of responsibility for one another, demonstrated the power of solidarity to the world. Published in October 2014, the Declaration of Human Responsibility became an attempt to offer universal guidelines for shaping a more democratic society.
On October 24, 2016, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn passed away surrounded by his family in his apartment in Kyiv. His ashes were buried in the cemetery of his native Koropets.
Today, the work of this outstanding Ukrainian is continued by his family—his wife Leonida, daughters Khrystyna and Patricia, and son Leslie. In 2017, they founded the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation, which creates programs for active Ukrainians.
In 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the establishment of Human Responsibility Day at the state level, which is celebrated annually on October 19, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn’s birthday, to honor his memory and spread his legacy.

In Conclusion…
So, What Shall We Name This Country?

On August 24, 1991, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn arrived in Kyiv and went straight from the plane to the Verkhovna Rada. There, he joined a group of seven people who were discussing the name of the new independent state during a recess. Various options were proposed, such as the “Democratic Republic of Ukraine.” Then, a simple suggestion was made (either by Hawrylyshyn or Pavlychko)—to call it simply “Ukraine.” Although the discussion lasted only a few minutes, this decision became fateful.

The First Fax in the President’s Protocol Service

In the early years of Ukraine’s independence, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn gifted the President’s Protocol Service its first facsimile machine. This large fax machine was an important step in establishing the state’s international communications. However, due to technical limitations, the machine often jammed and worked unpredictably. There is a well-known incident when the text of the national anthem was being faxed to Azerbaijan, and it printed dozens of pages with only the line “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy…” (Ukraine has not yet perished…). Even though the machine loved to “play jokes” on its users, it still went down in history as the first presidential fax.

Davos. How Was the Global Dialogue Born?

In 1968, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn became the head of the Center for Education in International Management in Geneva (later renamed the International Management Institute). As the institute was preparing for its 25th anniversary, one of the professors—Klaus Schwab—suggested holding a management symposium for European corporate executives in Davos instead of Geneva. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn supported the idea and contributed to its realization as a mentor and organizer. The event took place in 1971 and brought together about 500 participants. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn officially opened the conference and moderated the educational sessions. The event was so successful that it subsequently transformed into the European Management Forum, and later into the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Authors: The team of the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation