Category: Directors

Dr. Viktor Friedmann currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Communication and Tourism at Budapest Metropolitan University where he earlier served as the Vice-Dean. He has also been the Director of the university’s International Relations BA programme for a decade and has coordinated various activities of international educational cooperation with other universities. Dr. Friedmann holds a PhD in Political Science (International Relations) from Central European University. His research areas are International Relations theory, Chinese foreign policy, great power management, and the impact of digital technologies on international politics. His academic output has been published in volumes by Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, as well as in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. He was a visiting researcher at Shanghai Jiaotong University and at Academia Sinica.

Doc. Ing. Alžbeta Kiráľová, Ph.D. has graduated in tourism economics and began her career in tourism (travel agency, hotel). After graduation, she worked as a lecturer and later as a Head of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at the Matej Bel University in Slovakia. In addition, she habilitated in the field of cross-sectional economics with a focus on marketing tourism destinations. Later she held top management positions in marketing in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in multinational corporations focusing on services. She subsequently continued her career as Vice-Rector for Science, Research, and International Relations (Institute of Hospitality in Prague) and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and External Relations at the University College of Business in Prague. Currently, she holds the position of Vice-Rector for International Affairs at the AMBIS University in Prague. Doc. Kiráľová has given lectures at the University of Economics in Prague, at the University of New York in Prague, at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, and the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. In the United States, she was given lectures as a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, and Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Doc. Kiráľová has completed internships and studies in Bulgaria, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA. She represents AMBIS University in international organizations and networks such as UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization), ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research), where she is the coordinator for Europe, NECSTouR (Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism) where she is a member of the Academic Board, WTN (World Tourism Network), and in the University Network for Cultural Routes Studies by EICR (European Institute of Cultural Routes). Dr. Kiráľová works as an expert for the EASME COSME and Erasmus + EACEA, EAPAA, VEGA (Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences), TAČR (Technology Agency of the Czech Republic), and Silverlight expert. At the same time, she is actively involved in research projects in the Czech Republic and abroad, focusing on tourism destination marketing and management, food tourism, and regional development. She is the author of the books Marketing Hotel Services (Ekopress), Marketing Tourism Destination (Ekopress), Globalization Impact on Tourism Destination Marketing (Ekopress), and editor of the book Driving Tourism through Creative Destinations and Activities (IGI Global). Author and co-author of numerous journal articles, academic papers, and studies. Doc. Kiráľová regularly presents the results of her scientific work at international conferences. She is the author of research papers, monographic series, books, and articles indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. She is a member of international conferences’ scientific and program boards and the editorial boards of journals indexed in WoS

Dr. Cecilia Szigeti is currently the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Head of Department at the Faculty of Economics, Communication, and Tourism at Budapest Metropolitan University. Dr. Cecilia Szigeti has a PhD in Business and Management Sciences, which she obtained in 2005, and she was habilitated in 2013. Her research interests include ecological economics and related fields. The Scopus database contains 32 of her scientific publications, which have received 444 citations, with an H-index of 10.

Ana Paula Mota (born in São Tomé e Príncipe) Portuguese and Santomean nationality, Manager of International Relations at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in Macao S.A.R. – China. Before this position, she served as the Director of Public and International Relations Office at USJ and Officer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Macau and administrative coordinator of the Erasmus+ and Jean Monnet Chair Programme. She has remarkable experience in the International Mobility Programmes. She has also work experience in other industries, e.g. Corporate Diplomatic Entity, International Organisation, Multinational Group and Investment Sector. She holds a degree in European Studies and the curricular part of Master in Intercultural Relations at the Open University of Portugal. She has more than twenty years of work experience in Higher Education Institutions in Macao, S.A.R. (Public and Private Institutions). She is a native speaker of Portuguese, fluent speaker of English, French and Dialects of São Tomé e Príncipe

Álvaro Barbosa (Angola, 1970) is a Full-Professor of Communication and Media and a Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Research at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in Macau S.A.R.-China. Prior to this position, he served for 6 Years as Dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries at USJ and 12 years as head of the Sound and Image Department at the School of Arts from the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP-Porto). In 1995 He was awarded a Graduate Degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering by the University of Aveiro in Portugal, in 2006 he got his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Digital Communication from the University Pompeu Fabra in Spain, and in 2011 he concluded a Post-Doc in Computer Music and Acoustics at Stanford University in the USA.