Robert Brinkley will step down in July 2022 from his role as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ukrainian Institute London after six years. He will be succeeded by Ursula Woolley who is currently Secretary to the Board. Igor Hordiyevych will be Vice Chair.
Robert said: “the Ukrainian Institute London has become ever more important as a source of understanding about and engagement with Ukraine in the UK – all the more so this year since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am pleased that it has been possible for us to formalise the status of the Institute and to build on the work that Patriarch Slipyj started here in 1979.”
Ursula said: “I am proud to take on this role for the Ukrainian Institute London and to further support and guide its crucial work in the UK. I am glad to build on my connection with Ukraine and with cultural relations between Ukraine and the UK which now goes back more than thirty years.”
The Ukrainian Institute London is dedicated to broadening and deepening knowledge about Ukraine in Britain. It was founded in 1979 by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who had spent 18 years in the Soviet Gulag. It is a registered UK charity and remains affiliated to the Ukrainian Catholic University, also founded by Patriarch Slipyj. The Director of the Ukrainian Institute London is Dr Olesya Khromeychuk.
Robert Brinkley CMG was British Ambassador to Ukraine (2002-6). He has chaired the BEARR Trust, the steering committee of the Chatham House Ukraine Forum and the advisory board of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London. He is an honorary senator of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, where he was a senator between 2013 and 2019.
Ursula Woolley is Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the Ukrainian Institute London. She is currently conducting doctoral research on recent public history initiatives in Ukraine at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London. She was posted to Kyiv by the British Council in December 1991 following the referendum in Ukraine on the Act of Declaration of Independence. She has since had a career in cultural relations with eastern Europe and in local politics in London.
Igor Hordiyevych is founder and CEO of a fund management company and Treasurer to the Board of Trustees of the Ukrainian Institute London. He grew up in Lviv; received his BA in Finance from the University of Manchester; and has worked in different senior roles in banking and investments. In 2006 he co-founded a Ukraine-focused charity in London, where he served as a trustee until 2015.
