Istvan Teplan

István Teplán (Hungarian: Teplán István; born 1958 son of István Teplán Sr biochemist) is a Hungarian economic historian, sociologist, educator. Internationally known as one of the creators of the first international Western-style graduate school in the post-communist Central Europe. The idea of a tri-city (Prague-Budapest-Warsaw) international graduate school was supported by former Czech President Václav Havel, former Hungarian President Árpád Göncz and former Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek.

Teplan was educated in Hungary and the USA, where he studied with Immanuel Wallerstein at Binghamton University. With George Soros he was one of the founders of Central European University (CEU) a graduate school to train the next generation of leaders and to facilitate the democratic transition in East and Central Europe. He participated in the first meeting of CEU in Dubrovnik in 1989. As an Executive Vice President he served CEU between 1992 and 2007. Under his leadership CEU had developed into an internationally recognized institution of higher learning. As an educator he served on the Administrative Board of the International Association of Universities (UNESCO) between 2000 and 2008 and chaired the Council of the Inter-University Center (IUC) in Dubrovnik between 1998 and 2007.

He served as the Director General of the Government Center for Public Administration in Hungary which trains public servants for the Hungarian public sector and the European Union.

He was a board member of the European Institute of Public Administration, and member of the Scientific Committee of the European Senior Civil Servant project, to train the next generation of public sector leaders for the European Union.

Teplan is the chief advisor of the State Minister for Environment of Hungary. During the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union (January 1 to June 30, 2011) he was the Chair of the EU Council Working Party on International Environmental Issues dealing with Global and Horizontal affairs. He also played a key role in Hungary’s preparation for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD-2012). Founding Director General of the Hungarian National Institute for Environment. Appointed Ministerial Envoy for the Budapest Water Summit, to be held in October 2013 in Budapest under the aegis of the UN. He is a member of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen.

He is a Board member of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe since 2009.

Teplan is a contributor of several articles and papers to international conferences and journals. As a scholar he contributed to the book, Budapest and New York, Studies in Metropolitan Transformation 1870-1930

Teplan is a recipient of the Officers Cross of Merit of the Hungarian Republic.