Colleagues of the Director of Programmes

Gergely Prőhle, former Ambassador, Director of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation and Programme Director of the John Lukacs Institute for Strategy and Politics at the Ludovika University of Public Service. He completed his secondary education in Budapest, and pursued university studies in Budapest, Jena, and Hamburg in German Studies, Hungaristics and International Relations. He received a degree in 1989 at the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). During his career, he worked for the ELTE Lectorate of Foreign Languages, led the Hungarian Office of Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, and in 1998 he became State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry for Culture. From 2000 to 2005 he was Hungary’s Ambassador to Berlin and later to Bern. Subsequently, he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various positions, which he interrupted for four years: he worked for an international consultancy firm in the business sector. He was responsible for EU Bilateral Relations as Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Human Capacities, but he was also involved in the Central European Initiative and V4 cooperation projects. Prior to his current position he was the Director-General of Petőfi Literary Museum in Budapest. From 2006 he has been Lay President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, recipient of distinguished Hungarian, German, Italian and Polish state honours. He regularly publishes in journals and periodicals. He is a father of four children.

Laura Somorjai is responsible for organising events and managing the operative work at the John Lukacs Institute. She earned her degree at University of Public Service, Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies in 2017 and then she continued her master studies at international public service relations. She examined the French legislative system and the EU enlargement policy in her thesis. Laura works at University of Public Service since 2017. She speaks in English and French. Beside her work she is a sport enthusiastic, she is doing aerial acrobatics and horseriding for several years.

Sára Kántor is responsible for organising events and managing the operative work at the John Lukacs Institute. She graduated at Eötvös Loránd University’s International Studies in 2017, then completed a master's degree at Ludovika University of Public Service, Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies, as a master of public administration science in 2023. In 2025, she also graduated in Pázmány Péter Chatolic University, Faculty of Law. Her primary field of interest is media law, especially the issues of the freedom of speech on the social-media platforms. In her free time, she enjoys sports, gardening and classical literature.