Katalin Annamária Bogyay (born 20 August 1956) is a Hungarian ambassador, diplomat, journalist and the President of the United Nations Association of Hungary since April 2021. She has been a lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest since 2022, and teaching at the Hungarian Diplomatic Academy since 2021. In 2021 she founded the Women4Diplomacy movement. She served as the 15th Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations in New York (1 January 2015 - 31 December 2020). She is the former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Delegate of Hungary to UNESCO (2009–2014) and the President of the 36th session of UNESCO General Conference (2011–2013).
Early life and education
Katalin Bogyay was born in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. She graduated in Economics at the Corvinus University of Budapest and obtained a Master of Arts in Communications from the University of Westminster (London) with Chevening Scholarship.
Professional career
She began her career as a theatre and music critic, later becoming a presenter, producer and senior editor of Music and the Arts at the Hungarian National Television (Magyar Televízió or MTV). Following the fall of communism, in 1990 she became the first Hungarian television personality to be awarded a Know How Fund Scholarship to study media in democracy at the BBC.
After hosting galas and interviewing celebrities from all over the world, she hosted her own show, Katalin Bogyay and her Guests (2003-2004, MTV/Hungary). Bogyay went on to become an international broadcaster and documentary filmmaker, working throughout the 1990s as an independent producer based in London notably for European Business News, BBC Radio, Global Vision Network, MTV, Danube TV.
Political career
In 1999 she became a diplomat and began working for the Hungarian Ministry for Culture. As Director General she opened the Hungarian Cultural Centre in 1999 in the heart of London's Covent Garden. She was the director of the Centre until 2006. To mark Hungary's entry to the EU in 2004, Bogyay created Magyar Magic, a seventeen-month long festival celebrating Hungarian talent throughout Britain under the dual patronage of Queen Elizabeth II and H.E. Dr. Ferenc Mádl, the President of the Republic of Hungary.
In 2007 Bogyay was selected by the London School of Economics as one of the Top 50 thinkers in the publication EU The Next Fifty Years. In her invited editorial she wrote about the new European cultural space.
In 2007 she represented Eastern, Central and Southern Europe as one of the deputy chairpersons of the Cultural Committee at the UNESCO's General Conference. Between July 2006 and April 2009, she served as the State Secretary for International Affairs at the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture. Since September 2009 until December 2014 she was based in Paris as Hungary's Ambassador to UNESCO. In 2009 she served as one of the vice presidents of the 35th General Conference of the UNESCO.
On 5 October 2011 UNESCO's Executive Board unanimously proposed Bogyay as President of UNESCO's 36th General Conference. On 25 October 2011, the General Conference of unanimously elected Bogyay as President of UNESCO's 36th General Conference. She succeeded Davidson L. Hepburn (Commonwealth of The Bahamas) who presided the 35th session. On 5 November 2013 the General Conference elected Hao Ping, the Vice-Minister of Education of China as President of UNESCO's 37th General Conference.
United Nations
She was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN in New York and took office as head of the Hungarian Mission to the UN in New York on 1 January 2015.
She chaired the United Nations Committee on Conferences in 2016-2017. The Conference Committee decides upon the yearly Calendar of Conferences of all UN duty stations, ensures that conference services, translation and interpretation work smoothly during all UN meetings.
In January 2017, the President of the General Assembly appointed Tajikistan and Hungary, H.E. Ms Katalin Bogyay, Permanent Representative to the UN as Co-Moderators of the working-level dialogue to discuss improving the integration and coordination of the work of the United Nations on the water-related Sustainable Development (SDG) goals and targets, as well as a subsequent dialogue to take stock of progress made and exchange views on possible next steps.
In 2018, the Executive Board of the International Association of Permanent Representatives (IAPR) to the United Nations elected Ambassador Katalin Bogyay as their new president. The Association serves as a forum between former and active Permanent Representatives.