George Masiuk elected to third term as The Washington Group's president (03/09/97)

George Masiuk elected to third term as The Washington Group's president

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - George Masiuk was elected to an unprecedented third term as president of The Washington Group (TWG), the largest association of Ukrainian American businesspersons and professionals in the United States. Mr. Masiuk, a telecommunications engineer, and his slate of board members were elected unanimously during TWG's annual meeting, held February 15 at the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory.

Mr. Masiuk is the sixth president of TWG, which was formed by Washington-area Ukrainian professionals in the mid-1980s. Since then, the organization has expanded to include 366 members in more than half of the United States, in Canada, Ukraine and France. The organization's first five presidents all served two one-year terms.

Widely known for the annual conference it sponsors in Washington, which feature prominent government, business and academic leaders from the United States and Ukraine, TWG also conducts wide-ranging activities through its speaker and discussion programs, as well as through its cultural and fellowship funds.

The annual meeting also re-elected Vice-President Marta Zielyk, Treasurer Roman Stelmach, Membership Director Michael Drabyk, Cultural Fund Director Laryssa Chopivsky, Fellowship Fund Chairman Adrian Karmazyn, and elected two new board members, Secretary Orysia Pylyshenko and Public Relations Director John Kun. Also elected were 14 board members-at-large.

Mr. Masiuk promised that, in its future activities, TWG will continue to "build on the very strong foundation of relationships" it has established with government departments and agencies, as well as with such organizations as the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced and International Studies, Freedom House, the Ukrainian American Bar Association, the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation.

Reporting on the previous year's activities, Mr. Masiuk underscored the highly successful leadership conference, which had among its principal speakers Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ukrainian Supreme Court Justice Oleksander Volkov, National Security Council Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs Carlos Pascual, and Hobart Earle, music director and principal conductor of the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, who was honored with TWG's "Friend of Ukraine" award.

The conference attracted more than 300 participants, including a number of VIPs, among them CIA Director John Deutch, Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov and the ambassadors of other NIS countries, and Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady Melanne Verveer.

Ms. Laryssa Chopivsky, director of the TWG Cultural Fund, highlighted some of the cultural events sponsored in 1996, including the Chornobyl 10th anniversary concert by the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the Yara Arts Group at the TWG leadership conference. She indicated that the Cultural Fund's future plans include performances by the Kyiv Chamber Chorus in Washington and New York in December.

The latest innovation in the Fellowship Fund program was the funding of an internship at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington. The first intern, Helena Zyblikewycz, worked at the Embassy in the summer of 1996. A call for 1997 internship applicants was released in January.

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