Rick Zedník

Rick was Managing Director of WPL 2016-2020 and has worked on the WPL Summits in Montenegro, Belgium, Japan, Lithuania, Iceland, Jordan and Ethiopia. His work supporting women leaders globally has also included serving on the Bratislava-based GLOBSEC Women Leaders Council, and The Hague-based Board of Rise & Lead Women. 

Rick’s career in news media spans three decades. He Chairs the Advisory Council of Euractiv (where he was CEO 2008-2016), the leading pan-European media network covering EU politics and policy. As Deputy Secretary General of European Business Media (EBM), he supports the CEOs and Editors-in-Chief of Europe’s leading business newspapers and magazines in advancing their journalistic and economic success. Previously, at The Wall Street Journal 2002-2008, he ran pan-European marketing, and before that, he was Co-Editor and then Publisher of The Slovak Spectator newspaper, which he co-founded in 1995.

A Slovak-American dual citizen, he is the Co-Founding President of the political party Volt Slovakia, for whom he was a 2024 candidate for election to the European Parliament. He has served on the Boards of the Columbia Journalism School Alumni Association, the Fulbright Commission in Slovakia, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia. He has an MBA from Harvard University and a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. His writing and commentary has featured in over 30 media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News. Rick and his wife have two adult daughters.