Sixty Minutes with California Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis

Originally aired April 30, 2021

In the seventh webinar in the Leadership in Our Time series, Ambassador András Simonyi sits down with California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis to discuss state-level leadership on climate, democracy, and economic recovery.

Topics include California’s management of the COVID epidemic and economic recovery, the state’s role in driving the clean energy transition, U.S. efforts to strengthen alliances in support of democracy, and Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis’s experience as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary.

Speakers

Eleni Kounalakis

Lieutenant Governor of California; Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary

Eleni Kounalakis was sworn in as the 50th Lieutenant Governor of California in January 2019 — the first woman elected to the post. From 2010 to 2013 she served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary, an experience she recounted in her memoir Madam Ambassador: Three Years of Diplomacy, Dinner Parties and Democracy in Budapest.

András Simonyi

Atlantic Council Senior Fellow; Former Hungarian Ambassador to the U.S. and NATO

András Simonyi served as Hungary’s Ambassador to the United States and to NATO. He is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a longtime collaborator with SSF and George Washington University on transatlantic leadership and security.