Ambassador František Ružička took up his duties as the Permanent Representative of the Slovak  Republic to the OECD on 5 November 2020.

Mr Ružička graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where he studied Media and Communication, as well as from Charles University in Prague with PhD in Philosophy.

He started his career in the Press Department of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Czech and Slovak Federative Republic in 1989, before becoming First Secretary for the Press at the Embassy in Washington in 1992. He then served as First Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Washington from 1993 to 1996.

Mr Ružička served in numerous leadership roles at the Foreign Ministry and abroad. He was notably Director of the No. 1 territorial department for Western Europe and North America from 1998 to 1999. He subsequently served as Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission in Prague until 2003, Director of Internal Affairs and for the institutions of the European Union from 2003 to 2005, Ambassador to the Republic of Poland from 2005 to 2010 and Ambassador to the United Nations in New York from 2012 to 2017. He was appointed Director of the Office of Miroslav Lajčák, President of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, from 2017 to 2018.

Mr Ružička has published extensively on Slovak diplomacy and on European politics, and holds several distinctions including Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. He lso translated several novels from English into Slovak.

Prior to taking up his duties as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the OECD 2020, Mr Ružička served as State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs from 2018 onwards.