Bohdan Hawrylysyn was born on October 19, 1926, in Koropets village, Ternopil Oblast (at that time part of Poland). In 1930 his father bought 10 hectars of land between the town of Buchach and Zhyznomyr village, and built a house there. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn spent most of his childhood on his father’s farm.

For three years he has been studying at the elementary school in Zhyznomyr, later – at the Polish gymnasium in Buchach (1936-1938) which was made a secondary school during the bolshevik regime. From September 1941 he studied at Chortkiv Gymnasium, then in 1943-1944 at Drohobych Gymnasium.

During the World War II in 1944, he was captured by the Nazis and displaced to Germany. After the war, he spent almost two years in a displaced persons camp, and afterwards moved to Canada as a lumberjack.

While working at various jobs Hawrylyshyn was admitted at the University of Toronto. His admission received media coverage and public disrupt, as he was the first refugee to get admitted to the university in Canada. In 1952 he graduated with a BA and a MA in 1954 in engineering at the University of Tornto. From 1954 to 1960 Bohdan Hawrylysyn worked as an engineer, researcher and manager at the various enterprises in Canada. Since 1960 he resided in Geneva, Switzerland where in 1976 he was awarded Doctorate of Economics at the University of Geneva.

Since 1988 Dr. Hawrylyshyn has committed his activity to Ukraine and worked there on the voluntary basis. After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, he acted as an advisor to the First President of Ukraine, several Premier-Ministers and Chairmen of Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine).

More than 30 years of his professional career Dr Hawrylyshyn devoted to the educational sphere. Since 1960 he has been supervising training programs at IMI Geneva (now International Institute for Management Development), teaching economics, global business environment, international operations management and public administration. In 1968 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn became the Director of the institute and remained its head for eighteen years.

In 1989 he initiated the establishment of the International Management Institute (MIM-Kyiv) by the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and IMI-Geneva. It was the first institution in the former USSR which provided MBA program training.

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was a full member of the Club of Rome, a cofounder of the European Management Forum in Davos, a fellow and member of the Board of the World Academy of Art and Science. As an expert on issues of public administration and international business and cross-cultural relations, he has been a contributor, moderator and chairperson at international conferences and seminars in over 88 countries.

Hawrylyshyn was also an active member of the Lisovi Chorty fraternity within the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. From 2006 to 2008 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was a Chairman of the Board of Plast.

In 2010 Dr. Hawrylyshyn founded Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Charitable Foundation, aimed to encourage and promote new generation of professional, patriotic and correct Ukrainians who care about common values and goods, who are proactive in social and political life of the country and who can peform its transformation.

Professor Hawrylyshyn was one of the members of December 1st Initiative Group.

Bohdan Hawrylysyn died on October 24, 2016 at the age of 90 surrounded by his family in his flat in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ashes buried in the cemetery in his native village Koropets.

Every year on October 19 in Shevchenko Park in Kyiv, we commemorate Bohdan Hawrylyshyn by planting flowers near a stone placed in his honor. In 2021, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary, the event brought together many friends and partners of the Foundation.