Kris Kotarski

Krzysztof was born in Warsaw in 1981 and moved to Canada at age 11, where he was first exposed to citrus fruit, ice storms and Sonic the Hedgehog. After numerous attempts to get Anglophones to pronounce his name, Krzysztof became Kris, and eventually earned a Masters degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Calgary where he researched arms control programs in the former Soviet Union at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. Kris has written a column for the Calgary Herald since 2003 focusing on Canadian politics, human rights and international affairs, and helped launch the Herald's first blog, Q, in 2005, allowing young Calgarians to add their voice to the Herald's online community. During the past five years, Kris has lived in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Geneva, Paris, Washington, Warsaw, and Berlin, has worked for a number of research organizations including the United Nations, and has written about the world as often as he could.