Luxembourg’s Vice PM To Speak At Sacred Heart

FAIRFIELD — Her Excellency Mrs Lydie Polfer, Luxembourg’s Vice Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade and Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reform, will deliver Sacred Heart University’s Second Annual Henry Leir Memorial Lecture. The address, which is free and open to the public, will be presented in the board room of the university’s William H. Pitt Health and Recreation Center at 11 am on Thursday, September 7.

Mrs Polfer’s lecture is titled “An Indispensable Partnership: The European Union and the United States of America.”

“This lecture series perpetuates the memory of Henry Leir, a remarkable man who helped bring Sacred Heart University and the country of Luxembourg closer together,” said Anthony J. Cernera, PhD, the president of Sacred Heart University.

“We are pleased to welcome Mrs Polfer to our Fairfield campus,” the president continued. “Her visit demonstrates the special relationship we have with Luxembourg, while also providing our students with the opportunity to hear from a well-respected public servant.”

Mrs Polfer, a native of Luxembourg, graduated from Lycée Robert Schuman in 1972. She received a bachelor of arts in law from University of Grenoble, and in 1977 joined the Luxembourg Bar. That same year she also received an advanced studies diploma in European integration at Universite Centre for International and European Research, also in Grenoble.

Mrs Polfer is a seasoned veteran in Luxemboug politics. She began her political career in 1979, when she was elected to Luxembourg Parliament, and was re-elected in 1984, 1989, 1994 and 1999.

In 1981, she was elected Mayor of the City of Luxembourg, and then re-elected in 1987 and 1993. Mrs Polfer was also a member of European Parliament from 1985 to 1994. She was appointed her current position following the 1999 legislative elections.

SHU has enjoyed a special relationship with the country of Luxembourg for many years. Its Luxembourg campus was founded in 1991, demonstrating the university’s commitment to preparing its students to compete in a global marketplace while also fulfilling a need for an American-style quality graduate business education in Luxembourg. Programs in Luxembourg have expanded to include professional certificates and corporate seminars.

The lecture series is in honor of Henry Leir, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and found a haven in neighboring Luxembourg. When World War II erupted in 1939, he immigrated to the United States.

Mr Leir’s business success in New York, where he founded a company that imported gemstones, did not deter him from remembering the kindness of the Luxembourg people. After the war, Mr Leir was instrumental in creating housing for orphans and was a generous contributor to several charities in the central European nation. At its 1998 commencement, Sacred Heart University conferred upon him the degree of Doctors of Laws, honoris causa. Mr Leir died in July 1998 at age 98.