After IES, you finished two MScs in the UK. What is the most important thing you carried off from the IES for the following study abroad?

Definitely the IES is the perfect base for further studies abroad. This is due to the hard skills like mathematics and economics as well as soft skills earned thanks to the close communication with the pedagogues or by the possibility to plan personally your studies and the field of your interest. On the other hand at the LSE and later at the University of Reading I was surprised by the drive of the students and the efficiency of the studies. At the IES I was used to look at the problems from the wider context and the approach was in a way more academic. Even at the Bachelor level we were dealing with the case studies from the transition of the state companies with our professors Kouba or Mejstřík. In the UK this kind of cooperation is imaginable at the Doctoral level at first. The Bachelor and the Master level is taken strictly as the preparation for the future employment.

You have passed the MSc in Real Estate at the University of Reading. You deal with this field throughout most of you career. Have the studies prepared you for the real situations in the work or were you provided only by theoretical background on which you might have built later?

The studies at The University of Reading were mainly an addition of a theory to the practice for me. I have been already working in this line of business for couple of years when I started to study in Reading, so my motivation was to gain some general view of the topic. There are not many courses focused on Real estate in Europe, and the University of Reading is one of the best among them, so it was obvious choice for me. Even though the program was of distance form, I must admit that the requirements from the university were really strict. The homeworkswere very extensive and the final diploma thesis emphasized on the data mining and the processing of primary data. Later, together with Tomáš Jandík who is also a former student of the IES and who has MSc from Reading as well, we have prepared a course for the IES students called Real Estate Investments. In this course, we sum up our pieces of knowledge about the valuation and investments in the real estate.

You have gained an experince in big banks, investment companies or even at the Ministry. Which of these job was the most forming for you and how?

Every experience was interesting for me and I must say that I still draw from them all time to time. The transition from the private to state sphere is not always as crucial as it may seem. The bureaucracy, the state or the corporate, has a lot of similarities. It is interesting to follow a decision making process within the framework of different institutions and look at the efficiency of this process. And then try to find out if there is a scope for some change or improvement.

For me personally, a big challenge was the work for the Ministry of Finance. My major duty was the negotiation with the European Commission on the method of restructuring of the Czech banking sector in the nineties. It included the negotiations itself, but concurrently the adaptation of restructuring packages for the Czech banks coordinated directly with the bank representatives, Czech National Bank and the Office for the Protection of Competition. These subjects concerned were many and above that we were under the pressure of the coming entry of the Czech Republic to the European Union. Even my current position, is characterized by the effort to unify the position of various subjects and to find the proper solution is similar. Like in the majority of the big real estate projects it is not only about the finance. You need to deal and communicate with the public and the politicians, focus on architecture, long term sustainability etc.

At Penta, you are in charge of some of its major development projects in Prague. You must have a very tight schedule. Could you describe your ordinary day at work? Are you able to save some time to relax, for your family and your hobbies?

It may sound like a cliché but I really like the job I am doing and it is also a hobby for me. I am lucky that I work on particularly interesting projects like a revitalization of the former factory Walter in Prague 5 or on the planned development of the surroundings of Masaryk train station in the center of Prague. Even if I not originally from Prague I am becoming a Prague patriot, who breathes for the city’s projects. This can not work otherwise, because these projects are really long run and I can not count the difficulties which may arise during the process. All these numerous complications can be very discouraging and demotivating.

My work primarily consists of the coordination of separate project teams and communication towards the public, so that most of the time it is me who set my daily schedule. My program varies and I deal with different topics from diverse branches of business every single day - the technology of building, urbanism, banking finance or acquisition of new projects. And because I think of my job as a long term goal, I try to balance my work and private life. However, I cannot prevent late evenings in the office or longer official journeys and it can affect my own personal program a lot.

You mentioned sailing and windsurfing as your hobbies. How did you get to these sports, sailing is not a mass hobby in the Czech Republic. Do you have some destination for sailing in the Czech Republic?

I always liked the sea, but I do not like just the sunbathing. As a result of this I am keen on all possible coastal activities from beach volleyball to sailing or wind kite surfing. At my last holidays I eventually managed to get a diving license so I may finally add the underwater activities. I do not perform these sports here in the Czech Republic, except from the Nové Mlýny reservoirs in Morava. I prefer to train the wakeboarding at Zlaté Písky near Bratislava. The great advantage of this location is an excellent bar situated right next to the beginning of the wakeboard drag :-)