Institute of Economic Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences
Charles University

Kateřina Vrátníková (December 2019)

Kateřina Vrátníková comes from Pilsen. She graduated from the IES in 2012 and reached her bachelor degree, during which she also spent one year at Sorbonne in Paris thanks to Erasmus programme. Kateřina then finished her masters degree in England, at Warwick Business School.
Kateřina started to work during her bachelor studies, when she began as an editor in the economic section of idnes.cz. Thanks to her studies in France, she then also briefly worked as a consultant at the economic mission of French Embassy Ubifrance, where she helped to connect Czech and French companies. She also joined KPMG, where she worked as a business analyst in management consulting. After completing her studies, she passed short internships at ARX Equity Partners in Prague and Erste Bank in London and then she started a graduate commercial banking programme at Lloyds Banking Group. After completing this program, she worked as a business support manager for the Group CEO and now is a senior strategy manager in Group Strategy.
In her free time, Kateřina likes to discover new places in London, play golf and sing in the choir.

For interview with Kateřina please follow this link.

Radek Němeček (November 2019)

Radek Němeček comes from Prague, and studied at the IES until 2004, when he received his master’s degree. During his studies he stayed at the University of Konstanz, Germany. After he graduated, he continued with his education at the Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth, USA and received another degree - LL.M. He was also awarded a number of professional awards, for example the second-best Investor Relations in Europe according to the IR Magazine or the Best IR Manager in the Czech Republic according to analysts' vote in the CZECH Top 100 competition.

Since 2017, Radek has worked at SAZKA Group, where he manages relations with investors, media and regulators. Prior to that, he was a Director at Cook Communications. Between 2009 and 2016, he worked for NWR, where he held various positions including the Investor Relations Manager, Head of Investor Relations and finally the Communications Director. At that time, he lived with his family in the Netherlands. Prior to that, he was the Head of Investor Relations at Unipetrol and also worked for ČSOB. He gained his first working experience during his studies when he worked at the Ministry of Finance as a spokesperson and deputy director of the Communication Department.

Radek enjoys his time with his family, does sports and he is a fan of the Austrian School of Economics.

For interview with Radek please follow this link.

Patrik Nový (October 2019)

For interview with Patrik please follow this link.

Michal Soták (September 2019)

Michal Soták comes from Trenčín Slovakia and obtained his Bachelor's degree from the IES in 2005. During his studies he took part in the Erasmus exchange stay at the British University of Bath and decided to continue with a Master's programme there. He successfully completed it in the field of Accounting and Finance in 2006. During his undergraduate studies he began to collect work experience: first he worked briefly as a junior writer at the Hospodářské noviny business daily, and in 2005 he undertook an internship at Deloitte. After finishing his studies in the UK, he joined Citigroup in Prague as a Management Associate, which is a rotational program for young talents, and he was delegated to a stay in London. In 2007 he started to work at Mint Investments, where he spent more than 4 years in various positions. Since 2012 he has been working at Cushman & Wakefield, a leading global commercial real estate services firm. At present, he is responsible for investment transactions in the Czech and Slovak Republics. He spends his free time mostly with his family.

For interview with Michal please follow this link.

Jáchym Hercher (August 2019)

For interview with Jáchym please follow this link.

Lenka Bentall (Líšková) (July 2019)

Lenka Bentall (Líšková) is from Trnava, Slovakia and she graduated with a master’s degree from the IES in 2015. Before she joined the IES, Lenka studied at Masaryk University in Brno, during which she spent a semester studying at IÉSEG School of Management in Paris. After her bachelor’s degree in Brno, she decided to pursue further studies at Charles University in Prague. During her time at the IES, she joined the tax department at Deloitte in Prague. Shortly after graduating from the IES, Lenka moved to London where she has now been living for 4 years. At Deloitte London, Lenka continues to focus on expatriate personal income taxation and global mobility and successfully passed Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) exams in the UK. Lenka mainly works with technology, media and telecommunication clients and thanks to that she had a great opportunity to spend a month in Silicon Valley, California.

For interview with Lenka please follow this link.

Jan Kraváček (June 2019)

Jan Kraváček comes from Prague and graduated from the IES in 2018. He spent the semester at Mannheim University (Universität Mannheim) thanks to the Erasmus + program. After a bachelor's degree at the IES, he decided to continue his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. During his studies at LSE, he completed an internship in London in a Fintech investment boutique. After completing a one-year master's degree, he does a summer internship in investment banking at HSBC and then joins the BCG office in Prague. Already during his studies at the IES, Honza gained experience besides studies, mainly through voluntary activities within AISEC or 180 Degrees Consulting. In his free time he enjoys traveling, playing football and is interested in politics and society.

For interview with Jan please follow this link.

Petra Vokatá  (May 2019)

Petra Vokata recently accepted an appointment as an Assistant Professor at the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University.

Petra was born and raised in Prague. She is a graduate of the IES, where she received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, while at the same time working as a team leader in an e-commerce startup. After graduation from the IES, she continued with doctoral studies at Aalto University, School of Business, where she has recently defended her dissertation titled “Essays on Financial Innovation”. During her doctoral studies, she spent a research visit at the University of California, Berkeley and participated at a summer school at Yale University.

She spends her free time outdoors with her husband, Mika, and their border terrier, Kira.

 For Interview with Petra please follow this link.

Barbora Máková (April 2019)

Barbora Máková comes from Lomnice nad Popelkou. She completed her master studies at the IES in 2014. In the same year, she graduated from the University of Economics, where she focused on econometrics and quantitative finance. In 2011, she was an exchange student at the Maastricht University. She also gained a master's degree in economics at the Canadian University of British Columbia.

She is currently enrolled in the PhD programme at IES.Barbora started her work experience already during her studies. Initially, she was an intern in the audit department at KPMG; in 2013, she worked at Roland Berger as a Business Analyst, followed by an internship at PwC's Business Recovery Service. From September 2014, Barbora worked as a Teaching Assistant at the University of British Columbia. In September 2015, she started her eight-month traineeship at the European Central Bank. Since 2016, Barbora has been working in the R&D department at London's fin-tech start-up Credit Benchmark.

In her free time, Barbora likes running and cooking.

For interview with Barbora please follow this link.

Václav Těhle (March 2019)

Václav Těhle comes from a small village near Benešov and he finished his studies at the IES in 2012. He graduated from the University of Oxford, where he earned master's degree in Development Economics. He worked while studying at the IES, for example as an intern at NGO People in need where he provided assistance to Asian development projects. Later he became a Research Assistant at the Center for Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. He spent a year doing research on inclusion of young unemployed graduates to the labor market in Ethiopia and impact of trade liberalization on industrial firms in Ghana. Since 2014 Vaclav has been working at McKinsey, where he focuses on projects in energy, sustainability as well as on development projects across Africa.

As a volunteer he founded and organized several years of the One World festival branch in Benešov and now participates in organization of the summer academy Discover, where he teaches the course Development studies. In his free time, Václav likes doing sports - he especially enjoys mountain hiking.
 

For interview with Václav please follow this link.

Adam Nedvěd (February 2019)

Adam Nedvěd comes from Prague and finished his studies at the IES last September. He is currently the Financial Director of Blahobyty's startup, which he also co-founded. During his studies he worked on several projects in the field of graphic design, programming and wholesale of IT equipment. In 2015, he was awarded the Google Award for Young Data Journalism Talents, a project dedicated to public procurement control before the Office. Another award he received was the Deloitte Outstanding Thesis Award for the students with the best diploma thesis. IES also participated in the preparation of the seminar about “Aktuality” or debate club at the IES - DebatIES. He was a member of the Academic Senate of the FSS CU for almost 2 years. In his free time Adam likes travelling to foreign countries.

For interview with Adam please follow this link.

Jan Říha (January 2019)

Jan Říha comes from Dobříš and graduated from the IES with a Master's degree in 2015. Currently, he lives in Tianjin, China. He works at Home Credit; he has been working here for the fourth year. Currently he works at the position of the Director of Business Planning and Analysis. Previously, he gained experience in various managerial and analytical positions in the field of risk management, advisory and financial management. In his spare time, Jan travels around Asia.

For interview with Jan please follow this link.

Michal Ježek  (December 2018)

Michal Ježek comes from Hodonín and currently works as a credit strategist at Deutsche Bank. He completed his Master’s degree at the IES in 2004, which included a semester at Humboldt University in Berlin. Then he went on to study Economics at the University of Cambridge, first with the Chevening Scholarship for the MPhil programme from 2004 to 2005 and then with the Gates Scholarship for the PhD programme from 2006 to 2010. He won a number of awards during his studies, for example the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award, Young Economist 2002 from the Czech Economic Society, Dean’s Awards during his BA & MA studies or the Stevenson Prize for performance in the MPhil programme. Michal worked as a macro analyst at the Czech National Bank from 2005 to 2006, as a Teaching Fellow and later Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge from 2007 to 2010 and since 2010 he has worked as a credit strategist in Deutsche Bank’s Research Department in London where he is responsible for investment-grade corporate bond strategy and credit derivatives strategy. Michal spends his free time with his family and likes to swim and jog.
 
For interview with Michal please follow this link.

Pavel Burša (listopad 2018)

For interview with Pavel please follow this link.

Jan Kvaček (October 2018)

Jan Kvaček was born in Prague and he finished his studies at the Charles University in 2011. During his Bachelor studies, he did double degree in Economics and Demography, then he continued with his Masters at the IES in the Economic Theory program. During his studies, Jan started working as an Advisor to the Minister of Health. At the same time, he also worked for the National Economic Council of the Czech Government first in the anti-corruption committee, later in the committee for health. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the National Reference Center, later in its Board of Directors. He had been member of the boards of three public health insurance funds. Since 2012 he has also worked as a Teaching Assistant at the IES. He spent almost 2 years working for KPMG as a Senior Consultant, and in 2015 he started his own business when he established his first GP office. For past three years he worked as CSO at health insurance fond Oborová zdravotní pojišťovna and he is also vice chairman of the board at Vitalitas insurance company. In September 2018 Jan was appointed the CEO of Na Bulovce Hospital. Jan mostly enjoys his free time with his family, hiking in the mountains or playing World of Darkness RPG games.

For interview with Jan please follow this link.

Tomáš Brzobohatý (September 2018)

Tomáš Brzobohatý graduated from the IES in 2008 with a Bachelor's degree. His Bachelor Thesis Impact of CO2 Emissions Reductions on Firms’ Finance in an Emerging Economy: The Case of Czech Republic"even won the Josef Vavroušek Prize and the Dean's praise for an excellent Bachelor thesis. He then moved to Germany to Goethe University Frankfurt, where he successfully completed his Master's degree in 2010.

During his studies he worked as a research assistant in the field of money and macroeconomics. Tomas also worked briefly in BCG as a visiting associate or as an intern at Allianz SE in Munich. After completing his studies, he started to work in Germany at NERA Economic Consulting (Oliver Wyman Group). He spent almost two years here. In 2012, Tomáš started to work at Millicom, a telecommunication company that first introduced him to Africa and then to South America, concretely to Paraguay, where he then worked for almost six years in the field of insurance as head of the Milvik branch. Currently Tomáš returned to the Czech Republic and works at Creative Dock as product manager in the "Filip a Sofie" project.

In his spare time he enjoys outdoor sports and traveling.

For interview with Tomáš please follow this link.

Tomáš Jandík (August 2018)

Tomáš Jandík comes from Prague and finished his studies at the IES in 2002 with a bachelor's degree. He then continued with further studies at Humboldt University in Berlin and later in Reading, UK at the College of Estate Management, where he gained Master's degree in 2010.

Tomáš started his working experience at trainee positions from 2002, e.g. in Kooperativa or Otis Elevators. Since 2005, he has been an assistant auditor at Ernst & Young, and then has worked for DTZ in valuations and asset management. From 2010, he became the head of Capital Market Division of CBRE Prague Branch, and at the same time he also began to teach Real Estate Investment at the IES in cooperation with Pavel Streblov. Tomáš is also a CFA charter holder since 2014, member of the Czech CFA Society and a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). In May 2016 Tomáš joined the management of REICO IS ČS as a member of the Board of Directors.

In his spare time, he focus mainly on his family, enjoys mountain hiking or skiing.

For interview with Tomáš please follow this link.

Stela Rubínová (July 2018)

Stela Rubínová comes from Prague and currently works in Switzerland, Geneva, at the World Trade Organization. She graduated from the IES in 2010 with Bachelor's degree and won an award of Josef Vavroušek for an outstanding Bachelor's thesis with an environmental theme. Stela also passed a study stay at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. She then continued with her studies in Switzerland. She did her Master’s at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, where she focused on the field of International Economics. In the years 2010 - 2013, she was even awarded a full scholarship. She completed her studies successfully in 2017 with a PhD degree.

Since 2016 she has been working as a Research Economist at the WTO. Previously, she gained experience as a Teaching Assistant of Professor Richard Baldwin at IHEID, in the summer of 2015 as a World Bank Consultant, or she passed a three-month internship at the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels as a Visiting Researcher. She also worked for the WTO in Geneva before, as an Intern in the Research and Statistics Division, and before as a Researcher at the Charles University Environment Center in Prague. In 2009, she worked for several months at the Czech National Economic Council (NERV).

In her free time Stela likes swimming and mountain hiking, in the winter skiing.

For interview with Stela please follow this link.

Tereza Koudelková (June 2018)

Tereza Koudelková comes from Roztoky u Krivoklatu and finishewww.linkedin.com/in/martina-jasova/d her Bachelor’s studies at the IES in 2013. After graduating from the IES, she moved to Switzerland where she gained her Master’s degree in Banking and Finance at the University of St.Gallen in 2015. Currently, she studies the MBA program at Harvard Business School where she is expected to graduate in May 2019.

She began gathering work experience while studying at the IES - she worked at O2 Czech Republic, as a CAPEX Controller, for more than a year. During the summer at HSG, she interned at McKinsey & Company in Prague. In 2015, she started to work there as a consultant fulltime, advising European and Australian clients across multiple industries, mostly in telecommunications, e-commerce, and banking. She also spent a few months in New York at McKinsey New Ventures, where led projects to design and implement processes that formed the basis of Firm’s accelerator. At the moment, Tereza works for Danish food & beverage company Joe & The Juice as a Strategy & Business Development Intern.

In her free time, Tereza likes travelling, cooking or building Lego or puzzle.

For interview with Tereza please follow this link.

Martina Jašová (May 2018)

Martina Jašová comes from Slovak Nitra and in 2017 she finished her studies at the IES with a doctoral degree. She has spent the last year and a half at Princeton University in the United States and an earlier another part of her graduate studies she lived in Japan where she studied at Waseda University. She also gained experience abroad during her Master's program at the IES. She was the first student of a FSS CU at Sogang University in South Korea in 2010, and she also visited Italy thanks to the Erasmus program, when she got an opportunity to study at Sapienza - Università di Roma during her undergraduate program.

Martina is currently working as a short-term Research Economist at the ECB in Frankfurt. In summer 2018 she starts as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York. In past, she worked for nearly a year in the Bank of International Settlements, but she also passed an traineeship at the ECB. In the Czech Republic, she has been working as a consultant at a company Adwise since the IES‘s Bachelor study.

In her spare time, Martina is mainly doing sports, she likes skiing, hiking, cycling, or practicing yoga.
 

For interview with Martina please follow this link.

Michal Horný (April 2018)

Michal Horný graduated from the IES in 2010 with a Bachelor's degree. In addition to the IES, he also completed a Bachelor's degree in Financial Mathematics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, a Master's degree at​ ​VU University Amsterdam, and in 2017 he received a Doctoral degree from Boston University.

Currently, he is Assistant Professor at Emory University in the USA. He started this position in 2017 after finishing his Ph.D. at Boston University. During his doctoral studies in Boston, he taught cost-effectiveness analysis, and before that, he had been a Teaching Assistant for several courses at Boston University School of Public Health. He also worked shortly as a Data Analyst at the Boston Medical Center and worked for one semester as a Research Assistant at Boston University Questrom School of Business. While studying in the Czech Republic, he gained experience as an Analyst in Deloitte or UniCredit Bank. In his research, he focuses on healthcare and related issues.

Michal is also a co-founder of Doc Odds, a web application helping medical students match into a U.S. based residency training specialty of their choice. In his spare time, Michal likes bouldering, hiking, and skiing.

For interview with Michal please follow this link.

Jan Šmejkal (March 2018)

Jan Šmejkal comes from Chlum near Český Krumlov and he finished his bachelor's degree at the IES in 2013. Currently he is a community director of Startup Grind and he is responsible for grow its presence in China, Asia Pacific and beyond.
Honza is responsible for the fresh „weekend“ project, The Dinner, and also works as a consultant at Air Ventures. Between 2015 and 2017, he was an Assistant Professor at the IES, as well as at Beijing University HSBC Business School. He helped develop Whoolala, an international e-commerce platform for fashion designers in China and Southeast Asia.

In 2013, he co-founded the PRG Trading Group, which had both a Prague office and a Chinese office. Honza's activities were also associated with the Investor Club, where he was responsible for partnership and worked as a project manager as well. He was also a member of the Founding Team Foodpanda (Rocket Internet) for the Czech and Slovak Republic.

In his spare time, Honza likes to travel, does the exercise and study Mandarin Chinese.

For interview with Jan please follow this link.

Martin Chuděj (February 2018)

Martin Chuděj currently works in Brussels at the Single Resolution Board. Martin finished his bachelor studies at the IES in 2005 and a year later he obtained a Master’s degree at Prague University of Economics. However, his study career just begun with these achievements. He received a double Master’s Degree in Economic Law at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University of Paris and at the prestigious Paris Science Po in 2008. Further, he deepened his knowledge of Law by studying International Economic Law and Policy at the Spanish Universitat de Barcelona (2009). Martin also began to study the European Doctorate in Law and Economics in Bologna, Hamburg and Rotterdam, but he did not finish. At Hertie's School of Governance in Berlin, he currently completes his education with an Executive Master´s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) (expected termination in 2018).

Martin started his working experience as a trainee at the Bichot Law Firm in Paris, then moved to Brussels for a five-month internship at the European Commission. In 2010, he gained experience as a specialist at the WTO, Switzerland and then shortly stayed in London at a Law firm DLA Piper. He also worked for more than a year in Hamburg as a researcher in the field of international investment protection. In 2012, Martin returned to Belgium, where he occupied a number of positions at the Council of the European Union and at the European Commission. He spent a year at the European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, and is currently working in a senior expert at the Single Resolution Board in Brussels.

Martin likes traveling, sports, but also enjoys good food in his free time.

For interview with Martin please follow this link.

Jana Gutierrez Chvalkovská (January 2018)

Jana Gutierrez Chvalkovská comes from Prague and finished her studies at the IES in 2008. She is currently working for the Red Hat as HR Manager for the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East and Africa. Currently, she lives in Brno.

In addition to her PhDr. from the IES, Jana achieved the Master´s degree from the Faculty of Law at Charles University. She graduated in 2010. During her studies, she passed several exchange stays: in Austria at the University of Linz, , in the USA at the University of Richmond, and at the University of Lima in Peru. During her studies she began to gain working experience at EEIP, she worked there for nearly 9 years. At the same time she worked for almost three years as a consultant at the National Economic Council of the Government (NERV). From 2010 she was the Deputy Chairman Counsel of the International Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic. She stayed there, just like in EEIP, until 2014, when she was appointed HR director at Vítkovice Machinery Group. Here, she also became the member of the board of directors of various companies in the Group. Jana is also the founder of zIndex.cz and was a co-owner of Datlab s.r.o. From 2016 he works for Red Hat as HR Director for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

For interview with Jana please follow this link.

Tomáš Kafka (December 2017)

Tomáš Kafka was born in Japan, but lives in Prague for the most of his life. He graduated from the IES in 2004 with a Master’s degree. His diploma thesis focused on Money Laundering. Tomáš is currently a Partner in EY, where he runs Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services Division. From this position, he focuses, for example, on forensic audits, white collar crime, public procurement corruption, and subsidies from the EU funds or national programs. He publishes and lectures at professional conferences on topic of frauds and corruption. He developed a methodology for the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic targeted on internal anti-corruption programs applied in the Czech state administration. For the Ministry of Regional Development Tomáš designed the Strategy for Fighting Fraud and Corruption in EU Funds Drawing for the period 2014-2020.

Besides, he has been a goalkeeper of the Czech floorball team for 18 years, winning silver medal and two bronze medals at the World Championship. In the Czech floorball premier league, he plays for Tatran Střešovice. In 2011 he played in the highest Swedish league. In 2006 he was appointed to be the best floorball goalkeeper in the world.

Tomáš started to gain his first work experience when studying at the IES. He worked as a trainee at Deutsche Bank, then worked as an Assistant Auditor at Arthur Andersen, from where he moved to the same position in EY. In 2004 he co-founded the company EMTC. Since 2006, he has worked for EY in the Forensic Services, first on managerial position, later as the Executive Director. In 2015, he was named the Partner at EY.

During his IES studies, Tomáš passed a one-year study stay at the University of Constance in Germany. In addition, he completed the ACCA exams and is Certified Accountant (ACCA). Tomáš spends his free time mostly with his family (he has two children - Karolína and Jakub), with sport, and he also supports young talented players and charity events related to floorball.

For interview with Tomas please follow this link.

Alice Nušlová  (November 2017)

Alice Nušlová comes from Prague and graduated from the IES in 2014. During that time, she spent a study stay as part of the Erasmus program in France at Université de Strasbourg or thanks to the inter-faculty agreements a study exchange in Israel at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Already during her student years 2013 - 2014, Alice started to work as an assistant of Senator Jiří Bis, as the support of the International Club at CharlesUniversity or as an Operations Manager at the Prague Pension called Alice Apartment House, which she operates part-time to this day. After completing her Bachelor's degree program at the IES, she went to Switzerland to continue her studies at the University of St. Gallen. She graduated here in 2017 from Strategy and International Management. In 2015, she started to work at Zurich Insurance Group, first as a Group Strategy Trainee, later as a Liaison Manager & Technology Analyst, where she focused, for example, on developing business relationships in Silicon Valley. Since the fall of 2016, he has been working for Swiss Re Group as an Assistant Vice President, Group Strategy. In her spare time, Alice likes to travel. She has visited more than 50 countries, including Paraguay, Indonesia or South Africa. She is keen on paragliding, horse riding, alpine tourism, particularly  ferraty climbing, and practicing yoga.

 For interview with Alice please follow this link.

Marek Šabata (October 2017)

Marek Šabata comes from Prague and finished his bachelors studies at IES in 2014. A year later he graduated with another bachelor degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, in the field of Pure Mathematics, and in the same year he enrolled in a Masters degree at Columbia University in New York, where he focused on Financial Engineering. Here he earned a Master's degree this spring.
Marek’s professional interests are Optimization, Artificial Intelligence, Computing, and Large Scale Data Analysis. He participated in several interesting research projects such as Structured Nonlinear Compression for Supervised and Unsupervised Learning, or Subway Challenge. In the latter, he utilized various graph algorithms in order to find the shortest time path between all stations in NYC Subway.
Marek currently works for Goldman Sachs as a Quantitative Strategist. He is mainly focused on applications of machine learning in Equity Capital Markets. He also gained experience as a Quantitative Researcher at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in New York, and before that in Prague on statistical positions at KPMG or IBM. Marek spends his leisure mainly by being physically active. He plays golf, runs, does CrossFit and is a volunteer dog walker.

For interview with Marek please follow this link.

Ladislav Bárta (September 2017)

Ladislav Bárta comes from Cesky Krumlov and graduated from the IES in 2009. Then he continued in Switzerland at the University of St. Gallen, where he finished in 2012 his master's degree. He also studied abroad during his high school, when he spent a year at Rangitoto College in New Zealand, or during his bachelor studies spent a semester stay in Umeå, Sweden.

During his studies he worked as a consultant at Ernst & Young, where he worked in Transaction Advisory Services. Thanks to this, he has passed the CFA tests and has come to appreciate almost everything from financial derivatives, through customer portfolios, cutter loaders to O2 arena. He joined ČEZ as a Specialist in the Corporate Development team, where he took part in determining the strategic direction of the whole CEZ Group. In 2014 Láďa became the leader of the innovation team, which developed new products and services.

Since 2017, Lada has been working at Rohlík.cz, where he was at first responsible for Business Development's direction for developing all new and increasing internal efficiency. Since August, Láďa has been responsible for the operation of its two distribution centers with a total of 400 employees.

In his free time, Ladislav likes riding bike uphill or in the distance, on a motorcycle in Asia, anywhere by cabriolet or drinking beer.

For interview with Láďa please follow this link.
 

Matěj Bajgar (August 2017)

Matěj Bajgar comes from Tišnov. He graduated from the IES with a Bachelor's Degree in 2009. He earned his Master´s at Oxford, and later a PhD at the same university. During his Master´s studies, he focused on developing economics, and in his doctoral thesis he examined the impact of globalization on the performance of companies in emerging economies. While studying at Oxford, he also spent three months as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Currently, Matěj lives and works in Paris as an Economist at the OECD. He has also worked as a trainee at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and as a consultant for the World Bank and development consulting companies. He has worked, for example, in Lesotho, Tunisia, Ghana, and South Africa. Apart from his work, Matěj is also actively involved in the preparation of the Discover Summer Academy, this year as a coordinator and tutor of development economics.
In his spare time, Matěj climbs on artificial walls, visits medieval monasteries, and occasionally writes for Czech press, you may have seen his articles in Respekt, Hospodářské noviny, Lidové noviny and elsewhere.

For interview with Matěj please follow this link.
 

Tomáš Hochmeister (July 2017)

Tomáš Hochmeister is from Prague and graduated from the IES with PhDr. in 2006. He also holds a Bachelor's degree from the Institute of International Studies at Faculty of Social Science.

Currently, Tomáš works as a director in Cross Asset Solutions at Société Générale Investment Banking in London. His first work experience, while still being a student at the IES, was at Philip Morris, later he helped in the so called Bezděk Commission, that dealt with the pension reform in 2010. After graduating from the Master's program in Prague, he started a postgraduate management program in Paris and later joined Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking. Firstly, as Institutional Sales Equity Derivatives, then Tomáš moved to London to Global Markets Cross Asset Solutions, where he was in charge of financial institutions for Central and Eastern Europe. Tomáš gained his first foreign experience at high school, studying at the Lycee in Dijon, France. Thanks to the Erasmus program, Tomáš also passed a semester in Portugal, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa during his studies at the IES.

Tomáš spends his free time mainly with his family, he likes sport, especially jogging, or cycling, or he devotes himself to the music. In the past, he worked in Radio 1, where for almost eight years he has featured broadcasting of French Connection and Estereo focused on electronic and jazzfusion scene.

For interview with Tomáš please follow this link.

Dalibor Roháč (June 2017)

Dalibor Roháč comes from Bratislava, Slovakia. He obtained his B.A. at the IES in 2005. Then he completed his M.A. in economics from George Mason University, USA and an M.Phil. in economics from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. Later, in 2009 he received PhDr. at the IES. From 2011 to 2014 he was working on his PhD in political economy at King’s College, London.

Dalibor Rohac is currently a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies European political and economic trends. Specifically, he is concentrates on Central and Eastern Europe, on the European Union (EU) and the eurozone, US-EU relations, and the post-Communist transitions and backsliding of countries in the former Soviet bloc. He is concurrently a visiting fellow at the Max Beloff Centre for the Study of Liberty at the University of Buckingham in the UK and a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.

Before joining AEI, Rohac was affiliated with the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, the London-based Legatum Institute as a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies, and as a Research Associate at the Center for the New Europe in Brussels. He also interned in the office of the president of the Czech Republic in Prague.

Dalibor’s analyses and commentaries have been published widely in the media, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal. His scholarly articles have been featured in professional journals, among them Constitutional Political Economy, Economic Affairs, and the European Journal for the History of Economic Thought.

Dalibor lives in the US with his Slovak wife, and in his free time he likes cooking and travelling.

For interview with Dalibor please follow this link.

Lucie Hozík (May 2017)

Lucie Hozík finished her undergraduate degree at the Institute of Economic Studies in 2008. She enrolled in a Master's course at IES and spent a year at the University of Bonn as an Erasmus student. At this point, Lucie was awarded a scholarship to continue her studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva where she completed her masters degree in 2011.

She began gathering work experience during her studies in Prague, where she worked part time at PwC Advisory. During her year in Germany, she did an internship in the department of Economic Research & Corporate Development at Allianz SE in Munich. In 2011, Lucie joined HSBC in Geneva as a graduate. A year later, she moved within HSBC bank to London, where she was first a business manager for investment products. After completing the last CFA exam in 2014, Lucie joined the Investment Counselling team.
In addition to her work, she also volunteers as a financial literacy mentor at a local school and coached a TeachFirst teacher. In her spare time, Lucie enjoys drawing and painting, the guitar and spends her holiday hill walking.

For interview with Lucie please follow this link.

Ondřej Vychodil (April 2017)

Ondřej Vychodil comes from Most, and graduated from the IES in 1999. For his bachelor thesis he received the Josef Hlávka Foundation Award. Afterwards he did his Master’s at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, and later, in 2002, moved back to IES to obtain his PhDr.. However he started his doctoral studies at CERGE-EI. His Ph.D. studies ended with a defense of dissertation on economics of bankruptcy law. As part of his dissertation research, he did a semester internship at Harvard, and then, during his work at ČSOB a managerial Inter-Alfa Banking Program, at the French INSEAD. As a lecturer, he worked as an Assistant Professor at IES for professor Kouba, he introduced the subjects of the New Institutional Economics II. and Theory of Organization. At the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg and at the Anglo-American University in Prague he led his compact courses with a focus on economic transition. Amongst others, it is worth mentioning the book Privatization without Capital (Karolinum 2002), which he wrote together with Prof. Karel Kouba and Jitka Roberts.
Since March 2017, Ondřej has been the Executive Director of Finance at ČSOB. He joined the Bank in 2006 as a Director of Investor Relations, followed briefly by the Communications Unit, and has been the Head of Strategy and Development for the last four years. Prior to joining ČSOB, he worked for example as an external consultant to the World Bank, and in 2004-2005 as the advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Martin Jahn.
Ondřej and his wife have three children, so he spends his time mostly with his family, but also with his music group Legendary Buccaneers, where he plays drums and sings for more than ten years.

For interview with Ondřej please follow this link.

Marek Kapička (březen 2017)

Marek Kapička comes from Prague, and he graduated from the IES’s Finance and Banking program in 1998. He continued with graduate studies at the University of Chicago in USA, where in 2003 he earned a Ph.D in economics. Afterwards, Marek was an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where, he became associate professor with tenure in 2012. In 2013-2015 and then again since the last year, Marek became an associate professor with tenure at CERGE-EI. In 2013-2015, Marek had also served as the Deputy Director for Research at CERGE-EI.
Marek has received a number of grants, fellowships and awards. Currently, he is a holder of the J. E. Purkyně Fellowship awarded by the Czech Academy of Sciences, he also won the Young Economist Award by the European Economic Association. In 2015 he was awarded the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant by the European Commission.
He has published in journals such as Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Economic Dynamics or American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. Marek’s research focuses on topics from macroeconomics, public finance, economic theory, and contract theory.
In his free time Marek enjoys skiing, running, biking and time spent with his family.

For interview with Marek please follow this link.
 

Ivana Karhanová  (February 2017)

Ivana Karhanová (née Šalomonová in Znojmo) and finished her Master’s studies at the IES in 2005. She began gathering work experience while a student first as a hotel desk manager and later as a financial advisor. She continued working as a financial advisor after her graduation until 2008 when she joined Czech Television as a presenter for the programs “Studio Burza” and “Investorský magazín” on CT24. She stayed at Czech TV for two years before moving to Z1 television as an editor and a presenter of economic news. When Z1 TV ceased broadcasting Ivana started her own business, the PR agency Margetroid, which serves clients in the financial and investment sector. In addition, Ivana founded a babyfriendly café called “Králík v rádiu”(“Rabbit in the Radio”) The cafe quickly found a loyal clientele, leading Ivana to open a second establishment, a childrens` playroom with bistro, in autumn 2016. Ivana devotes her free time mostly to her family and to athletic activities such as running long-distance races.

For interview with Ivana please follow this link.

Ondřej Strádal (January 2017)

Ondřej Strádal comes from Liberec and he received his master's degree at the IES in 1998. Besides IES he also passed CFA exams, which he successfully completed in 2003. Immediately after the graduation at the IES he started to work at the Dealing of the Czech National Bank, where he spent nearly six years. In 2004 he began to work in London at Goldman Sachs as a Bond Salesman. There, he was in charge of relations with a number of central banks within the field of investing their foreign exchange reserves. In 2007 he returned back to the Czech Republic to the Czech National Bank as a Senior Portfolio Manager and not later than in two years later, Ondřej became the Head of Foreign Reserves Management. He managed a team of six portfolio managers investing foreign exchange reserves of the CNB. He was responsible for assets that increased up to over 70 billion USD during the intervention. In December 2016 he became an advisor of Michaela Erbenová, one of the executive directors of the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.. He is in charge of preparation of her speeches and statements, in order to reflect the interests of the countries represented in the Fund. He also takes care of the relations between the Czech Republic and the IMF.
In his spare time he likes reading, he is interested mainly in modern history and politics. He enjoys hockey, which he watches regularly and plays personally at an amateur level.

For interview with Ondřej please follow this link.

Jiří Poláček (December 2016)

Jiří Poláček, born in Prague, finished his master studies at the IES in 2014. A year after the graduation he managed to get his PhDr. title here. During his studies at the IES Jiří spent an Erasmus stay in Italy at the University of Bologna and he gained experience in the Advanced Risk Management company, where he was auditing models of credit and market risk.
But Jiří does not only deal with Economics. When finishing his first year at the IES, Jiří began to study opera singing and acting at the Prague Conservatoire and he graduated here in 2015. During his studies of opera singing he successfully participated in several singing competitions, he was awarded first prize in the competition of Bohuslav Martinů, the Mozartian Dušek competition, or in the contest of Conservatories in Pardubice. He performed, for example, as Podkolesin in The Mariagge of Bohuslav Martinů in the Theatre of J.K.Tyla in Pilsen or as Count Baccelone in Gassman’s La Contessina in Český Krumlov. Currently he sings the role of Masetto in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni in Prague Estates Theatre. Jiří also participates in the project of the Prague State Opera for children where he performs the role of Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute or Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen.
In addition to his artistic career Jiří remains loyal to his original profession. He combines his artistic ambitions with his economic education. Right after the graduation from the IES, Jiří started to work in GE Money Bank at the position of Scoring Analyst and since this year, he works here as a Model Governance Analyst.
Besides singing he enjoys theater, literature and traveling.

For interview with Jiří please follow this link.

Katřina Kortová (November 2016)

Kateřina Kortová was born in Nové Město na Moravě, and currently lives in Jersey, a small British island that is part of the Channel Islands. She has been working there for PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP as an Associate for almost a year and a half and so far she has successfully passed her ACCA exams.
She finished her studies at the IES in 2013 with a master's degree. A year later, she gained another master's degree at the Tilburg University in the Netherlands. After she studied she started working as an Accounting Analyst in the Slovak branch of IBM. In August 2015, she moved to Jersey to work in the Advisory practice at PwC.
During her studies at the IES, Kateřina worked for more than a year at PwC Czech Republic in the Business Recovery Services and later as a secretary of the Turnaround Management Association Czech Republic. She also completed an internship at the office of the Chief Economist at Komercni banka.
In her spare time, Kateřina likes to cook and discover new restaurants. She also enjoys hiking and during the winter, skiing and snowboarding.

For interview with Kateřina please follow this link.

Jakub Rojček (October 2016)

Jakub Rojček comes from Zilina in Slovakia and he graduated as a Bachelor at the IES in 2008. At the same time, he also gained a bachelor's degree at the University of Economics in Prague. Jakub continued with his studies in Germany at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, and in 2010 he achieved his MSc. in Bonn. In 2010, Jakub started with his Ph.D. studies at the University of Zürich in Switzerland, and this year, this study was successfully completed. In his research he focused on topics like Market microstructure, High-frequency Trading, Quantitative Finance and Asset Pricing. He also spent several months as a Research Assistant in Vancouver, Canada in 2015. In addition to regular studies he attended several summer schools, such as the Summer School in Quantitative Finance in Prague or Complex System Summer School in Santa Fe, USA. Jakub gathered his working experience already during his undergraduate studies, either as a research assistant of Professor Karel Janda, or as an Operations Analyst at Wood & Co., while there he later worked as a Business Analyst. After successful completion of his doctoral studies Jakub stays in Switzerland and since June 2016 he joined LGT Capital Partners as an Asset Allocation Analyst.
In his free time Jakub plays floorball, he enjoys diving, travelling and trail running.

For interview with Jakub follow this link.

Petra Valíčková (September 2016)

Petra is from Silesia, Třinec. She finished her Masters degree in 2012 and has since continued with her PhD studies at the IES while also working as an Economic Consultant in London. She completed her undergraduate degree at Masaryk University in Brno at the Faculty of Economics and Administration. During that time she spent one year at École Supérieure de Commerce in Montpellier, France, and also worked for a non-governmental organisation: Le Mouvement Européen-France in Paris. She completed her studies with first class honours and then moved to the IES for her postgraduate studies. While completing her Masters degree she taught French and in 2011 started working for Ernst & Young in the Performance & Improvement Department in Prague. At the IES she received a number of awards, such as the Renomia Recognition Award for work in development economics and the Karel Engliš Award for the best graduate in social sciences. She also participated in a university exchange program in Australia, at the University of Queensland. As for her career, after having worked at Ernst & Young for two years, in 2013 Petra joined an international economics consultancy in London, Frontier Economics, where she currently focuses on energy markets. From October 2016, Petra will also be teaching a new course at the IES – Energy Markets & Economics. In her free time Petra enjoys sports, especially cycling, hiking and running. Recently, and for the first time, she ran a half-marathon. When not busy with sports, Petra likes trying out new recipes and exploring new places such as sidewalk cafes or local restaurants. She also loves travelling and spending time with her friends and family.

For interview with Petra follow this link.

Radek Halamka (August 2016)

Originally from Havlíčkův Brod, Radek Halamka finished his studies at the IES in 2015 and now he works in London, at Enclude as an Analyst in Capital Advisory Services. Enclude is a company that works only with clients who generate, besides of their financial profit, positive impact on the society and environment. He started there right after finishing his Master at the IES, also thanks to his previous working experience with Global Alliance for Banking on Values as part of an Erasmus+ internship. Global Alliance for Banking on Values is a member organisation of banks that use their assets to make positive changes to the world around us. Radek found the internship by following the topic of his diploma thesis on ethical banking. Prior to that he spent a year working as a Financial Analyst at Accenture, and from 2012 to 2015 he was a lead of a regional unit of the International Human Rights Film Festival One World in Havlíčkův Brod. Apart from his studies of Economics Radek also graduated from Political Science and International Relations at FSS CU and he got through summer schools: Summer School on Social Banking, Institute for Social Banking, or American Institute on Political and Economic Systems, TFAS Summer School. While studying Political Science, Radek spent a semester at the Lund University in Sweden. In his free time Radek likes cycling, jogging, reading and spending the time with his family and girlfriend.

For interview with Radek follow this link.

Ladislav Wintr (July 2016)

Originally from Přerov, Ladislav Wintr graduated from the IES in 2002. His Master’s thesis was awarded the Dean’s honors and the Karel Engliš Award by the Charles University Rector for the best M.A. thesis. During his studies, Ladislav spent one semester in Ireland at the University of Limerick in the framework of the Erasmus program. While studying, he was also working as a programmer. After finishing the IES, he continued his studies in the USA. He got another M.A. degree at Clark University and received his Ph.D. from the same university in 2006 in the field of applied econometrics and industrial organization. In 2004 he was a trainee at the Central Bank of Luxembourg, where he, among others, analyzed pricing in the e-commerce. After finishing his Ph.D. in the USA, he worked at the National Bank of Belgium as an economist/researcher and came back to the Central Bank of Luxembourg as an economist in 2008. Here he conducts research in the field of monetary policy and labor economics. Ladislav spends his free time with his family, and when he has some spare time, he enjoys digital photography, cycling and hiking.

For interview with Ladislav follow this link.

Svatoslav Kylar (June 2016)

Svatoslav Kylar comes from Liberec and he has finished his Master studies at the IES in 2000. For the last 8 years, he works as a Partner at the management consulting company Grant Thornton Advisory. Currently he is running over a new startup SimpleCell in Slovakia as well. He started to work at Grant Thornton Advisory in 2008, the original name of the company was Facility. Despite of the demanding working position of Partner, he managed to graduate from foreign university. He gained a title Master of Laws at the Nottingham Trent University. Sváťa acquired experience even as a Head of Regulatory & Competition Affairs at Czech Post or as a Head of Costing & Profitability at Czech Telecom (later Telefonica O2). He started to work while doing his Master´s at the IES. He became a Relationship Manager at IPB and he fluently continued with this job after the end of his studies.
Sváťa devotes almost all his free time to his family and to sport. He enjoys triathlon; he likes testing and crossing his own physical abilities at the long-distance races like” Ironman”.

For interview with Svatoslav follow this link.

Markéta Mravcová (May 2016)

Markéta Mravcová, by her maiden name Šlaisová, comes from Prague and she finished her studies at the IES with the PhDr. in 2001. During her Master studies, she spent a semester at the Humboldt University in Berlin. After this experience, still studying, she started to work as a Research Analyst at CDA. After finishing her Masters she joined the company EEIP, where she was a Consultant for RWE within the project of privatization of Czech gas industry. And that was a forming moment for her future career. In 2002 Markéta started to work directly at RWE as an Analyst and then she moved to a position of a Senior Manager, where she led a team of 5 people. In 2007 Markéta became a team leader of Sales Governance and was responsible for portfolio management, pricing and sales controlling across all RWE sales companies in CZ. After that Markéta had two short career breaks to fulfill her maternity duties, but she returned back to work soon. Since 2013 she has been working as a Senior Manager Commercial Modelling & Sales Business Development and currently she works as Senior Manager of Innovations & Sales Business Development. Apart from her job, Markéta devotes her time to coaching. She is a certified coach. Markéta spends her free time with her family, she likes skiing, cycling, mountain hiking, modern dancing and yoga.

For interview with Markéta follow this link.

Sylvie Dvořáková (April 2016)

Sylvie Dvořáková finished her studies at the IES with the PhDr. in Economics in 2014. She passed two study stays abroad, first at the University of Sorbonne in Paris and the second at the University of Washington in Seattle. On the second one she appeared on the Dean's List, for excellent study results. She was also a member of academic senate at the FSS CU. In 2010. she started working as an Executive Assistant to PhDr. Tomáš Sedláček. Among her duties, Sylvie was responsible for his time schedule, she was organizing his foreign travels and the propagation of his book Economics of Good and Evil. At the same time Sylvie was working for the National Economic Council of the Czech Government as the main coordinator of its student part. She was responsible for hiring new students, she also participated at the proceedings, and as a member of Public Finance subcommittee she, together with Tomáš Sedláček, wrote a document recapitalizing all Public Finance reforms and world institutions’ recommendations since 1999. After completing her master studies, Sylvie started to work as a Business Analyst at the department of Risk Consulting at KPMG. She focused mainly on the consulting within the banking sector. She also became the face of the KPMG hiring campaign. In 2015 Sylvie was hired to PPF group as a Regulatory Reporting Specialist Senior. Currently she works there as a Head of Regulatory Reporting and she is responsible for the regulatory reporting for the financial part of the Group to the Czech National Bank. She deals with banking and prudential regulation in terms of capital and liquidity adequacy according to CRR/CRD regulation. In her free time, Sylvie likes painting, indoor climbing, badminton, she meditates and is interested in personal development.

For interview with Sylvie follow this link.

Pavel Streblov (March 2016)

Pavel Streblov comes from Mariánské Lázně and he finished his studies at the IES in 2005. Since 2012 he has been working at the development section of Penta Investments as Senior Business Development Manager. He is responsible for major development projects in Prague, such as the revitalization of the former factory Waltrovka, the project „Business Central District“ in the surroundings of the Masaryk Train Station and he is also involved in the expansion of the real estate division of Penta in Poland. Before 2012 Pavel was working as an External Advisor for the revitalization of banking real estate portfolios and as an Investment Manager at the Discovery Group Fund 3C L.P. He was responsible for the analyses and for the acquisitions of the real estate projects in there. Even during his Bachelor studies Pavel, together with some his IES colleagues, was working in the commercial think-tank e-Merit on the publication The Rise and Fall of IPB. He prospered from this knowledge of the banking sector at the position of an Advisor at the Ministry of Finance which lasted two years and later on at the internship in London at JPMorgan. After the graduation at the IES, Pavel started to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science and in 2006 he gained another MSc in European Political Economy. In 2014 Pavel acquired the third MSc in Real Estate at the University of Reading. Pavel relaxes mainly by the sport; he plays basketball and he likes skiing, sailing and windsurfing.

For interview with Pavel follow this link.

Katarína Marková (February 2016)

Katarína Marková comes from the Slovak Bratislava. She finished her studies at the IES in 2009. During her Master’s studies she passed a study stay at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Her working path has started at the company EEIP, after that she started to work in Bancroft Private Equity at the position of the Investment Analyst. During this practice, she also spent some time in Vienna. In 2012 she begun to work in the Strategy Division of ČEZ. Two years later Katarina moved to Israel where she started to study Soafer International MBA at the Tel Aviv University. While studying she has been interning in the Incentive technology incubator and now, after completing her MBA, she works at KPMG as Senior Associate in M&A. She helps Israeli companies with international expansion, mainly through raising of capital from international investors. She also volunteers at the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel. In her free time, Katarína likes travelling, does joga, and she studies Hebrew.

For interview with Katarína follow this link.

Tomáš Vyhnánek  (January 2016)

Tomáš Vyhnánek was born in České Budějovice and graduated at the IES in 2005. Since July 2015, Tomas has been the Deputy Minister of Finance - section Financial Management and Audit. Previously, he was the Director of Central Harmonization Unit. Tomáš is an expert in Analysis, Controlling and Audit of Public Finances. He has held various managerial positions at Deloitte Advisory and CSOB with focus on public administration. He also worked as the Director of Analytical Departments of the Ministry of Health. Tomáš started his career during his studies at the IES. He founded with other students the e-Merit company, which specializes in the analysis and case studies of leading transformation projects. The main project of this student commercial think-tank was the study The Rise and Fall of IPB (2002). During undergraduate studies, Tomáš also worked in the Office of the President of the Senate. After successful Bachelor's degrees in Economics at the IES and Political Science and International Relations at the IPS FSV UK, Tomáš chose the field of Economic Policy for his Master's program. He studied Czech studies and history on the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University, but he did not finish these studies. Tomas devotes his leisure mainly to organizational and educational activities within the Embellishment Society for Terčino Valley, New Castle and surroundings, of which he is Vice-Chairman.

For interview with Tomáš follow this link.

Tereza Lokajíčková (December 2015)

Tereza Lokajíčková was born in Prague and finished her studies at the IES in 2010. She managed to pass her first study stay abroad at the University of Bath, UK, already during her bachelor studies. For her Master she chose the programme Economics, Economic Policy and European Integration. Meanwhile, she started to work as audit assistant in Deloitte where she stayed for two years. During her Master’s programme, she started to do research for the French Institute for Research in Social Science and she worked as financial analyst in Discovery Group. In 2010 she moved to Belgium, where she was hired by ING as business and market analyst. Later she got the position of socio-economic analyst at the European Commission. At the same time Tereza studied law at the University of London and she passed several courses at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. Currently, she works as case handler in Directorate-General for Competition at the European Commission. In her free time, Tereza plays the saxophone in a Czech music group and she likes dancing. However, she spends most of her free time with her family, she is married and she has a two-year-old daughter.

For interview with Tereza follow this link.

Filip Rozsypal (November 2015)

Filip Rozsypal was born in Prague and he started his studies at the IES in 2002. A year later he began to study at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the Charles University. He successfully finished both with the Bachelor degree and then continued at the IES in Master program Economic Theories. Meanwhile he spent a semester abroad, in France at the University of Sorbonne. After finishing his Masters, Filip decided to study at the prestigious London School of Economics and was awarded a second Master degree here. Thanks to the scholarship from the Bakala Foundation, Filip continued in his doctoral studies in Cambridge. He spent an academic year in the USA at the Stanford University. Filip finished his doctorate title this year (2015) and he started to work as a Research Office (Post-Doc.) at the London School of Economics in May. When he has some spare time, Filip relaxes by playing football, chess and guitar. He admits, however, that he has almost no time for these hobbies.

For interview with Filip follow this link.  

Vít Bubák (October 2015)

Vít Bubák comes from Pardubice and he finished his doctoral studies at the IES in 2010. During his studies he had a number of study stays abroad. As soon as he enrolled in the Masters program, he spent a semester at the University of Queensland and right after that at Université Catholique de Louvain. He finished his Masters at the IES in 2005 and, while a doctoral student, he also worked at Wood & Company in Prague, taught courses at the IES and at the Anglo American University in Prague, and graduated with a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Iowa. In 2010, he finished his doctoral studies and was awarded a doctoral degree both by the IES and Sorbonne in Paris. He has subsequently worked as an Associate Director for Fitch Solutions in London and New York, spent some time working as an Analytical Consultant at Credit Capital Advisory, and currently works as a Statistician/Lead Analytical Consultant at Dun and Bradstreet in Washington, D.C. Vít was awarded a number of scholarships, e.g. from the French government, from Accenture/Open Society Fund, Sasakawa Young Leaders Foundation, and others. His research was awarded the Gaudeamus Award and two Alumni Prizes. Vít devotes his free time to his family.

For interview with Vít follow this link.  

Petra Šobotníková (September 2015)

Petra Šobotníková was born in Prague and after attending a bilingual high school she started to study at the Institute of Economic Studies. During her studies, she participated in a couple of study abroad trips. She spent a semester in Germany, at the University of Hamburg, and later one term in the USA, Seattle, at the University of Washington. She has even been awarded a Quarterly Dean’s List honors there. Petra finished her master studies in 2011 and in the same year she started to work at PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit in Prague in the Assurance Department. In 2014 she was offered a job to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the United Kingdom in the town of Milton Keynes. She works there as Senior Associate. Petra is currently finishing her ACCA qualification and in her free time  she travels a lot.  

For interview with Petra follow this link.   

Jan Zika (August 2015)

Jan Zika graduated from IES’s finance and banking program in 2007. He started his professional career in investment banking but soon switched to media. He has a varied background in television production having launched the Czech Republic’s first business news channel Z1 as Managing Editor and Head of Programming. In addition to programming strategy for the channel he also managed development of on-air graphics systems and data-driven financial graphics. At Czech Television, the Czech Republic’s national broadcaster, Jan oversaw graphics production for the Evening News, revived the on-air presentation style, and later served as news anchor and host of the morning news programs on the CT1 and CT24 channels. He has also consulted on production and content management systems and user experience design. Due to his broad array of experience in television and product development he was hired by NBCUniversal, the world’s largest mass-media company, to support its growth in real-time graphics.

For interview with Jan follow this link. 

Tomáš Roubal  (July 2015)

Tomáš Roubal was born in South Bohemia and he graduated at the IES in 2005. During his studies he spent a semester in Finland, at the Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan, and later another semester in Germany, at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität. In the course of these study stays he was interested in health economics and he focused on this also during his studies at the University of New Orleans, USA. He has devoted his whole career to the field of health economics and health policy. In 2007 he worked at the Ministry of Health, as Main analyst, later on as Project manager, Advisor to the Minister of Health or Head of division of the health insurance funds regulation. In 2012 Tomáš worked at the OECD in Paris as an Intern. Currently, he is working as Health economist at the World Health Organization in South Africa, in Pretoria. Tomáš spends his free time by reading books, cycling, and practicing Iyengar yoga. He likes travelling as well, mostly going back to the Czech Republic.

For interview with Tomáš follow this link. 

Zuzana Posoldová (June 2015)

Zuzana Posoldová (maiden name Tóthová) comes from Nove Zamky in Slovakia. She finished her studies at the IES in 2007. During her high-school studies she gained a number of foreign experiences. First, she spent a year studying in Australia and the following year at a high-school in Austria. She continued in her studies abroad also during university studies. During her Bachelors she spent a year at the University of Bath in the UK. During her Masters she chose the specialization of Finance and Banking and she passed a semester at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Furthermore, she studied French at the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis in France. She speaks six languages fluently. Zuzana started her career during her Bachelor studies. In 2002, she began to work as an Analyst and PR assistant at BNP Paribas Asset Management. When she graduated, she became a Credit Analyst at BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking. In 2010, she moved to Sweden, where she took on the position of the Head of Credit Analysts at BNP Paribas Fortis. She is currently on maternity leave with her second child. In her free time Zuzana enjoys cycling, skating, snowboarding and travelling.

For interview with Zuzana follow this link. 

Viktor Zeisel (May 2015)

Viktor Zeisel was born in Prague and he finished his studies at the IES in 2011. He currently works at Komerční banka as an Economist, and he has been devoted to banking since the time of his studies. Viktor started his career at the department of the Investor relations at ČSOB where he worked during his bachelor studies. Then he spent a year abroad, at the University of Constance in Germany, partially thanks to the Erasmus program and partially thanks to the joint scholarship of Uof C, German-Czech company in Constance and the town Constance. When choosing his masters program, Victor decided to study the IES/CERGE-EI Joint Master in Economic Theory. At the same time he began to work at Komerční banka as an Analyst. Viktor later switched to the position of Economist in Monetary and Statistics Department at the Czech National Bank. He recently came back to Komerční banka as a senior Economist. Viktor spends his free time mainly doing sports activityies - he likes biking, hiking or swimming. He also relaxes by reading.

For interview with Viktor follow this link. 

Michal Šinka (April 2015)

Michal Šinka was born in Trenčín, Slovakia, and he graduated from the IES in 2011. His career path, however, took a completely different direction. Currently he lives in Prague and he is a professional musician and music producer. Michal has played the guitar since he was a child and after finishing high school he started to study at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague. At the same time he began to study at the IES, as economic studies were the way to leave the door open for a career other than music. He finished both programs in the same year, and even after that he published several economic papers. Nevertheless, the music won. Michal was awarded a scholarship for the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, where he continued with his musical studies and majored in Guitar Performance and Contemporary Writing & Production. He finished it in 2014. Even during his studies he started composing and producing music. He combines classical guitar music with jazz, Brazilian styles and pop. Currently, Michal cooperates e.g. with a young American singer Claudia Atkinson. When he is not involved with music, he studies foreign languages. Together with travelling, this activity is one of his favorite ways to spend his free time.

For interview with Michal follow this link.  

Adrian Lupusor  (March 2015)

Adrian Lupusor comes from Chisina, Republic of Moldova. He started his studies at the Academy of Economic Studies in Moldova where he received an MA in Financial and Banking Administration in 2010. The same year he began to study with us in the Master in Economics and Finance. He finished graduating “cum laude” in 2012. Adrian started to gain his working experience during his studies.

For interview with Adrian follow this link.   

Ivona Butcher  (February 2015)

Ivona Butcher (maiden name Hrušová) was born in Pardubice. She finished her studies at the IES, with a major in Finance, Financial Markets and Banking in 2011 with the PhDr. title. During her bachelor studies, she took the opportunity to spend a semester as an exchange student in Denmark. During her master studies at the IES, she started to work intensively on her career development in Next Finance and at the same time she received a Masters in Economics from WarsawUniversity. In the company Next Finace she worked as an Analyst of Financial Markets. In 2011 Ivona moved to the USA to study M.B.A. at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. After graduation in 2013, she started to work at the company Magnitude Capital in New York. She is responsible for researching investment strategies and development of business opportunities and new products. She also founded and manages Czech Sport Horse, a company that acts as a dealer between horse breeders and professional equestrians. No wonder that horses are her biggest hobby. Ivona spends the majority of her free time with them, by training  them in show jumping. If time allows her she relaxes with exercise – she does the triathlon.

For interview with Ivona follow this link.