Robert Kaplan comes from Prague and graduated fromthe  IES in 2017. During his studies he started to work at various positions at Wood & Company and PwC.

This was followed by the position of EMEIA Restructuring Manager at EY consultancy, where he spent more than three years. In 2022, he joined Skoda Group, where he worked his way up from manager to Director of Corporate Finance. Here he stayed until the beginning of this year. He then moved to Natland as an investment manager. While working and studying, he also served 6 years in the active reserves of the Czech Army.

In his spare time, he enjoys his family, triathlon and he is also discovering the secrets of art collecting.

Robert, you graduated from the IES several years ago. Do you still remember what you enjoyed most at the IES and why?

The years at IES are not easily forgotten, I vividly remember mathematics classes when my main goal was to write down everything what Associate Professor Johanis said without necessarily knowing what I was writing down. The key was to secure as many notes as possible tostudy and understand it later.

Most of all, I enjoyed spending time with my classmates, and I consider the intimacy of IES to be its great asset. Thanks to the common events, we all know each other in the cohort, some of us I know maybe only by sight, but we know about each other. Those relationships continue to hold up in working life and the collaboration with the IES alumni is always perfect. It has that "something extra".

You started your career at various "consulting" positions at PwC and EY.  How do you assess this experience in retrospect? Was it a good steppingstone? What did these experiences teach you?

Big4 may not be a good choice for everyone. For me personally it was a great experience, but it's always about the people. I've been lucky with the people I've had the opportunity to work with.

At PwC, I worked with partner Petr Smutný in the Business Restructuring Services team, which specializes in distressed assets.  Most often these are over-indebted companies that do not have enough cash to pay their liabilities and are often in a state of insolvency from an insolvency law perspective.  I learned financial analysis, business planning, cash flow, operational restructuring, as well as the basics of insolvency and commercial law.

Then you switched to another Big4 firm?

Yes, I was approached by EY to join their newly established restructuring team for the CEE region. Although I was happy at PwC, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to work on large projects across the region with investment bankers from London.

At EY I got to work on projects orders of magnitude larger, we were dealing with hundreds of millions of euros instead of hundreds of millions of crowns, working with more complex capital structures across Europe and at London's pace. Again, I was lucky with the people, and the experience of having two partners leading the team - Raj Apte and Ben Trask - was crucial to my career.

Raj is a top salesman and Ben is a textbook leader. I had high expectations to see this in practice, in negotiations.

I was looking forward to being in a meeting room with them with a potential client, with Raj structuring his speech to invite questions that would record back to him, and at the end of the meeting, the client leaving eager to start working with us, because we were the only ones in the world who could provide the services he wanted, but also the ones he didn't originally want but found he needed.

Ben, on the other hand, cared very much about my development, he always gave me the ideal level of responsibility, sometimes deliberately throwing me into the water for a meeting so that I could take a bath, start swimming and improve the next time. Even after I left EY, he remains my mentor.

Big4 was the perfect corner stone for me, but primarily because of these people I had the opportunity to work with.

Moving away from work, you also spent a few years in the active reserves of the Czech Army, what does that experience look like and what does it entail?

I found the Active Reserves an interesting way to get out of my social bubble, learn something, spend my free time actively, and still get paid for it a little. In a nutshell, the way it works is that you go on 3 to 6 weeks of training per year and get unpaid time off from your employer to do it. He gets financial compensation for it, but it's somewhere around 2/3 of the average wage in the country, I think. So once your wage is above the average wage and you're not perfectly replaceable, it's not entirely pleasant for the employer. That's why I too have been going about half and half as part of my vacation.

And what does that entail? Most units of the Czech Army have an active reserve unit and each unit operates according to its specialization (paratroopers, reconnaissance, tankers, cyber warfare, military police, infantry companies, special forces). I wanted to join a unit where I could learn as much as I could while still being physically challenged. I joined the 43rd Airborne Regiment in Chrudim, where there are now four professional commandos (originally companies) and the 5th Active Reserve Commando. To become a member, you have to go through a special selection process where you do a lot of running, training and not much sleep. The selection process is the same as for professional soldiers, only there are more lenient limits in some disciplines.

In the actual training, under the guidance of professional instructors or fellow professional commandos, you learn how to operate weapons, move and survive in the open or in a built-up area, set up and execute an ambush, navigate terrain, parachute jump, and handle explosives. In short, you are replicating what a professional soldier in your unit is taught. In the six years since 2017, the work with reservists has progressed tremendously and today they are almost fully integrated into the professional unit and are starting to gain experience during joint-military trainings abroad and, for selected candidates, on foreign missions.

It has been an amazing experience and I recommend it to anyone considering it. I quit last year after my son was born so I could spend my free time with him.

You worked for a few years at Škoda Group, where you rose to the position of Director of Corporate Finance in a relatively short period of time. That must have been a very responsible and demanding job. How did you manage to combine leisure, personal life and work?

(Alternatively, can you elaborate on what it was like to work at Skoda Group, what you were specifically responsible for...)

Until recently, Škoda Group in Plzeň, or Škoda Transportation, has been going through a difficult period. In the last 5 years or so, under PPF's leadership, it has more than doubled its revenues to 1 billion euros, while at the same time its profitability has struggled with supply chain disruptions, inflation, energy price volatility, wage increases, the war in Ukraine and the closure of the Russian market, and high financing costs. Into this I was hired by PPF to help the then CFO with the transformation of Skoda.

Immediately after I joined, an interesting investment opportunity arose, which I took on and gradually took over the management of the entire transaction. I got the trust of management and the M&A agenda became my primary responsibility. We completed two foreign transactions and one fell through just shortly before signing the contract.

Unfortunately, two key people I worked with, left after a year and we appeared in a bit of a dry spell. Škoda then tried to find its way out, but during the next six months without any significant progress I decided that it would be best to look for a more suitable position that would bring me the opportunity for realization and also further growth.

Škoda is fortunate to have as strong partner as PPF behind, and according to the latest news, things are moving in a good direction again, so my fingers are crossed for Škoda.

You are currently experiencing a new challenge, you are in a new position in Natland investment group. What challenges are you facing and what are you looking forward to here? What exactly will you be doing?

In January 2024, I became an investment manager at Natland Group. And my first, current feeling is excitement. I think I've come to the ideal company at the ideal time.

Natland is a financial investor with many years of experience in crisis management and complex resolution of distressed companies, rescuing companies in distress. Here I can use all my Big4 and Skoda experience, while still learning new things. Natland has grown quite a bit over the last couple of years and is now strengthening its investment team and it's great to be able to be a part of that and choose my team.

My responsibility is to manage projects that are going through some complicated situation, have problems of various causes. The job includes activities ranging from structuring transactions, crisis management, financial modelling, cash flow management, negotiating with suppliers, customers, banks, setting the strategic direction of portfolio companies, to HR or even setting up warehouse and quality management processes. The work is very varied and requires one to be able to dive into the smallest detail one day, solve a problem and ensure the solution is implemented, but again be able to  make big strategic decisions the next day. This is all in the relatively high pace at which Natland works, but generally in situations where simply solving a problem and saving a business needs to be as quick as possible to protect its value. It is that dynamism, speed and ability to adapt flexibly to the situation that is Natland's competitive advantage and what I enjoy about the job.

Given the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty combined with Natland's potential, I can't think of many more interesting jobs at the current moment.

What are your hobbies?

Now I spend the vast majority of my free time with my wife and our nearly two year old son. I usually do some sport in the morning, last year I added swimming to running and cycling and started with triathlon. I completed a half ironman race in Doksy and if time permits I would like to train and get closer to the 5 hour limit. I like reading (I recommend to all IES students the biography of Alan Greenspan, which is also a history of monetary policy, called "The Man Who Knew" by Sebastian Mallaby). I also enjoy learning foreign languages or playing chess. Recently, I have delved into  arts and art market.