Barbora studied international business at the Prague University of Economics and Business. She worked in the economic department of the Czech Embassy in Rome when she started to provide expert advisory services to health and lifestyle companies entering the Italian market. During her nine years of experience in international business, she also managed clients in North and South America, Asia, and Australia for several companies. For the last two years, she has been developing the B2B business of GymBeam, the fastest-growing active and healthy lifestyle brand in the CEE region.

He graduated from the University of Brno (1983–1988) with a degree in Czech language and history, after which he worked as a historian in a museum. In the nineteen eighties he was involved in independent civic activities against the communist dictatorship. After November 1989 he founded the field of political science. The positions he has held since then include head of the Department of Political Science (1993–2002) and the Department of International Relations and European Studies (2002–2004), director of the International Institute of Political Science (1996–2004), director of the Institute for Comparative Political Research (2005–2011) and the dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University (2004).

As rector he served two terms as head of Masaryk University (2004–2011), which during that time became the most popular Czech university and one of Central Europe’s leading educational and research institutions. For many years he has worked for institutions and bodies focusing on university education and research in the Czech Republic and abroad, and was also the chair of the Czech Rectors’ Conference (2009–2011). He has held a number of public and professional offices, including, for example, membership of the Board of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Accreditation Commission, the vice-chairmanship of the Research, Development and Innovation Council, and served as the chief scientific adviser to the Prime Minister. In his scientific work he specialises in comparative political science, European politics and conservative political thinking. He is the author of more than 20 books and 300 professional studies published in the Czech Republic and abroad.

In 2012–2013 he was Minister of Education in Petr Nečas’s government; he succeeded in bringing stability to the department and his conceptual and convincing work quickly won him the trust of the general public.

In October 2013 he was a non-partisan candidate for the South Moravian ODS and was elected as a member of parliament. He joined ODS on 7 November 2013, and was elected party leader in January 2014. He retained his leadership in January 2016, 2018 and 2020. In October 2017 he was the ODS nationwide and South Moravian leader in the elections, in which ODS became the second strongest political party. In November of the same year he was elected Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In autumn 2020 he became the nationwide leader of the newly formed electoral coalition SPOLU (ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09). In October 2021 the SPOLU coalition won the parliamentary elections with a percentage of 27.8 %. He was appointed Prime Minister on 28 November 2021. Members of his Government were appointed on 17 December 2021.

Martin lead George (Erste Digital Ecosystem) from prototype to the most strategic platform for the future of the Erste Group, with 8M customers, across 6 countries. Massively improving ERSTE’s brand perception, accelerating customer acquisition and multiplying customer engagement and product sales.
Scaled the internal start-up team from 20 FTE to over 250+ FTE with radically evolving agile & engineering maturity.
Set-up new level of business and IT group governance for Digital across ERSTE Group improving our ability of cross-country collaboration.
Initiated or driven multiple innovation activities like Mobile Banking in Slovakia(2012), Customer-focused cross-group web portal(2015), ERSTE Open API Hub(2016).
Led architecture & development on an enterprise level.
Finished implementation, customer roll-out, and stabilisation of multiple struggling core banking projects( biggest 170 Mio € & 7 years duration).
Set-up key competence or near-shoring centers reducing vendor lock or increasing delivery efficiency.

CEO&Founder M.arter: educational and networking platform for women and men on parental leave. She helps them with the return to the labor market, with personal development and with starting and developing their own business. Also she helps employers in matters of employee care, recruitment or marketing and CSR activities.

Co-founder&COO of Jaké chceš Česko?: information and networking platform with a purpose to restart the business environment and society after the outbreak of COVID-19.

Freedompreneur of the Year 2019 Central European Startup Awards

Social Impact Award alumni.

She mentors individuals, startups and non-profits, helping them to grow further. Last but not least, she is an enthusiast of marketing, leadership, community building and social innovation.

Katarína has worked for Tesco since 2000, when she became purchasing coordinator. Since then, she has gone through several positions, which allowed her to learn a lot about the different parts of the business. After several positions in the commercial department, Katarína moved to Turkey, where she took over the role of Sales Director at Tesco-Kipa and at the same time, became a member of the Board of Directors. After returning home she became HR Director for Central Europe and a member of the Exec team. She became Product Director for Central Europe and played a key role in building partnerships with our suppliers, enabling us to deliver healthy, affordable, and sustainable products to our customers. She currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Czech Republic.

Although she likes to develop at work, her family is just as important. Katarina is the mother of two. She likes to engage in sports with her family and spend her free time actively while cycling, hiking, or skiing. 

Jan Kohout is a partner at PRK Partners. He joined PRK Partners immediately after graduating from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague in 1997.
and has been a partner at PRK Partners since 2004. In 2000, he also received his JUDr. Degree from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague.

Jan has extensive experience in corporate law, project finance, foreign investments, and cross-border transactions. He also focuses on information technology law and compliance.

Growing up in a bilingual environment, he has two native languages – Czech and Russian. He is also fluent in English.

Jan is a member of the CBA (attorney at law since 2000), and after eight years of membership in its Audit Committee, he is now a member of the CBA Disciplinary Appeal Committee. He is also a member of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors with Eastern Europe and Central Asia and an external consultant of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic in the BusinessEurope organization. He is also registered as an arbitrator with the Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC).

A journalist and author of some 20 books, most recently a “how-to guide for the 50-year-old” called My Wife Promised Me a Black Girl. He worked for Reflex and Lidové noviny, and from 2013 to 2019, he was editor-in-chief of the online version of Hospodářské noviny.

Since June 2019, he has been a regular contributor to Seznam Zprav.

In recent years, he has also been performing as a stand-up comedian as part of the fight against the midlife crisis.

Executive Director of Czechitas, coach, mentor | TEDx speaker, manager of the year and ex-Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte for Central Europe and the Czech Republic.

Martin Tengler is BloombergNEF’s Head of Hydrogen Research. Before moving to Prague in January 2023, he spent eight years in Tokyo.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Martin co-founded Dendra Systems, a company that helps restore nature using drones and other cutting-edge technology. He holds an MA in Economics from Tokyo University and an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from Oxford University.

Since joining the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, Michael has been building entrepreneurial programs for the university. He currently manages PCI Ventures, which includes UPstart, UPadvisors, and Venture WarmUP, while also providing incubation services at Penn’s incubator, The Pennovation Center. As part of these programs, he has participated in the founding of over 250 companies, which have gone on to raise over $600 million in funding.

Prior to Penn, Michael made investments in enterprise software and business services for NewSpring Capital, Apax Partners and GE Capital spanning more than ten years in private equity. He began his career in manufacturing operations for General Electric/Lockheed Martin and participated in the successful completion of several commercial and government satellite programs. 

Michael graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, holds an M.S. in Systems Engineering from The Moore School of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, and has an M.B.A. in finance and entrepreneurial management from The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.