Founders

The Czech Republic’s first lady between 1997 and 2003. In 1997, Dagmar and Václav Havel founded the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97, which focuses on the areas of culture, carcinology, education, human rights etc. She has been awarded many prizes as well as honorary academic degrees for her achievements. She resumed her former profession of a theatre actress this year.

In the 1970s and 1980s participated in publishing translations of socio-scientific literature. Since 2000, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague and at T.G. Masaryk University in Brno. He has been the chairman of Masaryk Czech Sociological Society and also works as an expert for the World Bank.

Senator, Parliament of the Czech Republic

Zdenĕk Bakala, born on Feb. 7, 1961, is a Czech businessman, investor and philanthropist, active in diverse businesses ranging from mining to media to energy across several European countries. He earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. In 1990 Bakala was recruited by Credit Suisse First Boston to head up their Czech desk. In 1994 Bakala founded Patria Finance, the Czech Republic’s very first private investment banking group. He sold Patria in 2001. In 2004, he was one of the founders of the group Bakala Crossroads Partners – BXRP (formerly RPG). In the same year, this group took control of the Karbon Invest company and acquired, among other things, a majority share in OKD – a major Czech black coal mining company. Apart from the mining industry (NWR), the BXRP group owns assets in the fields of railway freight transport (AWT), immovable properties (RPG Real Estate or Tower Group) and many others. Zdeněk Bakala is also active in the field of media (in 2008 he became the majority shareholder of the publishing house Economia)and philanthropy (Zdeněk Bakala Foundation, the Václav Havel Library, the DOX Centre). Zdeněk Bakala is married with Michaela Bakala (co-owner of Luxury Brand Management, chairwoman of the board of the Zdeněk Bakala Foundation, director of the Czech Miss beauty pageants).