The people who teach it also do it

Helps companies innovate, find new opportunities and build successful products.

Vít is a strategist and a leader of transformation projects with more than 25 years’ experience in international business across Europe, chiefly in technology, telecoms and innovation. His company, Unicorn Attacks, helps corporations and start-ups build disruptive business models, find new sources of growth and challenge their clients’ entrenched, outdated status quo. He previously led teams of thousands at O2 Czech Republic, where he ran the entire B2B division and sat on the ExCom top-management team, and served as COO of LG Electronics CZ/SK and as Dell Computers’ regional director for 11 European countries. He has also held seats on the boards of directors and supervisory boards of companies such as LASVIT, Potten & Pannen and HC Sparta Praha. He broadened his international education at INSEAD, completing its prestigious International Executive Programme.

One of the Czech Republic’s leading experts on trends, innovation and the start-up ecosystem.

Pavlína works with trends – her trend-forecasting agency TrendBrews has worked for clients such as Tatra Banka and IKEA. She is part of Culture Connectors, an international community of trendspotters, and lead mentor for Google for Startups across Europe, Africa and the Middle East; she is also active in a number of other accelerators, where she helps tech start-ups grow. She sits on the advisory boards of technology companies and foundations, including the Independent Press Foundation and Nekrachni. More than 12,000 people subscribe to her newsletter on trends and technology, which Substack named among its global Top 50 Rising in Business. Her predictions about the future have been published by Wired, ELLE and TED. Her work has earned several awards, including the European Citizen’s Prize from the European Parliament.

After more than ten years at Google, he invests in tech start-ups and helps founders build global companies.

Petr is an investment partner at Rockaway Ventures, the investment arm of Rockaway Capital, which focuses on transformative technologies led by AI. His work is helping ambitious founders scale their companies from seed through Series A and beyond, with the aim of putting start-ups from the CEE region on the global stage. Before joining Rockaway, he spent more than ten years at Google, where he led some of the company’s most important product launches in the region – he ran the launch of Google Pay and Google Assistant in more than ten CEE countries and grew Google’s B2B advertising business tenfold. He began his career at McKinsey & Company in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Has long connected business with the public sector and championed the competitiveness of Czech companies.

Radek Špicar is Vice-President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic for economic policy and exports, and a former Vice-President of BusinessEurope. He was previously director of the Aspen Institute Prague and a member of the management of Škoda Auto, where he served as director of external relations. He also served as deputy to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. He lectures at the Institute of Economic Studies of Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For eight years he chaired the board of trustees of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and he was a member of the Corporate Council of the Forum 2000 Foundation. He is a graduate of Charles University and the University of Cambridge.

One of the most prominent figures in Czech e-commerce and digital business.

He has lived and breathed e-commerce and online business for more than 15 years. After senior roles at Internet Retail, he took the helm of Heureka in 2013 and over ten years turned it into the leading e-commerce player in the CEE region. Since last year he has headed Slevomat Group, the largest marketplace for experiences and travel deals in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. When he is not running large projects, he hosts a podcast interviewing interesting figures from the digital world, or mentors others and shares his know-how.

Leads the largest betting company in the Czech Republic, with a focus on business growth, innovation and customer experience.

Jakub is a seasoned leader with more than 30 years’ experience in international business. He spent over a decade at Mars/Royal Canin, running the Czech and Slovak markets, then the UK and Ireland, and later Russia and Belarus; as Global Strategy Director at Mars Petcare, he helped shape and implement global strategies across regions. He has also led Jacobs Douwe Egberts and worked at Gillette and Scandinavian Tobacco Group. In 2023 he founded his own practice, Co.lesa Consulting, which specialises in strategic change, digital transformation and brand building. He holds an MBA from The Open University and certificates from MIT, Harvard Business School and the Center for Creative Leadership.

Leads the company’s digital transformation and the adoption of modern technologies that drive innovation and efficiency.

Martin is a leader and strategic adviser who helps companies develop their potential, grow and succeed in a fast-changing environment. He is the founder of Stellars Ventures, a venture builder focused on business development and transformation. He was previously Director of Strategy & Business Development at ORLEN Unipetrol, where he led key transformation projects in decarbonisation, plastics recycling and expansion into new markets; as chairman of the supervisory board of Remaq, he oversaw the integration of the Czech Republic’s largest plastics recycler into the ORLEN Group. He began his career at EY and KPMG. He is an active member of the international ACCA association and studied at the University of Birmingham and Masaryk University.

Helps organisations develop leadership, company culture and effective team management.

Paulina is a consultant in HR, company culture and cross-generational communication. She believes HR is above all about human relationships – because without genuine relationships, clear communication and a culture built on trust, no business can succeed. She designs HR strategies aligned with business goals, runs workshops and webinars, facilitates team processes and lectures on postgraduate and MBA programmes. Until 2018 she sat on the board of BIGRAM, and from 2021 to 2024 she was company culture manager at ORLEN Unipetrol. Since 2019 she has run her own consulting and training practice.

Helps leaders develop their leadership, negotiation skills and communication, and put AI to work in business.

Ivana has almost 30 years’ experience in the executive leadership of large international companies. She has sat on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Tesco, Ahold Delhaize and OBI Group, where she led large-scale transformation projects and marketing strategies. In recent years she has served as an independent board member (for example at the Czechitas Foundation) and on advisory boards, and she mentors leaders and start-ups around the world – almost a thousand of them so far. She is a certified Google for Startups mentor and was named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Public Speaking in 2024. She studied artificial intelligence at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague and holds an MBA; in 2024 she completed executive programmes at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Specialises in leadership development, executive coaching and building high-performing teams.

Kristin is an executive coach and leadership consultant with more than 25 years of business experience. She runs her own company, KLP Coaching, which offers one-to-one coaching and team programmes focused on leadership, team dynamics and mentoring. She is a steering committee member and mentor in Equilibrium, a mentoring programme for women, a mentor in the European Women on Boards programme and an international mentor in the My Odyssey programme. Before becoming an executive coach, she spent more than ten years in executive roles in advertising – as managing director of Wunderman in Prague and as Global Director of Marketing Services at Euro RSCG Worldwide in New York. Her long-standing clients include Google, Deloitte, Lego, T-Mobile, ČEZ, Česká spořitelna, Volvo and White & Case.

Focuses on leadership, strategy and organisational development; has worked with ESET, ČSOB and LMO Consult.

Matej is an experienced leader in finance and audit with more than 25 years in international advisory firms and corporations. He joined Coopers & Lybrand (later PwC) in 1994 and then moved to Ernst & Young, where he became a partner in 2006. From 2014 until 2020 he led EY in Slovakia as managing partner, along with its transaction advisory team. From 2021 to 2024 he was finance director of the Slovak National Theatre. He is chairman of the supervisory board of ESET and a member of the supervisory board of ČSOB.

Helps leaders realise their potential, communicate better and build high-performing teams.

David’s mission is to inspire people to make conscious decisions as often as possible. He brings extensive international business experience from companies such as 3M and ERSTE Group, where he held management roles up to CHRO and CEO. He has also led start-ups and been involved in many education projects. Today he works as a transformational coach and mentor and is a strong advocate of conscious leadership. He is the founder of Modern Midlife Mentors, the first school of conscious midlife in the Czech Republic.