Bubenik Partners

Czech Republic’s Top Management Moves in the First Quarter of 2020

The most important management moves in the first quarter of 2020 in the Czech Republic included a leadership change in one of the world’s leading consumer finance providers and the advancement of Czechs into the management of a top luxury hotel as well as the domestic unit of a global industrial corporation. Among other eye-catching moves were an appointment of a Czech executive at one of the largest paper mills in the region and top management changes at a leading brewer and at banking, IT, and e-commerce companies. At Bubenik Partners, we leveraged our research to compile the list of 10 changes that we consider worth noticing (see the full list below).

The global outbreak of the novel coronavirus confronted newly assigned managers with unexpected and unprecedented decisions and shifted their focus, at least in the short run, from strategy and business development to crisis management and health protection.

„Management changes of the past quarter reflect decisions made 3-6 months ago, long before the onset of the pandemic in Europe, when companies were mostly planning further development or expansion in domestic and foreign markets,“ said Jan Bubeník, founder and managing partner of Bubenik Partners.

„Managers who have taken on new roles in recent months suddenly faced an entirely different economic situation and business outlook compared to what they had initially expected their mission to be.“

Marek Petruš, Director of Research & Knowledge Management at Bubenik Partners, said that the end of last year and the beginning of this year was marked by a general interest in assigning new managers to take digital transformation and related roles across a wide range of industries.

„Many companies have been seeking managerial reinforcement in their IT teams with a special emphasis on IT risks and cybersecurity. Sales directors experienced in international expansion have also been in demand. We have also spotted a number of successful returns from abroad and the advancement of Czech managers to the top management ranks of local units of global companies,“ he added.

 

Ten most interesting management moves in the first quarter of 2020

(in alphabetical order)

• • Martin Dell – CEO of the Four Seasons Hotel Prague (previously Resort Manager at Four Seasons Maui, Hawaii; he comes back to the Czech Republic after almost two decades spent in running hotel businesses across the globe)

• • Petr Domin – CEO of the Slovenian paper mill Vipap Videm Krško (previously worked for 30 years in the food packaging company Huhtamaki Oy)

• • Jean-Pascal Duvieusart – CEO of Home Credit International (since 2010 is a shareholder in the parent PPF Group; previously worked for 18 years at McKinsey and Company)

• • Klára Escobar – HR Director at MONETA Money Bank (previously held a similar position in Hello bank! Czech Republic)

• • Zdenek Havlena – Director of Pivovary Staropramen for the Czech Republic and Slovakia (in January 2017 he returned to the company from an international assignment to take the CFO position; since the second half of 2020 he worked as Commercial Director)

• • Tomáš Jelínek – Member of the Board of Directors in Raiffeisenbank, responsible for Markets & Investment Banking (working at the bank since 2005, from 2013 to 2020 as CFO)

• • Vítězslav Lukáš – CEO of ABB Czech Republic (working in the group since 1998, most recently in the position of Director of Robotics and Automation, which he is still holding)

• • Magda Pokorná – Director of Corporate Affairs at the real estate developer Crestyl (previously with the law firm Allen & Overy)

• • Vladek Šlezingr – CEO in the Czech unit of Atos IT Solutions and Services (previously CEO of the Czech branch of IBM and subsequently a member of the leadership of IBM Global Business Services for the entire CEE region)

• • Ladislav Veselý – CEO of Slevomat (between 2018 and 2019 he managed the company’s operations, previously he worked at the Economia publishing house and internet company Seznam)

 

„We selected our ‚Top 10‘ of the first quarter of 2020 out of dozens of publicly announced management changes that we registered as part of our ongoing market monitoring,“ said Marek Petruš, Director of Research & Knowledge Management.

„The main criteria for selection were the size of the managed company, the schope of responsibility of the given executive, the complexity of the given company’s industry and business, and also, of course, the global context, i.e., how Czech managerial talent succeeded in a regional or the global environment,“ he added.