Petr Zahradník

Currently the Head of the EU Office, Česká spořitelna/ Erste Bank in Prague, Petr Zahradnik was born 1965 in Prague, where he graduated from the Prague School of Economics (Finance) in 1987. He went on to study at Columbia University, New York (Economic policy management) in 1993, and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in 1993 (European studies).

Zahradnik undertook economic research for the World Bank, Institute for European and International Studies (Luxembourg), and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria) between 1993 – 1995. In the Czech Republic, he has worked as a macroeconomic analyst and Chief Economist and Head of Research for brokerage companies, Patria Finance and Conseq Finance. Between 1995 and 1998, he was External Advisor to the President of the Czech Republic for Economic Affairs. Since 2003, he has been Head of the EU Office at Česká spořitelna/ Erste Bank.

Zahradník is a member of the Scientific Board at the Prague School of Economics. He has published a book on European integration (C.H. Beck, 2003), several chapters for other books, several tens of articles in impact specialized journals, and several hundreds of articles in general newspapers in the Czech Republic as well as abroad. He has also several thousands of quotations in Czech and foreign media, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times, or New York Times.