Alumni Profiles

• Aleksandar Obradović, CMC Alumnus ´97
• Jan Hainz, CMC Alumnus ´94
• Jan Spurny, CMC Alumnus '95
• Pavel Jiroušek, CMC Alumnus ´00

Aleksandar Obradović, CMC Alumnus ´97
Country Manager
ČEZ Serbija d.o.o.

As of January 2006, Mr. Aleksandar Obradović holds the position of the Country Manager of CEZ Group, a Czech based company whose activities span from coal and minerals extraction to power production and distribution to power trading organizations. It is one of the fastest growing power companies in the world, and a leading Central-european utility. He is based with his family in Belgrade, Serbia and he is responsible for CEZ operations there. Before moving to Belgrade, Mr. Obradovic worked for Lafarge Group in Paris, France, a leading international cement and building materials company, where he was responsible for Strategy and Business Development of the group in Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

His career started in the leading German publishing house Jurg Marquard Publishing GmbH where he served in the position of the Distribution Manager for the Czech and Slovak Republics. Then he moved on to a marketing consulting company ATOZ, based in Prague, in the position of a Project Executive. In 1998 he joined Arthur D. Little Prague as a consultant and since then he has led and supported many projects not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Brazil, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, and ex-Yugoslavia. In 2001 he was promoted to the position of the Country Manager in the Czech and Slovak Republice, coordinating activities in the Central and Eastern Europe.

Mr. Obradović holds a dual-MBA degree from the CMC and the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to that he obtained a BA degree in Business Administration, focused on Marketing, from the Anglo-American College in Prague. He speaks fluently Czech, English, and Portuguese, as well as his mother tongue Serbo-Croatian. After playing basketball professionally for many years he is still dedicating a lot of time to sports, such as diving and tennis.

On CMC MBA program he says: “CMC is uniquely positioned to serve as a management excellence center for the CEE region. It gathers a very strong alumni network of business professionals and hosts highly respected international lecturers. It makes me very happy to be part of such a highly influential environment that impacts our economic and political life”.

Jan Hainz, CMC Alumnus ´94
Chief Communications Officer
GE Capital Bank, GE Capital Multiservis and GE Capital Leasing

I earned my M.Sc. at CVUT Prague and left shortly after to Italy. I just like that country - its spirit, culture, atmosphere, history, people and cuisine. Working as a project manager in the leading pasta production technology company in the world, I suddenly felt the gap in my business skills, having good but technical education and experience only. I decided to improve my skills through M.B.A. studies and started to look around, mostly in the U.S.A. and Italy for the school to go to. The CMC was an optimal solution for me that time - high caliber M.B.A. program of the University of Pittsburgh framed in the comparison of western and eastern managerial experiences. It gave me unparalleled possibilities to solve problems from many different points of view because of the class diversity and opened the window to the managerial world, which was closed for me before.

After completing the CMC/University of Pittsburgh MBA program, I decided to leave Italy for a while and work in the Czech Republic again - it was fairly easy to find jobs there that I could not even dream about if stayed in Italy. I joined McDonald´s Czech Republic as a Marketing Director in 1995 and moved to GE Capital in 1998. Starting as Chief Marketing Officer of GE Capital Bank I built marketing department there, launched four new products within one year and re-branded old Agrobanka into a new entity - GE Capital Bank. In 2000, I became Chief Communication Officer responsible for all GE Capital businesses in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (GE Capital Bank, GE Capital Multiservis and GE Capital Leasing).

CMC gave me more that I ever expected. I met a lot of brilliant people from the whole world and we are in regular contact till today. More important, I met there a wonderful and smart student, Kateřina Holá, who became my wife later on.

Jan Spurny, CMC Alumnus '95
Chair, Country Head of Global Clients
ABN AMRO Bank

Jan Spurny currently holds the position of Director Financial Institutions and Public Sector at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. Jan is a member of the management team and is responsible for formulating and executing business policy with selected financial institutions and public sector clients (banks, insurance companies, state and sovereign institutions and selected municipalities within the global line of business). Apart from that he is Board member of ABN AMRO Asset Management (Czech), a.s. with responsibility for development and fulfillment of asset management strategy in the Czech Republic, ensuring cooperation and implementation of cross-product marketing with the Wholesale Division of the bank. In previous years with ABN AMRO Bank he held the positions of Head Financial Institutions, Senior Relationship Manager and Credit Analyst.

Jan holds a B.Sc. degree in cybernetics from Brno Technical University and MBA in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh (joint program with CMC), where he specialized in Finance.

Although Jan used to play ice-hockey at the top junior level, he now prefers less contact-intensive sports like tennis or hiking. This at least helps him to offset excess energy intake connected with his enjoyment of good wine and nice dinner.

"The combination of an analytical background developed the Czech technical university, and a US oriented business education in subjects like Accounting, Financial Management, Managerial Accounting, Portfolio Theory or Derivatives ideal combination for today's business environment. Apart from providing knowledge and information, MBA helped me to create positive expectations on the side of my employer and then it's only a matter of personal determination and partially good luck to fulfill them."

Pavel Jiroušek, CMC Alumnus ´00
Chief Wholesale Officer
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, a.s.

Pavel Jiroušek is the Executive Vice President of the Wholesale Services Division at ČESKÝ TELECOM, which caters to mobile operators, Internet service providers, new market entrants and international carriers. His career in telecommunications started in 1992 when he joined Eurotel Praha as a Marketing Manager and later became a member of EuroTel's Data Network Division, later acquired by ČESKÝ TELECOM. By 1997, Pavel had developed the main part of the wholesale services offered at present. As there was an increased need for an international presence, Pavel was invited to assume the position of Director for Alliances. In 2000, after streamlining its Marketing and Sales Department, Pavel Jiroušek was promoted to the position of Executive Director in charge of all domestic interconnect, international carrier and wholesale services and in 2001 assumed the current position of Vice President.

Pavel Jiroušek studied Computer systems and technical cybernetic at West Bohemia University and Information Theory and Automation at the Czechoslovak Academy of Science in Prague. In 2000 he completed the University of Pittsburgh's International Executive MBA program offered in conjunction with CMC.

Having over ten years of management, marketing and technical experience in telecommunications, Pavel makes strategic decisions with an entrepreneurial spirit. His young and dynamic team built the smallest division of ČESKÝ TELECOM into the second largest revenue generator. Pavel values efficiency, a multicultural environment and competent, team-oriented colleagues. While he recognizes the importance of structure in an organization, he adds that structure is only a tool and it should never become a goal in itself.