CEE Investment Forum 

Head of Level 39

Level 39

Ben Brabyn launched his first digital business in 2001. The world’s first crowdfunding business, Bmycharity combined payments, social networking and data analytics, enabling 800,000 donors to deliver more than £50 million to UK charities. He worked for the UK government as of COO of UK Trade and Investment’s Venture Capital Unit, leading a team of VC and sector specialists. Ben is an ambassador for the Royal Navy and Heropreneurs, and joined Level39 as Head in February 2016, supporting 200 high-growth technology companies who are transforming the security, productivity and reach of global financial services and other sectors. Ben has a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Literature from Edinburgh University and an MBA from Warwick Business School. 

Chief Rist Officer

Home Credit International

Radek Pluhar became Chief Risk Officer in 2016. He joined Home Credit from Equa Bank, where he served as Chief Risk Officer and Vice-Chairman of the Board. Mr Pluhar has many notable achievements in a career which spans from portfolio management and investment strategies, through credit products and processes for SMEs and big businesses, up to commercial and credit risk management. His extensive work experience includes time at several Czech banks and international investment companies.

Mr Pluhar graduated from Prague’s University of Economics and holds a PhD in Finance.

CEO

Zonky 

Pavel Novák has become the CEO of Zonky in March 2017. Zonky is now the largest Czech fintech platform, the peer-to-peer platform connecting people wanting to lend money and people who want to invest. During the time of Mr. Novak ́s management, Zonky, grew tenfold in the volume of sales.

Pavel Novák has an extensive international experience. Before joining Zonky, he managed Eldorado ́s online business as a vice president in Russia and before 2014 he was working as a consultant in Adastra Business Consulting with banks from Toronto to Novosibirsk. 

Senior Partner

Innova Capital

Mr. Muzyczyszyn joined Innova in 2008. Prior to Innova he spent over three years as a Director of Darby Private Equity running the Polish office. His responsibilities included mezzanine financings and private equity investments across multiple sectors and countries in CEE. Prior to joining Darby, he spent over eight years in total with Allianz Specialized Investments, where he was part of a team managing private equity investments in Poland and the C&EE region. He has led investments in Bakalland/Delecta, OSHEE/Sonko and Neomedic Group and co-led investments in Meritum Bank and Expander Advisors. Since 2017 Mr. Muzyczyszyn is the president of the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (PSIK). 

Head of Central and Southern Europe

London Stock Exchange Group 

Axel manages the Primary markets activities of the London Stock Exchange Group in CEE. As part of his responsibilities he regularly meets ambitious companies and their owners to discuss their fund raising/Exit options as well as the various implications when raising capital from International Capital Markets. Prior to joining the Exchange, Axel worked as Investor at a Pan-European Buyout Fund acquiring majority stakes in European companies and spent many years within UniCredit Corporate & Investment banking active in CEE and Emerging markets.  

Digital Branch Manager

Expobank CZ 

Ing. Michal Skalický has been working at Expobank CZ since 2011. He started his career as an IT specialist of the main banking system.  He managed to do so and he was given the opportunity to fulfill his dream and create one of the most modern banking products - the NEO account. At Expobank CZ, Michal Skalický is responsible for serving clients within digital channels. He is also responsible for creating new products and developing existing ones within individual banking. 

Michal Skalický graduated from the University of Economics in Prague. He is constantly educating and drawing inspiration for his ideas and innovations, for example, from online courses from the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or The University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Managing Director

Creative Dock

Martin Pejsa is the founder and CEO of Creative Dock, one of the biggest European company builders. Before founding Creative Dock, Martin worked in Vodafone, where he acted as the business director. Then he sold his apartment, took all his savings and founded Creative Dock with two associates. After 7 years of hard work he is now leading company with offices in 10 countries, with more than 350 employees. During those years Creative Dock launched more than 49 start-ups in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

The model of Creative Dock is to systematically develop and launch new companies in cooperation with corporations, like Škoda, E-ON, Raiffeisen Bank, Société Générale, AXA, Sodexo, PPF Group, …

Managing Director

ARX Equity Partners

Brian Wardrop has been originating, executing, monitoring and exiting private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe since 1997. He is Managing Partner of ARX Equity Partners, which is a private equity firm with a 20-year track record supporting the growth and development of mid-sized companies in select Central European countries. He was a Principal and head of the Prague office with sector specialist private equity firm, Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe). He holds a Master’s degree from Boston University and a Bachelor’s degree from Bishop’s University. He is also a graduate of the Owner/President Program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Wardrop is also an active supporter of the non-profit social enterprise sector via his roles as a board member of NESst.

Executive Director of the Czech Capital Market Association

Jana Brodani completed her studies at the University of Economics in Prague, Faculty of International Relations and the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, University of London in the UK and a postgraduate study programme at the IFTG. Presently, she studies for PhD. at the University of Economics, Faculty of Finance and Accounting, Department of Finance. Since 2009 she has been the executive director of the Czech Capital Market Association. She is also a member of the executive board of international association European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).

Member of the Board

Arca Capital

Peter has joined Arca Capital three years ago. He holds MBA from the Columbia Business School in New York and he spent a major part of his professional life abroad – out of Germany he led a number of international projects all over the world as a senior consultant. His career continued in the private equity where he worked for the London’s private equity firm. Upon his return to Central Europe he was a senior manager in charge of restructuring the legacy portfolio of a bank. He also led one of the largest infrastructure projects in Slovakia – the €1+ billion public-private partnership highway.

Peter is leading the international business development of Arca Capital Group. He is a member of the Board of Arca Investments, the top-holding structure in the Arca Capital Group.

Member of the board of directors and the commercial director for institutional and private clients

Conseq Investment Management

He graduated from the Faculty of Finance and Accounting, University of Economics, Prague, and his academic programme included studies at the University of Cologne.

From 2000 to the end of 2002, he worked for Conseq Finance, a.s. as a bond trader.

In 2003-2005, he was an SME product manager at Česká spořitelna, a.s., where he was in charge of credit products for the financing of energy-efficient projects and renewable energy sources in conjunction with IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group. From 2005 to 2008, he worked for ČSOB Asset Management, a.s. as an account manager for institutional clients.  In December 2008, he returned to the Conseq Group and, as a commercial director at Conseq Investment Management, he is responsible for private and institutional clients. 

Managing Partner

Consillium

Tomas became the Managing Partner at Consillium after 21 years in investment banking at Patria Finance and Expandia. As a Managing Director there, he advised clients on more than 400 M&A and ECM deals in CEE and SEE, including many landmark transactions.

Tomas holds a Master‘s degree from the University of Economics in Prague and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

CEO

Prague Stock Exchange

Petr Koblic is CEO of the Prague Stock Exchange, President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), Member of the Management Board of CEESEG, Member of the Management Board of Wiener Börse Chairman of the Executive Board (Central Securities Depository Prague) and Chairman of the Exchange Chamber (POWER EXCHANGE CENTRAL EUROPE). He graduated on Prague Economic University, has started his career in Zivnostenska banka as financial markets dealer in 1993. He left the bank as deputy director of Financial markets division to join Patria Finance as Head of Sales in 1997. Since 1998 he moved to Bank Austria Group, where he spent 6 years. He was heading CAIB Securities, group’s equity broker in Prague, later was responsible for Private Banking and Asset management in HVB Bank Czech republic. Petr Koblic was elected to be a new Chairman and CEO of Prague Stock Exchange in August 2004. 

Partner, Corporate Finance

Ernst & Young

Petr is an investment banker who has been advising clients for more than 23 years. He graduated from the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 1995 he joined Patria Finance and became the driving force in the development of the firm’s corporate finance business. Petr participated in the realization of more than 150 transactions and projects.

Petr left Patria in 2013 to set up an independent advisory boutique - C Corporate Finance. C Corporate Finance has advised domestic and international companies in different M&A situations and capital market transactions .

He joined EY in October 2019 and he is a Partner, responsible for Corporate Finance services in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Head of Real Estate

REDSIDE

As a fund manager of NOVA Real Estate fund, Tomas is leading real estate investments of Redside. Prior to joining Redside, Tomas worked for Colliers International as a Senior Associate at Capital Markets and gained experiences across the financing positions within the Immorent and later Erste Group Immorent, as well as relationship manager of LCs department at KBC. He started his professional career at Deutsche Bank AG. Tomáš Berka graduated from the University of Economics in Prague, Faculty of Finance and Accounting. R The NRE fund primarily invests in the Czech Republic real estate market and Central Eastern Europe. Started with building real estate fund three years ago. 

Sales Director, Member of the Board at IAD Investments and ZFP Investments

Peter Lukáč started his professional career in the finance sector in 2000 at Nationale Nederlanden. Peter was always more interested in investments, so he joined IAD Investments in 2002, the oldest Slovak asset management company based in Bratislava as a Sales Director and become a Member of the Board in 2008. In 2012 he founded ZFP Investments in Prague, the Czech Republic as a daughter company of IAD Investments and became a vice-chairman of the Board. He has successfully led and managed various CEE real estate transactions in order to build and strengthen portfolios of Real estate funds of both ZFP Investments and IAD Investments.

Partner

Wilsons

Bryan is one of the co-founders of Wilsons and is based in the Prague Office. He is a UK registered lawyer and has also passed the Czech Foreign Lawyers exam. Bryan specialises primarily in real estate transactional investment work and has detailed CEE based multi-jurisdictional transactional experience. He has also been active in several corporate M&A transactions on behalf of major Czech clients.

Before co-founding Wilsons, Bryan worked in Cambridge for a major regional firm and then in London for Linklaters. This was followed by a further six years in Prague for the same firm where he was in charge of the CEE real estate department. In his spare time Bryan likes to play golf and is an avid reader of fiction.

Chief Financial Officer 

Karo Invest

Mr. Hemerka is a shareholder in Karo Invest, leading Czech producer of leather for furniture industry. Karo recently entered Czech stock market via alternative Start market place.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 

Verdi Capital

Katerina is Verdi Capital's founder and CEO. Prior to founding Verdi she worked at several investment houses in New York’s Wall Street and in the City of London, including JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. During her career in finance, she focused on capital markets transactions for both corporate clients and governments of developing countries. She specialized in structured finance and acquisition financing for private equity groups. Katerina is a member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds. She is a referee at the OCP, a competition promoting women entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic. Katerina holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA and a BA in Economics from Silesian University, Czech Republic.