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Jiří Suchánek becomes the OKD Foundation Director

OSTRAVA (8 February 2011) – Jiří Suchánek has become the new Director of the OKD Foundation, which ranks among the largest company foundations in the Czech Republic. Being originally an economic engineer, he gained ideal qualifications for managing a publicly beneficial organization for example when he was working as the Manager of SOBOfest, a music and sports festival or as the Coordinator of  the Czech Pavilion activities in EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

“It is a great honour for me to lead the organization whose establishment more than three years ago was based on a noble idea of help to needy people. This position is also very responsible because the non-profit-making sector develops in the same way as any other part of the economy and human society. I will do my best so that the OKD Foundation will bring more joy to needy and all other people because we all deserve joy. At the same time, being aware that even a small help may be absolutely crucial for someone, we will continue to lay emphasis on expending all funds efficiently,” Suchánek said shortly after his appointment as Director.

Jiří Suchánek studied regionalism, public administration and commercial communication at the Faculty of Economics and Public Administration, School of Economics in Prague. Afterwards he worked as the financial advisor, commercial agent, project manager, and in the period of 2007 to 2009, he worked as the SOBOfest Director. From 2008 to last December, he acted as the Head of Production and Deputy Manager in the Czech Pavilion in EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

In the Director position, Suchánek replaced Blanka Týřová, who has managed the OKD Foundation for two and a half years since it was established, and over the last six months, the OKD Foundation has been managed by Lenka Marková, Deputy Director. “We had a lot of candidates and some of them were really interesting, but Jiří Suchánek was our clear favourite. He has worked in the non-profit-making sector, has experience from abroad and is very creative. This should raise the OKD Foundation activities even to a higher level. Therefore, we waited several months until he finished his mission in Shanghai,” explained Petra Mašínová, Chairwoman of OKD Foundation Managing Board.

Since it was established in 2008, the OKD Foundation has supported more than 800 projects with an amount exceeding CZK 123 million.
 
Vladislav Sobol
Spokesman, OKD Foundation

Telephone: 596 262 293
Mobile: 725 595 417
e-mail:  vladislav.sobol@okd.cz