Jan Mládek

Jan Mládek (born June 1, 1960) is a Czech economist and Social Democratic politician who served as Minister of Industry and Trade from 2014 to 2017. Between 2005 and 2006 Mládek also was Minister of Agriculture in Paroubek's cabinet. He also served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

Mládek graduated from University of Economics in Prague in 1983. Then in the years 1985–1990 he studied at the Forecasting Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where in April 1990 he received the title of Candidate of Sciences. Moreover, he spent two years studying (1987–1989) Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague.

He is married and has five children.

In 1991 he worked as an assistant at the Department of Economics at Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. In the years 1991–1992 he worked in the position of advisor to the Federal Minister of Economics and later as his Deputy Minister. In the period from 1992 to 1995 Mládek worked as an external advisor to the Minister of Industry and Trade. From 1993 to 1998 he cooperated with the Central European University in Prague / Budapest in the study of transformation and privatization of the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In the period of 1998 to 1999 he served as Deputy Vice Prime Minister for Economic Policy and from 1999 to May 2001 he was the First Deputy Minister of Finance. From 1999 to 2001 he was Vice-Governor of the International Monetary Fund for the Czech Republic.

In the 2002 elections Mládek was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Social Democrats. He was a member of the Budget Committee and in 2002–2004 also the Foreign Committee. He remained in the Chamber of Deputies until December 2005, when he resigned his mandate. In 2004–2005, he worked as an economic advisor to the Prime Minister and subsequently became a member of the Cabinet. In November 2005 he was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture in the Paroubek's government. He retained this position until August 2006, when that term of government ended.

Within the Czech Social Democratic Party he is active as the Chairman of the party's Economic Policy Committee. He also holds the post of the party's shadow finance minister.

In 2001 he requested that the National Security Agency carry out a “classified” level screening but it refused to grant a screening at that level, with him only acquiring the lowest ranking of “restricted”.

In January 2014 he was the ČSSD candidate for the post of Minister of Industry and Trade in the Government of Bohuslav Sobotka. On 29 January 2014 he was appointed to this position. He has been active in the ČSSD as President of the party’s National Economic Commission. During the period from 2008–2009 he was Director of the Masaryk Workers’ Academy. In October 2006 he was again appointed Director of the Czech Institute of Applied Economics. Until the start of the year 2014 he was the Chairman of FONTES RERUM, a cooperative for economic, political and social studies.

Jan Mladek speaks fluent English, Russian and Polish. Provided by Wikipedia