Jozef Síkela
Jozef Síkela graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and after graduation joined the prestigious banking study programme of Creditanstalt AG in Vienna, Austria, where he worked for several years. After returning to Prague, he worked at Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Česká spořitelna in various positions in credit risk management and corporate banking. He later became Chairman and CEO of Erste Bank in Ukraine and, thanks to the successful consolidation of the bank, was appointed Chairman and CEO of Slovenská spořitelna, where he achieved historically record results.
Subsequently, Sikel was appointed to the Board of Directors of Erste Group Bank AG, where he was responsible for corporate and investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, real estate finance, trade finance, financial markets and macroeconomic analysis. He covered these activities in several European markets and was also responsible for offices in London, New York and Hong Kong.
On 17 December 2021, Jozef Síkela was named Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.