Pride Business Forum annual conference "10 years of change"

Event Details

Keynote Speaker

Victor Madrigal-Borloz

Costa Rican jurist, is a senior visiting researcher at the Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. Until June 2019 he served as the Secretary-General of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), a global network of over 150 rehabilitation centres with the vision of full enjoyment of the right to rehabilitation for all victims of torture and ill treatment until 30 June 2019. A member of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture from 2013 to 2016, Mr Madrigal-Borloz was Rapporteur on Reprisals and oversaw a draft policy on the torture and ill-treatment of LGBTI persons. Prior to this he led technical work on numerous cases, reports and testimonies as Head of Litigation and Head of the Registry at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and has also worked at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (Copenhagen, Denmark) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (San José, Costa Rica).
Mr Madrigal-Borloz is a founding member of the Costa Rican Association of International Law (ACODI), a founding Board member of the International Justice Resource Centre (IJRC), and a founding Board member of Synergia-IDH.

Keynote Speaker

Fabrice Houdart

Fabrice Houdart is Out Leadership’s new Managing Director of Global Equality Initiatives. Previously Human Rights Officer at the United Nations in New York, for the past four years, Fabrice Houdart worked on Free & Equal, an unprecedented United Nations campaign for LGBT equality. He co-authored and led the United Nations Global LGBT Standards of Conduct for Business, the largest corporate social responsibility initiative on LGBT issues in the world. To date, more than 270 of the world’s largest companies have expressed support for the initiative. From 2001 to 2016, Fabrice was Senior Country Officer at the World Bank, where he authored economic development analyses on Yemen, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Tunisia, and contributed to the 2012 Gender World Development Report (WDR) and the 2011 Conflict, Security, and Development WDR. He holds a B.A. in economics and management from Dauphine University in Paris and an MBA from American University in DC. Fabrice volunteers on the Board of Outright Action International, Housing Works, the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, Alturi, the KindRED Pride Foundation, Witness to Mass Incarceration and the Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA). In 2019, he received the Golden Gate Business Association Award, the IGLTA Pioneer Award and the Alan Turing LGTBIQ Award for his work on LGBT rights. He was ranked 2nd by Yahoo Finance among LGBT public sector executives globally in their 2019 Outstanding list. He has been interviewed by the Economist, quoted in the New York Times, Foreign Policy Magazine and The Guardian on issues pertaining to the human rights of LGBT people. He lives in New York City with his 6-year-old twin sons, Maxime and Eitan.

 

Keynote Speaker

Vladimír Dlouhý

Graduate of the University of Economics and postgraduate studies in Mathematical Statistics and Probability at Charles University in Prague. Former Minister of Economy of the Czech-Slovak Federal Republic and the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

Currently works as international advisor to Goldman Sachs, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, member of the Meridiam Infrastructure (France) group of international advisers, and professor at Charles University.

He was an advisor to ABB, a member of the directors of KSK Power Venture (India), vice-chairman of the European Trilateral Commission group, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Czech government's National Economic Council (NERV).

 

Keynote Speaker

Zdeněk Hřib

Graduated from the Third Faculty of Medicine at Charles University, he was the Director of the Institute for Applied Research, Education and Management in Health Care. He was a member of several working groups on IT, quality, and efficiency of services at the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and the EU. He also handled the design and implementation of large-scale information systems. In 2018 he led the Pirates in the municipal elections and was elected to the City Council of the City of Prague. On November 15  2018 Zdeněk Hřib was elected mayor of the City of Prague where he is responsible for IT, security, European funds, foreign relations, and much more.

Keynote Speaker

Dagmar Kuchtová

Director General of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic. Graduate of the University of Economics in Prague, majoring in Service Economics and Tourism. She worked from 1983 to 1986 at the Department of Import of Technologies for Mining and Geological Survey of Strojexport. From 1992 to 1994 she was office manager of the Czech branch of Swedish Atlas Copco Tools. Dagmar has worked at the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic since 1994, and for the last six years as its Director General. She also represents the Confederation at the Confederation of European Business in Brussels.

 

Panelist

Alena Sochorová

Alena Sochorová has been the Director of the Commercial Customers Division at the local branch of Microsoft since 2019, where she is responsible for the sale of products and services in the large customer segment in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In addition, she is also Divesity & Inclusion Champ.

Until 2018, Alena worked as the Executive Director of the Telecommunications, Media and Technology Division in the Prague office of the global company Accenture, where she was in charge of clients in the Central European region. She has worked at Accenture since 1996 in the field of consulting and technology, primarily focused on telecommunications companies, customer relationship management (CRM) and business support systems (BSS).

Alena was born in Brno and obtained a master's degree at the Faculty of Arts of the local Masaryk University. She also holds an MBA from The University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business in the USA. In addition to her official duties, Alena has long supported business CSR activities, which include not only charitable projects for disadvantaged groups in Czech society, but also work with employees and support for gender equality and LGBT groups. She lives in Prague with her two sons and spends most of her free time with children, family and friends.

 

Panelist

Carl Clarke

Carl Clarke is an experienced Human Resources Director with a demonstrated history of working in the energy, power and telecommunications sectors, in the UK and internationally. He has a passion for inclusion, culture, change, resilience, wellbeing, technology and supporting people and organisations succeed. Carl holds an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Coventry University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

 

Panelist

Michal Kadera

Michal is currently ŠKODA AUTO's Head of External Relations, responsible for overall public / government affairs, political communication, CSR, regional development and public support. Michal graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and completed postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Passau. In the past, he worked as the director of CEBRE - Czech Business Representation to the EU in Brussels (2007-2012), and before as the head of the European Affairs Department at the Ministry of Education (2005-2007) and as an expert on EU law in the Senate of the Czech Parliament (2004-2005) . Since 2019, he has been the Chairman of the Board of the ŠKODA AUTO Endowment Fund.

 

Panelist

Aleš Kabilka

From a young age, Aleš Kabilka has loved traveling both the world and the inner world. Therefore he studied various subjects, including psychology at Charles University. For many years he worked in the civic association Anima u Apolináře as a group and individual psychotherapist (mostly with children and adolescents). He works as a professional guarantor in the online counseling service Sbarvouven.cz, which helps people to come out, among other things. He believes in the power of words and love.

 

Panelist

Michal Dabkowski

Michal has over 10 years’ experience in IT, ranging from infrastructure management, product development and delivery. He is also an LGBT+ ERG leader for EAGLE Czech Republic (Employee Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Empowerment). Michal is currently working on introducing the #workingpositively initiative to a broader audience in the Czech Republic. Michal is an avid knitter and former member of Big Belfast Choir.

 

Panelist

Anita Zubak

Anita Zubak is an Executive Director at MSD Czech Republic. She is an active supporter of diversity and inclusion and a strong advocate for the MSD Rainbow Alliance. Anita is American, with Slovak roots. Having grown up hearing about war, Anita wanted to make a difference, so she studied International Relations, with dreams of being able to help solve all kinds of conflicts. Anita has always thought that the world would be a better place, if people simply treated each other as human beings.

Panelist

Alan Houmann

Managing director and head of Citi’s government affairs team for Europe, Middle East and Africa, which focuses on public policy issues including regulatory reform. London-based Alan is the regional representative on Citi’s Pride Affinity Steering Committee.

Alan has a broad background in EU financial services policy. He joined Citi in 2007 from the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) where he was senior adviser and deputy to the secretary general.  

Prior to CEBS, Alan worked on international banking policy and supervisory cooperation at the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA).  He has also served in the European Commission’s directorate for economic and financial affairs, and in the team leading the euro’s introduction.  Alan has also been a secretariat member of the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee (which prepares finance ministry and central bank discussions). He spent a year with the European Banking Federation (EBF) on secondment from HM Treasury (the UK’s ministry of finance) where his career started as an economist. 

Alan has a master’s degree in international studies and philosophy from the University of St. Andrews and in economics from the University of London.

Panelist

Tomáš Varga

Tomáš Varga is a leader with first-class communication skills and more than fifteen years of practice in marketing and media. After his studies at VŠE, he continued at the London School of Public Relations. His career began at TV Nova, from where he moved to the subsidiaries of Publicis Groupe – Performics, Zenith and Publicis One. Since 2018, he has been the CEO of Publicis Groupe for Central Europe.

 

Conference Host

Adéla Horáková

Adéla Horáková sort of breaks down the stereotypes. She is a commercial lawyer who used to work on the largest transactions in this country for big companies. In the same time, she is a civic lobbyist who defends those who do not have an equal position in our society. She graduated in law in Brno (2004) and spent the Erasmus Programme in the United Kingdom. She received her doctorate degree in Law at Charles University in Prague (2011). Adéla started her career with an internship in the European Commission in Brussels at the Directorate-General for Entrepreneurship. It was followed by an internship at Kuhbier, German law office in Brussels, where she worked in the field of illegal state aid. She wanted to become a commercial lawyer and therefore she returned to Prague. Consequently, she spent 11 years working in big international law offices. The first one was Clifford Chance, then a French company Gide Loyrette Nouel, and in the end the biggest law firm in the world – Dentons. She worked her way up from the position of a Legal Trainee to a Senior Associate. She successfully passed the bar exam in 2010. Adéla worked in many fields of the law, ranging from financial and corporate law to real estate law. Then, however, she wanted a change. She stayed in Dentons, but she moved from the position of a Senior Associate to a Pro Bono and Diversity Manager. She was in charge of 25 offices in 20 countries all over Europe. And she talked with them about diversity and inclusion, why it is good for society and how to achieve it. In the same time, she became a volunteer in the Czech LGBT organisation called PROUD. At first as a legal advisor, then she was elected a member of the executive board. She was one of the founders of the Jsme fér initiative the aim of which is equal and free marriage for everyone, regardless of whom they love. In Jsme fér, Adéla is mainly in charge of lobbying, communication and representation of the initiative in public. She speaks English and French.

Conference Host

Emma Smetana

Emma Smetana is a Czech-French actress, musician, journalist and presenter. She studied political science and european affairs at the "Institut d’études politiques de Paris" and political science and international relations at the Freie Universitat in Berlin. She has been moderating news at TV Nova from 2012 to 2016. Since March 2016, she has expanded the moderating team of DVTV internet television. In addition to Czech, she also conducts interviews in English, French or German. As a solo musician, Emma released the music album What I've Done. She played the lead role in musical drama Lucie, more than a small amount of love. She has starred in a number of films and TV series.

 

Date: 23/10/2020

Start time: 10:00 CET

End time: 12:00 CET

Email: [email protected]