Overview of representatives of the CNB

First Name, Surname	Term of Office	Post Held	Name of Bank during Term of Office
Alois RAŠÍN	6.3.1919-8.7.1919	Chairman of Banking Committee	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Cyril HORÁČEK	10.7.1919-9.10.1919	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Kuneš SONNTÁG	9.10.1919-25.5.1920	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Karel ENGLIŠ	25.5.1920-19.3.1921	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Vladimír HANAČÍK	22.3.1921-26.9.1921	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Augustin NOVÁK	3.10.1921-7.10.1922	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Alois RAŠÍN	9.10.1922-5.1.1923	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Bohdan BEČKA	25.2.1923-15.11.1925	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Karel ENGLIŠ	9.12.1925-24.1.1926	Chairman of Banking Commission	Banking Authority at Finance Ministry
Vilém POSPÍŠIL	25.1.1926-16.2.1934	Governor (took up post on 1 Apr 1926)	National Bank of Czechoslovakia
Karel ENGLIŠ	23.2.1934-20.2.1939	Governor	National Bank of Czechoslovakia
Ladislav F. DVOŘÁK	31.3.1939-18.5.1945	Governor	National Bank of Bohemia and Moravia
Jaroslav NEBESÁŘ	1.6.1945-9.9.1948	Chairman of interim administration	National Bank of Czechoslovakia
Jaroslav NEBESÁŘ	9.9.1948-1.7.1950	Governor	National Bank of Czechoslovakia
Otokar POHL	1.7.1950-2.2.1954	General Director	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Jaroslav KABEŠ	20.2.1954-16.8.1957	General Director	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Otokar POHL	16.8.1957-3.10.1969	General Director	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Svatopluk POTÁČ	3.10.1969-4.1.1971	General Director	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Svatopluk POTÁČ	4.1.1971-18.6.1981	Chairman	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Jan STEJSKAL	18.6.1981-1.11.1988	Chairman	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Svatopluk POTÁČ	1.11.1988-29.12.1989	Chairman	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Josef TOŠOVSKÝ	29.12.1989-21.4.1992	Chairman	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Josef TOŠOVSKÝ	21.4.1992-31.12.1992	Governor	State Bank of Czechoslovakia
Pavel KYSILKA	20.1.1993- 17.12.1997	Authorised to act fully on behalf of the Governor	Czech National Bank
Josef TOŠOVSKÝ	17.12.1997- 23.7.1998	Governor	Czech National Bank
Josef TOŠOVSKÝ	23.7.1998- 31.11.2000	Governor	Czech National Bank
Zdeněk TŮMA	1.12.2000-11.2.2005	Governor	Czech National Bank
Zdeněk TŮMA	11.2.2005-30.6.2010	Governor	Czech National Bank
Miroslav SINGER	1.7.2010-30.6.2016	Governor	Czech National Bank

 

The Banking Authority at the Finance Ministry acted as central bank prior to the establishment of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia

 

RAŠÍN Alois ,
born on 18 September 1867 in Nechanice near Hradec Králové, died on 18 February 1923 in Prague. In 1891 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague. He was one of the leaders of the progressionist movement. In 1894 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the "Omladina" (Youth) movement trial. In 1899 he was a co-founder of a radical party with strong anti-Habsburg leanings, then in 1907 he joined the Young Czech Party. In 1911 he was elected as this party's deputy to the Council of the Empire in Vienna, and at the same time he became manager of the party's daily newspaper Národní listy . During World War I, Alois Rašín was one of the leading representatives of the domestic anti-Austrian resistance. He was arrested and, together with Karel Kramář, sentenced to death on 3 June 1916. In January 1917 this sentence was commuted to a ten-year term of imprisonment and in July 1917 he was granted a full amnesty. As a member of the National Committee he organised the anti-Austrian coup d'état on 28 October 1918 and at the same time authored the first Act of the New Czechoslovak State. He was a leading representative of the Czechoslovak National Democratic Party. Between November 1918 and June 1919 and from October 1922 until his death he was Minister of Finance. At the start of March 1919 he implemented the separation of the Czechoslovak currency from the inflationary Austrian currency and started pursuing a deflationary monetary policy. On 5 January 1923 an anarchist Josef Šoupal made an attempt on his life. Alois Rašín died from his injuries on 18 February 1923.

 

HORÁČEK Cyril,
born on 7 November 1862 in Horní Počernice (Prague), died on 9 May 1943 in Prague. Czech economist and politician. A lawyer by profession, in 1890-1902 he worked as secretary at Městská spořitelna Pražská (Prague Municipal Savings Bank) and from 1901 he was professor of political economy at the Faculty of Law of the Czech University in Prague. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia he was active in the Agrarian Party, but after 1925 he inclined to the Czechoslovak National Democratic Party. Between July and October 1919 he was Minister of Finance. He continued to implement Rašín's financial policy, but as regards monetary policy he had always been a metallist and had many disputes with Karel Engliš. Cyril Horáček was a renowned promoter of agricultural and social policies and specialised in banking, currency, agricultural and wage issues. His main work was Učebnice národohospodářské politiky I, II (Textbook of National Economic Policy, Volumes I and II) (1912, 1924).

 

SONNTÁG Kuneš,
born on 19 February 1878 in Lazce (near Olomouc), died on 29 May 1931 in Prague. Czech agrarian politician, economist and journalist. He graduated from a special milling industry school in Dippoldiswalde, Saxony. From 1899 he was a landowner in Střelice near Uničov, where he engaged in a wide range of economic, political and public education activities. Initially he was a member of the Radical Progress Party, but in 1904 he became a leading representative of the Agrarian Party in Moravia. From 1909 he issued his own newspaper Moravský venkov (Moravian Country). He promoted agricultural co-operatives and supported the establishment of agricultural schools and research institutions. In 1913-1918 he was a deputy in the Moravian Land Assembly and an assessor in the Land Administration Committee. During World War I he was head of the Moravia branch of the National War Grain Institute, in 1918-1922 a deputy in the National Assembly and in 1919-1920 Minister of Finance. In 1922 he resigned as a deputy and concentrated fully on economic activities. In 1922 he became President of the Anglo-Czechoslovak Bank. In 1924 he helped to set up the Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture.

 

ENGLIŠ Karel,
born on 17 August 1880 in Hrabyně (district of Opava), died on 15 June 1961 also in Hrabyně. Czech economist, philosopher, lawyer and politician. In 1904 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Czech University in Prague. In 1904-1908 he worked as a clerk at the Land Statistical Office in Prague and in 1908-1911 at the Ministry of Trade in Vienna. From 1910 he was an associate professor and from 1917 a full professor of national economics at the Czech Polytechnic in Brno. From 1919 he was a professor at the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno and from 1939 at the Faculty of Law at Charles University (between December 1947 and February 1948 he was Rector of the latter institution). In 1913-1918 Karel Engliš was a deputy for the People's Progressive Party in the Moravian Land Assembly, in 1918 a member of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Prague, and in 1918-1925 a deputy in the National Assembly for the Czechoslovak National Democratic Party (in 1925 he left this party because of disagreements and resigned as a deputy). In 1920-1921 and 1929-1931 he was Minister of Finance. Between 1934 and February 1939 he was Governor of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia in Prague. He was a resolute opponent of Rašín's monetary policy and an upholder of monetary stabilisation. In 1927 he pushed through a budgetary and tax reform and in 1934 a devaluation of the Czechoslovak koruna. He wrote many papers on economic theory, among them Národní hospodářství (The National Economy) and Teorie státního hospodářství (Theory of the State Economy). In the communist era he was expelled from Prague and returned to Hrabyně.

 

HANAČÍK Vladimír,
born on 23 November 1861 in Brno, died on 11 January 1954 in Prague. Czech economist. From 1883 he worked at the Land Financial Directorate in Prague, and from 1899 at the Ministry of Finance in Vienna. In 1911-1919 he was Vice-President of the Land Financial Directorate in Brno and then in Prague. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic he organised the new Czechoslovak financial administration. In 1919 he was appointed President of the Land Financial Authority in Prague. From 21 March 1921 he was Minister of Finance in the first Czechoslovak government of Jan Černý. At the same time he was President of the Land Financial Directorate, and continued to hold this post even after he left the Ministry.

 

NOVÁK Augustin,
born on 20 September 1872 in Kralupy nad Vltavou, died on 22 April 1959. Czech economist. After studying at a business college he worked at Česká banka Union in 1889-1898, then at Zemská banka in Prague, where in 1916 he became director of the commercial department. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic he greatly contributed to the currency separation and to creating the Czechoslovak monetary policy strategy. He worked closely with Alois Rašín. From 1919 to March 1926 he was Executive Director of the Banking Authority at the Ministry of Finance, which fulfilled the function of the central bank in the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1921-1922 he was Minister of Finance. From April 1926 to February 1934 he was Executive Director of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia (NBCS). In protest against the devaluation of the koruna he left NBCS, taking a back seat as an economist. During the German occupation he was a member of the Board of Directors of Živnostenská banka.

 

BEČKA Bohdan,
born on 14 April 1863 in Neveklov (district of Benešov), died on 6 July 1940 in Prague. Czech politician and economist; a civil engineer by profession. After graduating from university he was engaged in the construction business. He was a member of the Young Czech Party and in 1915-1917 its acting deputy chairman. He was a leading representative of the Czechoslovak National Democratic Party. In 1918-1925 he was a deputy in the National Assembly. In 1918-1923 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Živnostenská banka. In 1923-1925 he was Minister of Finance. Bečka greatly contributed to the rehabilitation of the Czech credit system following the deflationary crisis in 1922-1924. His defence of the Czechoslovak banking sector as a whole and the state financial support provided to it was at odds with the strategy of Živnostenská banka, then the strongest commercial bank, which completely parted company with him.

 

POSPÍŠIL Vilém,
born on 5 May 1873 in Nový Rychnov (district of Pelhřimov), died on 27 November 1942. Czech economist, lawyer and journalist. He graduated in law from the Czech University in Prague. In 1902 he joined Městská spořitelna Pražská (Prague Municipal Savings Bank), where he was a director from 1917 and executive director in 1922-1926. During World War I he was active in the anti-Austrian resistance. He was actively involved in the 1919 currency separation. In 1919-1926 he was Vice-Chairman of the Banking Committee of the Banking Authority at the Ministry of Finance and Chairman of the Union of Czechoslovak Savings Banks. In addition he represented the Czechoslovak Republic in the Financial Commission of the League of Nations, where among other things he pushed through a unified procedure against counterfeiting. He attended various European economic conferences, for example in Genoa and London. He advocated a strong Czechoslovak koruna. In 1926-1934 he was the first Governor of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia. He was against the devaluation proposed by Karel Engliš in 1934, and in February 1934 he resigned from his post in protest. In the late 1930s, the government appointed him Minister of the Czechoslovak Republic for international financial negotiations.

 

DVOŘÁK Ladislav František,
born on 31 May 1888 in Hostěradice (district of Prague West), died on 1 May 1953 in Prague. Economist. He graduated in law from the Czech University in Prague. From 1913 he worked at the Central Union of Economic Co-operatives, becoming its Director General in 1920. In 1926 he joined the National Bank of Czechoslovakia, serving first as a Bank Board member, then in 1933-1939 as Vice-Governor and from February to March 1939 as Governor. From 1939 to 1945 he was Governor of the National Bank for Bohemia and Moravia. He was a leading organiser and theoretician of Czech agricultural co-operatives and one of the main economic experts of the Agrarian Party in the inter-war period. He was, among other things, a member of the Advisory Assembly for Economic Issues and the Academy of Agriculture. He wrote numerous monographs on Czechoslovak co-operatives and popular banking.

 

NEBESÁŘ Jaroslav,
born on 31 July 1882 in Německý Brod (now Havlíčkův Brod), died on 19 April 1958 in Prague. Lawyer and economist. He graduated in law from the Czech University in Prague. Until 1945 he practised law in Prague. In 1945-1950 he was chairman of the Liquidation Monetary Fund and Governor of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia and was active in the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party. At the time of the first Czechoslovak Republic he was a critic of the official monetary policy and advocated more efficient budgetary and issuance strategies. In 1954 he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for alleged high treason and espionage. He was released in 1956. Jaroslav Nebesář published numerous studies dealing with financial theory and practice.

 

POHL Otakar,
born on 11 October 1914 in Olomouc, died on 9 April 1986 in Prague. Czech economic and state official. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University and from the Free School of Political Sciences in Prague. From 1938 he worked in various firms as a tax adviser and auditor. During World War II he was imprisoned in concentration camps for resistance activities. In 1946-1948 he worked in the National Economy Department of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and in 1948-1950 in the National Economy Department of the Office of the President of the Republic. In 1950-1954 and 1957-1969 he was General Director of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. Under his leadership in the 1950s the Czechoslovak banking sector was concentrated and nationalised according to the Soviet model. As early as the mid-1950s he strived for greater central bank autonomy from government and party bodies. He supported the ideas of the Prague Spring and condemned the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968. For this reason he was sacked from the Bank. From 1970 he worked for a short time in the diplomatic service.

 

KABEŠ Jaroslav,
born on 18 May 1896 in Tábor, died on 15 August 1964 in Prague. Czech economist and politician, specialising also in philosophy and literature. In 1914 he graduated from Chrudim Business College. From 1920 he worked as a bank clerk at the Czechoslovak Agrarian Bank and later in its subsidiary coal companies (Centrocarbon, Agrocarbon) as an accountant. As a pre-war member of the Communist Party he quickly built a career. On 19 September 1945 he was appointed Director of Zemědělská banka (the former Agrarian Bank) in Prague. In September 1946 he became First Deputy Executive Director of Živnostenská banka in Prague. At the same time he was a member of the Temporary Administration of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia and later on a member of its Bank Board. In 1949-1953 he was Minister of Finance. He initiated the currency reform in 1953 and was involved in implementing it. In 1953-1957 he was General Director of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. He was also an author and published several collections of verse.

 

POTÁČ Svatopluk,
born on 24 March 1925 in Tupec (district of Přerov), died on 5 September 2014. Czech economist and economic and state official. He trained as an electrician at the Baťa factory in Zlín. In 1951 he graduated from the Central Workers' School of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia and from 1952 worked in the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. At that time he studied at the University of Economics in Prague. In 1964-1969 he was Deputy General Director, in 1969-1971 General Director and in 1971-1981 and 1988-1989 Chairman of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. In 1981-1988 he was Chairman of the State Planning Commission and Deputy Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR). As regards monetary policy, he advocated a restrained approach to foreign borrowing.

 

STEJSKAL Jan,
born on 7 November 1933 in Klatovy. After graduating from the University of Economics in 1956 he joined the headquarters of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. From 1958 to 1960 he held the position of Director of the Bank's branch in Ostrov nad Ohří, and in 1960-1970 he was Director of the Cheb branch. In 1971-1976 was the CSSR's representative at the International Bank of Economic Co-operation in Moscow. In 1977-1979 he was a political official in the Economic Department of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. Between 1977 and 1981 he held the post of General Director of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia responsible for foreign exchange matters. In 1981 he was appointed Chairman of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. Between 1988 and December 1989 he was Federal Minister of Finance.

 

TOŠOVSKÝ Josef,
born on 28 September 1950 in Náchod. Czech economist, banker and state official. He graduated in foreign trade from the University of Economics in Prague, then joined the headquarters of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia, where he held various posts. Before leaving for Živnostenská banka he worked as an adviser to the Chairman of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. From 1988 he worked as Deputy Director at the London branch of Živnostenská banka. In December 1989 he was appointed President of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia, and on 20 January 1993 Governor of the Czech National Bank and the Czech Republic's representative at the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. On 17 December 1997 he was appointed Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in a caretaker capacity. After the elections in June 1998 he returned to his position as CNB Governor. He resigned from this post in 2000. He is one of the leading Czech economists who implemented the transformation of the Czech economy to market principles. In his post he greatly contributed to anti-inflationary monetary policy, exchange rate stability and the introduction of the convertibility of the Czech currency. In 1993, he was named "Central Banker of the Year" by Euromoney magazine, and in 1996 he was named "European Banker of the Year" by leading European journalists.

 

KYSILKA Pavel,
Born on 5 September 1958 in Boskovice. Pavel Kysilka graduated from the Faculty of the National Economy at the University of Economics in Prague in 1982. He continued his studies at the University of Economics as an internal postgraduate, working at the same time as a special assistant there. He joined the Economic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences as a researcher in 1986. In 1990, he returned to the University of Economics, where he was engaged for a short time as Sub-Dean of the Faculty of the National Economy. From September 1990 to the end of 1991, he worked as an adviser to the Minister for Economic Policy and Local Development of the Czech Republic. At the beginning of 1992, he joined the State Bank of Czechoslovakia, where he was first engaged as Deputy General Director of the Main Institute for the Czech Republic. On 20 May 1992, he was appointed by the President to the post of Vice-Governor of the State Bank of Czechoslovakia and, subsequently, of the Czech National Bank. From 17 December 1997 to 23 July 1998, he was authorised by CNB Governor Josef Tošovský to act on behalf of the CNB Governor in the full scope of his rights and duties during Josef Tošovský's term of office as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. He remained in the post of Vice-Governor until 10 February 1999 and left the CNB on 30 September 1999. In his research papers he has dealt primarily with the transformation to a market economy. In 1992-1993, he managed the process of separation of the Czech koruna resulting from the division of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic.

 

TŮMA Zdeněk,
born on 19 October 1960 in České Budějovice. Zdeněk Tůma graduated from the Faculty of Trade at the University of Economics, Prague and worked there after completing his studies. In 1986 he joined the Institute for Forecasting of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences as a postgraduate researcher. In 1993-1995 he was an adviser to the Minister of Industry and Trade, and from 1995 he was Chief Economist at Patria Finance a.s. From 1 June 1998 until joining the CNB at the beginning of 1999 he held the post of Executive Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, representing the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia on the Board of Directors. In 1990-1998, he lectured on macroeconomics at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. From 1999 to 2001 he held the post of President of the Czech Economics Society. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Economics, Prague, a member of the Graduation Council at the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) at Charles University and the Board of Trustees at the English College in Prague, an honorary member of the Board of Trustees at the U.S. Business School Prague, and a member of the Board of Editors of the economic journal Finance a úvěr (Finance and Credit). He has studied in the United Kingdom (London School of Economics, University of Cambridge), the Netherlands (Tinbergen Institute) and the USA (George Mason University). He publishes articles on monetary policy and macroeconomics in the daily and professional press. He was appointed Vice-Governor of the Czech National Bank on 13 February 1999 and Governor of the Czech National Bank on 1 December 2000. On 11 February 2005, he was reappointed by the President as Governor for another six-year term. He resigned as of 30 June 2010. 

 

SINGER Miroslav,
born on 14 May 1968 in Prague. After graduating in mathematical methods in economics from the University of Economics in Prague (1991), Miroslav Singer obtained a postgraduate fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed his thesis and was awarded a PhD in 1995. From 1993, he also worked as a researcher and lecturer, and later as Deputy Director for Research, at the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education at Charles University (CERGE-EI). He was Chief Economist at Expandia Finance from 1995, Managing Director of Expandia Investment Company in 1998-1999 and Managing Director of Expandia Holding (the top company of the Expandia financial and industrial group) in 2000-2001. In 2001, Miroslav Singer joined PricewaterhouseCoopers Czech Republic as Director of the services to businesses group, where he specialised in corporate recovery, restructuring and distressed assets transactions. He also led complex projects such as a marketing and financial study of the possibility of holding the Olympic Games in Prague.
He has been a member of the Supervisory Boards/Boards of Directors at Česká pojišťovna, Expandia Finance, Expandia Banka, Expandia Holding and Chemofond, as well as at industrial companies such as Jitona, Vigona and Vlnap. He is Chairman of the CERGE-EI Foundation. He has been a member of the editorial boards of Finance a úvěr (Journal of Economics and Finance) and Business Central Europe.
Miroslav Singer has lectured on preparatory mathematical analysis, statistics, advanced econometrics and labour economics at the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education at Charles University and now lectures on information economics at the University of Economics in Prague. He has published articles in the daily and professional press, including the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economics of Transition and the Journal of Comparative Economics, and has contributed chapters to books issued by publishers such as Academic Press London and the Lappeenranta University of Technology. As a participant at specialist conferences and in his lectures, he has also dealt with issues such as transformation, growth, the European currency, bankruptcy legislation and corporate governance.
Miroslav Singer is married with two children.
Miroslav Singer was appointed a member of the CNB Bank Board and Vice-Governor in February 2005. The President appointed him CNB Governor for a term of six years with effect from 1 July 2010.