(born 21 August 1952, Prague)
1976 Graduated from the University of Economics, Prague (specialisation in business and tourism)
1977 – 1990 Executive manager in several state owned companies (doing business, tourism and construction industry)
March 1990 General Secretary of the Czech Social Democratic Party, ?SSD (re-established after the Velvet Revolution)
1991 – 1998 Economic consultant for small and middle size companies
1990 – 2004 Member of Prague City Assembly
1998 – 2004 Deputy Mayor of Prague for finance
2004 Minister of Regional Development
April 2005 – 2006 Prime Minister (during his premiership GDP was above 6%, the highest in the modern Czech history; the budget deficit was under control particularly due to budgetary reserves made)
2006 – 2010 Chairman of ?SSD (under his leadership the party had best results in the elections in all its 140 existence and became the strongest political party)
2010 Resigned from the post of the Chairman after he won the general election
2006 – 2013 Member of the Czech Parliament
1993 – present Chairman of W.Brandt and B.Kreisky Association
Author of hundreds of articles and several books
1993 – 2010 Publisher of the social democratic monthly Trend
2010 – present Chief Editor of the independent left oriented server Va?e věc