PCTR team

Alexandr Vondra

CHAIRMAN OF THE PCTR BOARD

Dr. Alexandr Vondra is a Member of the European Parliament and a vice-chairman of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

He is the Honorary Chairman of the Prague Centre for Transatlantic Relations at CEVRO College in Prague. He is also the Honorary President of the Czech Euro-Atlantic Commission and former member of the Supervisory Board of Czech Aeroholding company.

He helds a PhD in Geography from Charles University, Prague. In 1989, he was the spokesman for Charter 77 and co-founder of the Civic Forum in Czechoslovakia. Later he served as a Foreign Policy Advisor to President Havel (1990–1992), the First Deputy Foreign Minister (1992–1997), the Czech Ambassador to the U.S. (1997–2001), and the Czech Government’s Commissioner for 2002 Prague NATO Summit. He served as the Foreign Minister (2006–2007), Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs (2007–2009) and Minister of Defence (2010–2012) of the Czech Republic. In the years 2006 to 2012, he was a senator in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic for Civic Democratic Party, ODS. Since 2019, he has served as a Member of the European Parliament.

Jiří Šedivý (ret.)

MEMBER OF THE PCTR BOARD

jiri.sedivy@vsci.cz

Jiří Šedivý is a former Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, head of the Department of Security Studies at the CEVRO Institute, a guarantor of the MPA program – Security and Crisis Management, member of the Czech Euro-Atlantic Council. His specialization is security, crisis management, reform of the Czech Armed Forces, critical state infrastructure protection, energy security and other related areas. He graduated from the Land Forces College and postgraduate studies at the Military Academy Brno. As an army officer, he held many command functions in tank units (1975–1992). He studied at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania (1993–1994), including a specialized program to combat terrorism. He was Commander of the First ACR Contingent in the IFOR Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006). He held command and staff positions in the ACR leadership (1996–2002) and ended his military career as Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces (1998–2002). He founded the consulting company Generals, s.r.o., which deals with security and project management consulting.

He has been a teacher at the CEVRO College since 2011 and Member of the PCTR Board since 2021.

Tomáš Pojar

MEMBER OF THE PCTR BOARD

tomas.pojar@vsci.cz

Tomáš Pojar is the national security advisor and Sherpa of the Prime Minister for the European Affairs.

He studied political science at the Faculty of Social Studies at Charles University, and Counterterrorism Studies and Homeland Security at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Israel. In 1995 he began to work for the NGO People in Need (PIN), which he led from 1997 to 2005. In 2005, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served as Deputy Minister for Bilateral Relations and First Deputy Minister for Security and EU Affairs and bilateral relations with European states (2006-2010). From 2010 to 2014, he was the Czech Republic ambassador to Israel. He served as a deputy minister for European Affairs between the years 2022-2023.

The Czech Republic Minister of Defense awarded Tomáš Pojar by the Cross of Merit, Grade III. The World Economic Forum recognized him as Young Global Leader 2010 and the President of Albania as Ambassador of the Nation. He acts as Vice-President of the Czech-Israeli Mutual Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2023 he is the National Security Advisor of the Czech government and at the same time serves as a Sherpa of the Prime Minister for the European Affairs..

He is a member of the PCTR Board since 2021.

Kateřina Weissová

DIRECTOR

katerina.weissova@vsci.cz

Kateřina Weissová has been the director of The Center for Transatlantic Relations Director at CEVRO University since 2021. She focuses particularly on foreign and domestic policy in the US and the UK.

Kateřina served as the Chief of Staff/Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the Director of the Minister’s Cabinet (2010 – 2013) and was an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006 – 2009).

She was a member of the governmental negotiating team on missile defense. She participated in numerous projects in defense and security, for example, for the Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Logar.

In the 1990s, she worked as a journalist. While in the US (1997 – 2000), she was a correspondent for MF DNES Daily and interned at The American Enterprise Institute, where she was actively involved in The New Atlantic Initiative’s effort for NATO enlargement.

She studied mathematics and sociology and has supervised many public opinion research projects, particularly on domestic and foreign policy issues. She has also managed several successful election campaigns and worked as an analyst and advisor on strategy and communications.

Jan Jireš

SENIOR FELLOW

Jan Jireš is an expert on security and defence, a former Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic.

He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. In 2012 he received a Ph.D. for his dissertation on the development of U.S.–Central European relations in the post-Cold War period. Between 2004 and 2014, he lectured on international relations and security studies at both Charles University and the CEVRO Institute in Prague. In 2008 and 2009, he spent a year as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

He has worked with numerous American and European research institutions and think tanks (CEPA Washington, CESS Groningen, DCAF Geneva, CEPI Bratislava, PISM Warsaw, SOWI Strausberg, PSSI Prague, IISS London).

Since 2014 he has been a civil servant, first serving as Defence Policy Director at the Czech Ministry of Defence (2014 – 2017), than as a Head of the Defence Section of the Permanent Delegation of the Czech Republic to NATO in Brussels (2017 – 2022). From July 2022 to July 2025 he served first as Deputy Minister of Defence and later as Director General for Defence Policy and Planning at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic.

Jan Jireš is a founder of the Center for Transatlantic Relations (PCTR), which he led until 2013. He currently works as a strategic advisor for the defence industry. He is a senior fellow of PCTR sice September 1, 2025.

Jaroslav Kuchyňa

SENIOR FELLOW

Jaroslav Kuchyňa is a former diplomat and intelligence officer. Before 1989, he worked for Radio Free Europe and Voice of America.

In 1990, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and until 1995 he worked as a diplomat at the Czechoslovak and later Czech Embassy in Warsaw. After his return, he headed the Central European department at the MFA.

Currently, he is concentrating on Central Europe and on terrorist threats from the Middle East region.

Maciej Ruczaj

SENIOR FELLOW

maciej.ruczaj@pctr.cz

Maciej Ruczaj is a political analyst and diplomat. Born in Poland, he graduated from Charles University in Prague, where he completed MA courses in English and American Studies as well as Political Science and International Relations. He holds a PhD from the same university.

Since 2008 he was associated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. Between 2016 and 2023 he served as the director of the Polish Institute in Prague, counsellor of the Polish Embassy to the Czech Republic and a member of the Czech-Polish Forum. In the years 2023 – 2024, he served as the Ambassador of Poland to Slovakia.

He is the author or the editor of the numerous monographs concerning Central and Eastern European history, political thought and culture. He was a regular correspondent of a Czech daily Lidové noviny, a Slovak weekly Tyžden and Polish revue Międzynarodowy Przegląd Polityczny. Currently he is a columnist at Echo24 weekly and Postoj.sk. Senior fellow at PCTR since January 2025.

Michael Žantovský

SENIOR FELLOW

Michael Žantovský is a Czech diplomat, writer, politician and a psychologist. He holds a Master’s degree summa cum laude in psychology from Charles University. From 1973 -1981 he worked as a researcher for the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague.

In 1989 he co-founded and became the spokesman for the political movement Civic Forum . He went on to becomee the press secretary and political coordinator in the office of President Václav Havel.

In 1996 – 2002 he was a senator in the Czech Parliament and chairman of its Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Security. In this period, he was twice elected to lead the liberal-conservative party, Občanská demokratická aliance (ODS). He was the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in the United States (1992-1997), Israel (2003-2009) and the United Kingdom (2009-2015).

He is a prolific author, translator, journalist, and educator. He has taught American studies and Euro-American relations at Charles University, New York University of Prague, CEVRO and CERGE Institute. He recieved the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award and the Medal of Merit for Diplomacy from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 2015 to 2023, he served as the Executive Director of the Václav Havel Library. From 2012 to 2016, he was the President of the Aspen Institute Prague, and currently holds the honorary position of President of Aspen Institute Central Europe. He serves as a foreign policy advisor to President Petr Pavel.