Věra Babišová

Věra Babišová is a founder of A-GIGA company and stands behind a very beneficial project called “Změna je možná – chci změnu” (Change is possible – I want change). 

Thanks to this project and cooperation of prisons with A-GIGA, prisoners in selected prisons can be employed as call center operators directly in prisons. And it goes even further. After their release, they can continue working in the company’s call centers outside the prison.

Along with that, Věra Babišová is also a chairwoman of a non-profit organization “Šance P.R.O.” (Chance F.O.R.). Through this organization and a project “Neighbors 83”, she provides other support to former prisoners after their release, such as assistance in dealing with the authorities, legal assistance, dealing with debts, addictions, relationships, and housing. Thanks to this support, they can more easily make the transition to normal life.

In general, they help the integration of disadvantaged people into society and the labour market, which means improving the relationship of the public, institutions and employers to disadvantaged groups of people, disabled and otherwise difficult to integrate, including those released from prison.

It thus addresses the social problem of low employment and unskilled prisoners and the risk of high recidivism.

They have received several awards for this work, including the prestigious Austrian Social Innovation Award “Sozial Marie 2015”.

Martin Hausenblas

Martin Hausenblas is a leading Czech entrepreneur and philanthropist. His company Malfini, which is one of the largest textile companies in Europe, is a pioneer of energy self-sufficiency and sustainability. 

Martin Hausenblas decided to prepare the company for the future energy crisis. Since 2019, Malfinis’s operations have been 50%, now fully, self-sufficient in terms of energy consumption, thanks to the use of solar power plants, heat pumps and heat recovery. In autumn 2023, Malfini opened a robotic logistics hall that is fully electrified and almost 100% autonomous.

Martin Hausenblas is also an active philanthropist and promoter of decarbonisation of energy and transport. He is an initiator of the vision of the Czech Republic as an energy, transport and data crossroads and to this end he co-founded and financially supports the Pulse Institute. It was created specifically to push for the accelerated construction of high-speed lines, the expansion of energy interconnectors at borders to better strengthen the integrity of the European energy market and the possibility of sharing cheap and clean electricity, and the creation of a data backbone for Europe through data cabling and the creation of storage facilities in the Czech Republic. He is working on this project with, for example, Czech diplomat and former Minister of the Environment Petr Kalas or CIIRC CTU Director Prof. Vladimír Mařík and Pulse Institute Director Adam Ondráček. 

Long-term interest in the topic of sustainable transport led Martin Hausenblas and his partners to launch the popular Liftago app, which connects passengers directly with taxi drivers. For passengers, this means faster, more reliable and more reliable taxi services, and for taxi drivers, more fixed-fee contracts.

Martin believes in clean business. Therefore he founded in 2010 an association Podnikáme bez korupce (Business without Corruption) with the aim of bringing honesty back to Czech business.

Zuzana Holá

Zuzana has been professionally focusing on sustainability since 2015. She is a graduate of the GRI Certified Training Course and the Business Sustainability Management Course at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She is a founding member of the Association of Managers of Sustainability (AMMUR).

In her previous role at Lidl, she established a non-financial reporting and was involved in the very first integration of sustainable goals into the company’s business strategy.  For the last four years, in her role as Head of Communication & Sustainability in Vodafone, she has been responsible for all ESG coordination and reporting, audits and training. She takes credit for making Vodafone a recognised leader in responsible and sustainable business practices, in respecting the environment, promoting equality and diversity, partnership and transparency.

Zuzana is also a Director of Vodafone ČR Foundation. The foundation strives to use technology to contribute to improving the quality of life of people in the Czech Republic, supports individuals and communities to be beneficial to our society, and fights against the exclusion of vulnerable groups from the digital society. Therefore, activities of the foundation are dedicated to digital education for the elderly. The foundation is a partner of the aplikace Záchranka (Ambulance app) and is intensively involved in the fight against domestic violence. 

Zuzana has initiated a foundation of the Academy and Charter Against Domestic Violence, an association of employers who are committed to helping victims of domestic violence among their employees.

Libor Musil

Libor is a visionary who has built from scratch the internationally successful Czech family business LIKO-S. The company places an extreme emphasis on the impact of its activities on nature and society. Martin has also managed to pass the family business on to the next generation. After 30 years, he handed over the management of the family holding’s operations to his son Jan Musil and daughter Hana Williams Musilová.  

The company exports prefabricated interior systems and unique welded structures for the most demanding industrial applications worldwide. It currently has 250 employees and another 200 sole traders. The portfolio is complemented by the Living Buildings Project, a unique green building programme that aims to change the face and principles of the construction industry through green facades, roofs and root cleaning. For the first time ever, buildings that benefit nature are a new solution for the hot climate era and have a positive impact on the inhabitants.

The company has already received several international awards and in the past has also won the Family Business of the Year Award, the Best Managed Company title several times and the Red Dot World Design Award for product development. 

LIKO-S is one of the innovative European leaders in its field and is also active in markets such as India and the USA.

Libor is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Czech Green Building Council. As the President of the European BikeTrial Union, he has been dedicated to the education of young athletes for years. He is a laureate of the Josef Vavroušek Award for environmental contribution. From the position of Chairman of the State Committee for Registration and Development of Family Businesses, he helps family businesses in our country.

Katarína Navrátilová

Katarína is an ambassador of the approach that a strong environmental and social strategy can significantly boost the performance of the entire company, its profitability and also its culture. Twenty years of professional experience in a variety of roles has helped her to relate to the business, the employees and the needs of everyone Tesco works with. This now gives her a huge insight in her role as CEO, leading the company not only to long-term success but more importantly to sustainability as a whole.

She stands behind the first ever publication of Tesco’s Diversity and Inclusion Report in the Czech Republic, where she presented plans to strengthen the representation of women in senior management positions, to further support families in the context of the importance of work-life balance, to promote equal pay and opportunities, and also called on all other companies and organisations to publish similar reports with measures on how they approach different aspects of diversity issues. As an ambassador for the LGBTQ+ community, she led dozens of colleagues in the Pride Parade.

She actively volunteers in her free time (and alongside her loved ones) to help with food aid distribution. She is involved in the company’s Helping Hands project each year, in which colleagues from the office help colleagues in operations and get to know their work better (you can meet Katarina at the cash desk, for example).

She is also engaged in the “Tesco for the Planet – Our Responsible Business Journey” programme (which focuses on practical examples of Tesco’s environmental and sustainability actions). Katarina guides participants through this journey herself. She participates in various sustainability conferences.

She is actively involved in preventing food waste, for example by supporting the European Anti-Waste Week, where she personally called for everyone to buy only what they need.

Katarína also passes on her ideas, for example as a mentor for the British Chamber of Commerce’s Equilibrium Women’s Development Programme.

Jan Řežáb

Jan Řežáb is a visionary, philanthropist, environmental enthusiast, investor in renewable energy sources, owner and founder of the JRD Group, which has been a pioneer of energy-efficient and healthy living in the Czech Republic for over 20 years. He has devoted his life to promoting green technologies in the construction of housing, the use of renewable energy sources and the management of non-recyclable waste. He is an author of the first active house in the Czech Republic. His achievements are changing the Czech construction industry, inspiring other companies, actively trying to move forward the field of renewable energy sources and developing solutions for ecological disposal of non-recyclable waste. As part of his foundation, he supports, among other things, the preservation of biodiversity in the Czech landscape.

He implemented the first commercial low-energy and energy passive housing solutions in the Czech Republic. Unconsumed energy plays a key energy role. He has brought the implementation of apartment buildings to the level of minimum heating needs. He also presents this in his own life. The heating in his apartment has no need to run all winter. The need for a solution for DHW heating and electricity generation led Jan Řežáb to install the first photovoltaic panels on houses as early as 2006. He expanded his scope with this one of the first installations of photovoltaics on a residential building in the Czech Republic. He has also added the renewable energy sector to sustainable development and has built and operates a wind park in Václavice, the second largest wind park in the Czech Republic, as well as many photovoltaic parks in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. He is striving for a comprehensive development of this field in the technical, educational and especially legislative fields.

Jan Řežáb identified many unresolved issues in the area of waste disposal. That’s why he joined Millenium Technologies, a company that is developing a revolutionary solution for waste treatment with plasma gasification. Waste treatment using plasma is emission-free. 

He spends a lot of time popularizing these fields through lectures from elementary schools to universities, at conferences, as well as being very active in the press and on social media, where he is one of the most read personalities in his field.

Jan Řežáb simply not only works on ESG, but also lives it and tries to be an example for everyone.