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Job title: Compaq Computers country manager
Age: 39
Previous jobs: Emigrated to United States in 1985. Worked as construction worker, carpenter and PC salesman at Microage in Santa Ana, Calif.
Education: Czech Technical University in Prague
Family: Married to Debbie, a U.S. citizen; three boys
Favorite spot in Prague: Mala Strana streets in spring
When did you first realize the computer was indispensable to you?
In 1996, in the U.S., when I was applying for my first nonmanual job.
If someone had told you 10 years ago that Compaq would make the Czech Republic a regional manufacturing hub, what would you have told them?
I would have said “I think you have a rich imagination.”
When do you think humans will first set foot on Mars?
I have no idea, but it will happen.
How much will the country’s gross domestic product grow in 2001?
4.0 percent
What will the downside be to joining the EU?
Bigger competition. But you can also see this as a positive. The consumer will be the real winner.
Want your top manager to answer our five questions?
E-mail us at business@praguepost.cz
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KPMG Czech Republic has a new managing partner, and for the first time, he’s a local.
Frantisek Dostalek, a co-founder of KPMG’s decade-old Czech branch, has taken over for the departing Charles Randolph. Dostalek was previously a partner responsible for auditing, and was a member of KPMG’s managerial team for Central and Eastern Europe.
Dostalek graduated from the University of Economics in Prague, and later worked as chief of the finance and planning department of engineering company Koh-i-noor. Also, he briefly acted as an adviser to the Czechoslovak Ministry of Iron and Steel Industry.
KPMG opened its first Czech office in Prague in 1990. The company now employs almost 500 people in four branches in Prague, Brno, Ceske Budejovice and Jablonec nad Nisou.
ETel, a growing provider of Internet telecommunications services, has a new business director, David Hruska.
Hruska has been working with eTel since 1999. After graduating from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Charles University, he worked at publishing companies in London. He started as a business manager for Sterling Publications, before joining Cornhill Publications as a human resources manager. The 33-year-old is fluent in English, French and Russian, and enjoys history, traveling and sports.
Cour’De Fairless has moved to Prague to work for Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, becoming the company’s regional manager of professional services in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East.
Fairless joined the company, which helps clients set up call centers, in 1999. She cut her teeth as a project manager for such big-name customers as GM/OnStar, Alcatel/Texas and the Home Shopping Network.
Before coming here this January, Fairless was working as Genesys’ regional manager for professional services in Germany.
The company wasn’t the first stop in the Dallas, Texas, native’s telecom career. Between 1992 and 1999, she worked various positions for Intercom Inc., a Dallas-based telecommunications company that’s a subsidiary of Matra-Hachette, a French conglomerate with holdings worth $10.2 billion (390 billion Kc). She was a senior project manager, which meant she kept track of planning, budgeting and coordinating all facets of installing and running Intercom’s products.
Her main responsibilities in Prague will include managing Genesys’ professional services staff, as well as designing complex telecommunications projects for clients in the region.
Fairless, who has lived in Europe since May 2000, enjoys scuba diving, rafting, hiking and almost any outdoor activity.
Frantisek Bouc’s e-mail address is
fbouc@praguepost.cz
