FIR Annual Conference 2025

Martina Jiránková has been Head of the Department of International Economic Relations since its establishment in January 2021 (she had previously served as Head of the Department of World Economy since September 2013). From 2014 to 2016, she was Vice-Dean for Research and Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of International Relations. She has been with the department since 2007 and was appointed Associate Professor in the field of World Economy in 2013. She lectures and teaches international economics and has long focused on the changing role of nation states in the era of globalization (she was the principal investigator of a postdoctoral grant on this topic). She also served as Director of the Center for European Studies at the University of Economics in Prague. In 2019 and 2020, she was a member of the research team for a Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA ČR) project entitled Targeting Investment Support in the Czech Republic in View of the Expected Impacts of Technological Change. In 2020, she was also part of the research team for another TA ČR project entitled Falling Oil Prices: Research on the Impacts on Producing States in the EU Neighborhood. Since February 2024, she has been Dean of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague.

Othon Anastasakis is Director of the European Studies Centre and of South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), and Senior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. He leads research on the Greek Diaspora Project and EU–Turkey relations, and teaches South East European politics and EU politics at Oxford. His work focuses on Balkan and Southern European politics, democratization, EU enlargement, Greek–Turkish relations, and diaspora studies. He holds degrees from the University of Athens, Columbia University, the LSE, Paris IV, and Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo.

Francesca Guadagno is Economist at wiiw. Her research focuses on industrial policy, structural change, innovation and new technologies. Recent publications include studies on smart specialisation strategies, industrial ecosystems and resilience. She has recently started to work on issues of sustainability and circularity and contributed to the UNIDO SwitchMed Programme. Before joining wiiw, she worked on EU and global issues as a senior researcher at CSIL (Milan) and as a consultant at UNIDO, WIPO, and UNCTAD, among others. She earned a PhD from UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University.

Michal Hrubý is a PhD candidate at the Prague University of Economics and Business, focusing on industrial policy and the automotive industry, with experience from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Relations and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is an economic advisor to the CEO at CzechInvest and a scientific assistant at Škoda Auto University.

Veronika has been serving as Chief of Staff to Director General at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic since February 2023, working within the Defence Policy and Strategy Division. Prior to this, Veronika spent nearly four years at the Czech Permanent Delegation to NATO, where she was responsible for coordinating ministerial meetings and NATO Summits. From 2018 to 2019, she worked at the Office of the Deputy Minister for Defence Policy and Strategy (now Director General), supporting defence policy formulation and implementation at the national level.

Monika Ladmanová is the Head of European Commission Representation in Czechia. From 2014, she was a member of the cabinet of the Commissioner for justice, consumer protection and gender equality in Brussels, and in 2019, she joined the cabinet of the European Commission Vice-President for values and transparency. A lawyer by training, she has long-standing experience of working in the NGO sector as well as in a global corporation. Throughout her professional career, she has been promoting European values and working in the field of European integration.

David Müller is Director General of the Section of European Union and Foreign Trade at the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, a role he assumed in July 2023 after serving as senior advisor and deputy director general. He has extensive experience in international trade and law, including postings at the Czech Consulate General in Toronto, where he supported Czech businesses and academia in Canada. Earlier, he led the Ministry’s European and International Law Department. David holds Master’s degrees in Law, Economics, and International Relations, as well as a PhD in Political Science, with studies in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Australia.He’s is Graduate of Prague University of Economics and Business.

Jaroslav Weinfurter studied International Relations at the University of Aberdeen (M.A., M.Sc.) and at the Metropolitan University in Prague (Ph.D.). His academic interests include theories of international relations and international security, approached from a wide range of related and more distant disciplines. His research focuses primarily on the issue of spatiality in all its organizational, structural, security, socio-political, international-political, and atmospheric dimensions. Regionally, he specializes in the postcolonial world, with particular attention to the Middle East and North Africa. He teaches a course in comparative politics.

Jarolím Antal, is Director of the Centre for European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations, Prague University of Economics and Business.
In 2010, he was a Fellow of the German Bundestag’s International Parliamentary Scholarship Program. He has also held visiting fellowships at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, D.C., and at the European Studies Centre, University of Oxford. His research focuses on EU–US economic relations, EU trade policy, and the EU’s institutional framework.

Pavel Hnát is Vice-Rector for Education and Quality Assurance at the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE), where he is responsible for study regulations, quality management, and academic development. He previously served as Vice-Dean for Study Affairs at VŠE’s Faculty of International Relations (2012–2022). He is an Associate Professor in International Economic Relations with research interests in globalization, European integration, and world economy.