Vaclav KlausSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

In order to study in Italy and the US and work as a research assistant at the Institute of Economics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, he took advantage of the relative openness that existed at the time in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. He later got a Ph.D. in economics there.

For political concerns, he quit his research career in 1970 and went to work for the Czechoslovak State Bank. He later came back to academia and worked at the Prognostic Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Klaus entered politics as soon as the events of November 17, 1989, were over, although he maintained ties to the field of economic research. He continued to sometimes give lectures and write, and he was working as an economics instructor at Charles University. He was named a finance professor at the University of Economics in Prague in 1995.

When he was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in December 1989, he began his political career. After rising to the position of chairman of the Civic Forum, the country's most powerful political organization at the time, he was named deputy chairman of the cabinet of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic in 1991.

He co-founded the Civic Democratic Party after its dissolution and presided over it until 2002. In 1992, he and this party won a legislative contest, and he was elected prime minister of the Czech Republic. He participated in the "Velvet Divorce" of the Czechoslovak Federation and the establishment of the sovereign Czech Republic in this capacity.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and successfully defended his position as prime minister. After the ruling coalition fell apart in 1997, he announced his resignation. He was elected to lead the Czech parliament's Chamber of Deputies for four years following a forced general election in 1998.

He was elected president of the Czech Republic on February 28, 2003, and he held that position until 2013. He was appointed a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute after leaving office.

He has written more than 20 books on broad social, political, and economic topics, and he has received honorary doctorates and other international awards from institutions all over the world.