The mission of the PAC

Our Czech and European society is facing fundamental changes that will significantly affect our lives

Alongside long-term social, environmental, security and economic challenges – poverty, growing inequalities, environmental pollution, food quality, international conflicts – we need to find ways to meet the challenges posed by climate change, new advanced technologies, but also new threats to democracy in Europe and the changing international political and security environment.

As an independent, non-partisan institute, the mission of the Progressive Analytical Center is to deepen our understanding of these social trends through critical analysis, to improve the public debate about them, and to offer progressive solutions and ideas, as well as support policy proposals. All this with the aim of improving the lives of all citizens in our country and in Europe. By fostering open and honest dialogue, linking experts with the public across social bubbles, overcoming social polarisation and practical solution-oriented interdisciplinary analysis, we want to contribute to strengthening the resilience, sustainability and responsibility of our society as a way to secure a better future for today and future generations.

Our team

Tomáš Petříček

Director

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. He graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University with a Master’s degree and a PhD in International Relations. He defended his dissertation on “Perspectives of the European Union’s Energy Security”. During his studies, he also completed a stay at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He also holds an M.A. in Governance and Development Policy from the Centre Européen de Recherches Internationales et Stratégiques in Brussels and an M.Sc. in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick. He has a daughter and a son with his wife Iva, whom he met during his studies.

Mgr. Lukáš Henzl

Mgr. Lukáš Henzl

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Lukáš Henzl graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Political Science. During his studies he focused mainly on party and electoral systems. He has experience in running election campaigns and preparing election programmes, and professionally he has focused on social policy and European funds in addition to marketing. Lukáš is a proud father of a young son, to whom he and his wife have acquired a female Welsh Corgi. His hobbies are mainly his family, modern and modern history and hiking.

Anna Gümplová

Anna Gümplová

Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board

Anna Gümplová graduated in International Area Studies at the Charles University with a focus on the Middle East. She worked as an assistant to the Green Deputy Mayor of Prague. She is an advisor to the City Councillor for Culture and at the Prague City Gallery. She has been involved in Arnica, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the Limits Are Us movement and the youth political organization Young Greens, which she led. She was a member of the leadership of the Federation of Young European Greens. Since 2020, she has been Vice-President of the Greens. She is interested in climate policy, social-environmental transformation.

Ing. Karel Machovec

Ing. Karel Machovec

Member of the Supervisory Board

Karel Machovec has specialized in the fields of environment, energy, local development and agriculture all his life. He graduated from the University of Science and Technology and subsequently underwent postgraduate studies in analytical chemistry. From 1996 to 1998 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies and chaired the Agriculture Committee. In the past, he served as Vice President of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and expert advisor to the Director General of CzechInvest and several ministers. He is interested in art, history and politics. At the Progressive Analytical Centre he focuses on 21st century energy policy and sustainable agriculture.

Mgr. Martin Raška

Mgr. Martin Raška

Member of the Management Board

Martin Raška is an IT guy, a casual politician, a sportsman and a family dad. When he’s not dealing with complex IT systems and cyber security, he spends his free time with his amazing family and his life’s hobbies – politics and history. He graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University at the Institute of Political Studies. Professionally, he works in the field of information technology and digitalization. In the state administration he worked on cross-border projects for the development of large-scale IT systems, in the commercial sphere he worked in the field of media digitalization. Among other things, he served as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on cyber security.

Mgr. Jakub Štědroň, Ph.D.

Mgr. Jakub Štědroň, Ph.D.

Member of the Supervisory Board

Jakub Štědroň works as the director of the House of National Minorities, o. p. s. In 2007 he graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University with a degree in Theory of Culture/Culturology. In 2016, he received his Ph.D. from this faculty. The topic of his thesis was History and Contemporary Affirmative Action in the USA. In the past, among other things, he lectured on political marketing at the University of International and Public Relations Prague, focused on Roma politics as a researcher at SOCIOKLUB, and worked as a volunteer on environmental and social projects in Ireland and Austria. He is a happy father of two daughters. He enjoys sports, map collecting, Romani culture and geography..

Bc. Vojtěch Mráz

Bc. Vojtěch Mráz

Member of the Management Board

Vojtěch Mráz focuses his professional life primarily on the field of business, economics and the correct setting of company processes, because only companies with functional processes are sustainable and competitive in the long term. Vojtěch is a graduate of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in Economic and Regional Geography. His hobbies are friends, politics and strategy games.

Eva Pavlíková

Eva Pavlíková

Member of the Supervisory Board

Eva Pavlíková graduated from the Czech Technical University in the field of IT and business and management in industry, or from the Hussite Theological Faculty of Charles University. Thanks to these studies, she is concerned not only about the social conditions of people, but also about the social stability of employees in companies and the development of companies as such. Her activities can then be found, for example, in the field of mentoring in the workplace or in the philosophy by which she tries to enrich people’s values. Eva also fights for better development of towns and cities, which is why she is co-chair of the Green Party.

Ludmila Rašková

Ludmila Rašková

Junior Sociologist

Ludmila Rašková is a student of Sociology at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. Her areas of interest include political sociology, economic sociology and anthropology, specifically the mechanisms of capitalism. At PAC, she worked on the attitudes of the residents of the Ústí region on the local implementation of the Green Deal, and now she works there as a Junior Sociologist.

Lukáš Drobec

Lukáš Drobec

Junior Analyst & Project Manager

Lukáš Drobec, as a student at the Institute of International Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University and the Institute of Greek and Latin Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, focuses on the politics of Mediterranean countries and their links to the Czech Republic. Along with this topic, he also focuses on local politics in the Mediterranean region and the relations of Southern European states with North Africa and the Middle East within the EU GlobalGateway.

Terezie Mazlová

Terezie Mazlová

Junior Analyst

Terezie Mazlová is a student of political science at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Her main interest is the development of the history of international relations and the theories that frame this development. Thanks to her studies and personal interest, she is constantly deepening her knowledge in the field of global politics and diplomacy. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring new cultures, which helps her to gain a broader perspective on the workings of international relations and to understand the diversity of the world.

Our office in Prague

Opero
Salvátorská 931/8
Staré Město,
110 00, Praha 1
+420 778 545 664
info@progresivnicentrum.eu