Vladislav Severa was named a partner in the Transaction Advisory Services department. He is mainly responsible for projects in the areas of business and accounting valuations and financial- and credit-risk management. A graduate of Charles University in Prague, Severa has an M.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Mathematics. In 2002, he earned the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) certification and became a member of the CFA Institute.

Ondrej Janecek assumed the post of partner in the tax practice. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Economics in Prague and is a certified tax adviser and member of the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic.

Another new partner in the tax practice, Jirí Prokop, brings to the company vast overseas experience. In 2001 he was a tax manager with Ernst & Young's International Tax Services Group in New York City. The following year he joined the Capital Markets Group in London. Prokop is a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague and is a member of the Czech Chamber of Tax Advisers.

In another personnel change at Ernst & Young's local office, Jan Prokes took over the post of public-private partnership manager and will be responsible for projects in the public sector.

Prokes previously served as an adviser to Transportation Minister Milan Simonovsky´. He was responsible for advising the government on financing infrastructure projects.

Dutch bank ING reported two key personnel changes in its top management team in its Czech office. Business Director for Commercial Services Dalibor Sajar was promoted to the position of general director for commercial services and a member of ING's Executive Board in the Czech Republic. Sajar holds an MBA degree from Nottingham Trent University and will oversee sales of pension insurance products, mutual funds and mortgages.

Marcel Toman took over the management of ING's marketing and communication activities in this country. As a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague, he honed his marketing skills during previous jobs at Leo Burnett Advertising and telecommunication firms Aliatel, Cesky´ Telecom and Oskar.