Zeman studied pedagogy at Masaryk University in Brno and had worked at the Finance Ministry for the last two years. Before that, he was a reporter for Metro and Lidové noviny.

Information technology solutions firm Ness Czech has created a special team to focus on the rapidly developing insurance sector. The team will have three members: Rostislav Haufer, Alexander Čopák and Lenka Krejčů. It will report to the director of the financial services department, Pavel Juřík.

Former Czech Television General Director Jakub Puchalský was recently appointed the director of internal communications for Europe at Unilever. Puchalský had worked as Unilever's spokesman in its Prague office for two years but, following the appointment, recently moved to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Puchalský started his career as a BBC foreign service reporter. He led Czech Television in 1998 and 1999.

Unilever's new spokesman in Prague is Marcela Němcová, who previously worked in the company's marketing department.

Alcatel, a mobile communication company, has hired a new support sales director: Michal Svoboda. He will be responsible for managing Alcatel's marketing strategies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Svoboda is a graduate of the Czech Technical University. For the past five years he has worked in the telecommunications industry, as business development manager at Lucent Technologies.

GE Money Multiservis has opened a new client center in Ostrava and named Magdalena Wavle its new director. The center will employ 500 people. Wavle, a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague, has been working within the GE Money financial group for six years. She has worked in the group's American headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and later in Germany.