A couple of business executives earned major international recognition in December.

The Yale Economic Review named 29-year-old Yale World Fellow Tomáš Sedláček one of the world's top-five young economists in its issue released Dec. 15.

Sedláček is currently the chief macroeconomic strategist for ČSOB bank. He has been at Yale since August as a World Fellow and will return to ČSOB in Prague by the holidays.

Sedláček left the ministry before the June 2006 general election for his position at ČSOB. He maintains strong ties to the academic world, teaching courses in economics, philosophy, ethics and current affairs at Charles University and the University of New York in Prague.

The other executive, Petr Kříž, a partner in the Assurance and Advisory Services department of PricewaterhouseCoopers, was appointed vice president and treasurer of the European Federation of Accountants (FEE).

Since 2002, Kříž has been a member of the council of the European Federation of Accountants. From 2001 to 2004, he was president of the Chamber of Auditors of the Czech Republic, and since 2004 represents the chamber in the FEE council. He is also a member of the Finance Ministry's task force for audit reform and a member of the Listing Committee of the Prague Stock Exchange.

Kříž graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and is a statutory auditor and a certified accountant of the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). Among his beats are banking and financial instruments, accounting and audit regulations, and international standards and their convergence. He has authored numerous articles in professional publications, and he has also lectured at a number of international conferences.

Michal Chour is set to become the first Czech general manager of the Radisson SAS Alcron Hotel since its reopening in 1998. Chour took over the position from Pasquale Baiguera who moved to the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen after three and a half years here.

Chour joined the hotel in 1999 as a senior sales manager and, after a few months, became director of sales. Before his recent appointment, he worked as executive assistant manager.

Software company Autodesk has recently hired Oldřich Januška as new marketing manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa.