In the most followed change, Česká spořitelna CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Jack Stack will step down after seven years and be replaced by Gernot Mittendorfer, whose appointment is still subject to approval by the Czech National Bank and by Česká spořitelna's supervisory board.

Stack took over the management of Česká spořitelna in July 2000.

Early last year, he announced his intention to resign in mid-2007. Under Stack's leadership, Česká spořitelna has been transformed from a money-losing bank to the market leader. In a recent poll by the Fincentrum company, Stack was voted the Banker of the Year in the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Komerční banka, which is owned by French financial group Société Générale, began replacing some of its French top executives with Czech managers.

The executive committee, which manages the everyday operations of the bank, will now consist of nine Czech members and six French, as three Czechs will replace their French counterparts. Czechs will have a majority for the first time. French members will keep a majority on the five-member board of directors, on which they have three seats.

In December, Czech Zdeněk Mojžíšek replaced André Léger as executive director for marketing.

Václav Grepl will replace Christian Rouso as executive IT director in January, while David Formánek will replace Karel Vašák, a Frenchman with Czech roots, as executive human resources director.

Immediately after the bank's privatization, Société Générale was the only foreign investor to appoint a foreigner to key executive posts within a Czech bank. Now, about five years after purchasing a 60 percent stake in Komerční banka, Société Générale has begun fulfilling its pledge to replace French managers with Czechs.

Another bank, Volksbank CZ, has promoted Petr Žibřid to marketing manager. Over the past two years, Žibřid worked at Volksbank CZ as a marketing specialist. In the past, Žibřid worked in several advertising agencies. He studied marketing and finance at Mendel's Agricultural and Forestry University in Brno.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic William Cabaniss was voted in December to the supervisory board at truck maker Tatra. Cabaniss, who once owned a successful company operating in the machining sector in the United States, was ambassador until October. He joined Tatra's supervisory board alongside Ravi Rishi, Floris Vansina and William Shroeger.

Last October, a group of four Czech and foreign investors purchased an 81 percent stake in Tatra from U.S. company Terex Corporation.

Tatra is headed by CEO Ronald Adams. The other board members are operations director Karel Beneda and financial director Igor Vlček.