PRESS RELEASE
PRAGUE (December 5, 2012) – Economia, a.s. has new members of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Zdeněk Bakala.
BXR Media Limited as the sole shareholder of Economia decided on new composition of the Economia boards on December 4, 2012. Zdeněk Bakala and Michaela Bakala were appointed new members of the Board of Directors and Pepper de Callier a new member of the Supervisory Board. The sole shareholder also accepted the resignation of Michael Jasanský, Martin Frývaldský and Tomáš Klvaňa from the positions of members of the Board of Directors. The changes in the composition of the boards came into effect on December 4, 2012.
The Board of Directors of Economia met today at the first meeting in its new composition. Zdeněk Bakala was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. Bessel Kok, the former Chairman, was elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors.
“The development in the media market as well as our plans in the publishing house Economia convinced me that it is right for me as the owner to participate directly in managing the company in the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors,” Zdeněk Bakala said. “In the coming months, Economia will experience a series of significant changes aimed at transforming this publishing house into the leading centre of business and opinion journalism in the Czech market. The project also includes building the best state-of-the-art integrated digital newsroom in the country, which will be opened in the spring of next year in the newly refurbished premises in Karlin. I want to be personally present at these transformations,” Bakala added.
The Board of Directors further took note of the resignation of Petr Babicky as the CEO effective of December 31, 2012 and appointed him an acting CEO with effect from January 1, 2013 until an appointment of a new CEO.
“Petr Babický’s task was to restructure the company and prepare it, operationally and financially, for the period of further development towards the digital media future. Petr has met this task and I and the whole Board of Directors would like to thank him for all the work he has done for Economia. Now it is necessary to find a new manager for Economia having experience and skills to take our project of the state-of-the-art publishing house to the next level,” Zdeněk Bakala, the Chairman of the Board of Directors said.
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Economia, a.s. is the leading publisher of business and B2B periodicals and online media in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1990. Economia is also active in Slovakia through its subsidiary Ecopress a.s. Its sole shareholder is the company BXR Media Limited owned by the investor and entrepreneur Zdeněk Bakala.
