[This is an English translation of an interview originally published in Czech.]
Petr Kain, Editor-in-Chief of the weekly Ekonom
14 November 2025, 14:53 ▪ 12 min. read
Jan Chalupa’s story is a prime example of how someone who seized the opportunities presented in the early 1990s could build a brilliant management career immediately after university. After graduating from the Prague University of Economics and Business, he began developing capital markets activities at Česká spořitelna. He subsequently managed the portfolios of some of the first non-privatisation funds in the Czech Republic at the investment company investAGe. At IPB, he served as a divisional director responsible for investment banking and capital markets trading, before becoming Executive Director of the insurance company and pension fund Credit Suisse Life & Pensions Czech Republic. Finally, he entered the service of Petr Kellner and co-founded the international companies PPF Investments and PPF Partners.
He achieved all this by the age of forty. But then the corporate world began to feel restrictive, so he ventured into business and founded the consulting firm Tarpan Partners together with his colleagues. In the interview, we discussed, among other things, how Czech businesses are suffering as a result of the German economy’s poor performance, how the consulting business has changed in recent years, why freedom is so important in business and in life, and how, despite the constant grumbling of Czechs, we live in one of the best countries in the world.
What else you will learn
- Which sectors of the economy Jan Chalupa considers most vulnerable.
- Why the Czech Republic is such a great place to live.
- How the 1990s rewarded those who were prepared and hardworking.
- What has changed in the consulting business in recent years.
The full article is available on the websites of Hospodářské noviny and the weekly Ekonom.cz after signing in.
14. 11. 2025