He graduated from the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics, Prague and joined "CzechInvest", a governmental agency supporting foreign companies to invest in the Czech Republic. In 1997, he started managing the organisation's office in Chicago, where he studied at DePaul University and received an MBA. In 1999, he became the CEO of CzechInvest. During his time at CzechInvest, the agency had attracted some of the major foreign direct investments, such as the new automotive plant TPCA in Kolin or several IT and shared service centers, such as IBM in Brno and DHL in Prague. Under his leadership, CzechInvest was awarded the European investment promotion agency award.