Vaclav Klaus

Czech economist and politician. He is the second President of the Czech Republic (since 2003). He was Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1992 to 1997.

Klaus graduated from the University of Economics in Prague in 1963. He was a research worker at the Institute of Economics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1968 when he completed his Ph.D. in economics. After working for several years at the Czechoslovak State Bank, he joined the Forecasting Institute of the Czech Academy in 1987. At the beginning of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which brought about the peaceful demise of communism in Czechoslovakia, Klaus entered politics. During this time he continued to lecture and publish in the field of economics.

Klaus served as minister of finance (1989–92) and became involved in the Civil Forum Movement—an organization he ultimately chaired in 1990.

Klaus was elected President of the Czech Republic by secret ballot of the parliament on 28 February 2003. He was re-elected on 9 February 2008 and took oath for the second term on 7 March.

Klaus published more than 20 books.