Tomáš Sedláček

Tomas Sedlacek gained international fame for his award-winning, bestselling book Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street (Oxford University Press, 2011) which was translated into 22 languages and received the prestigious German “Wirtschaftsbuchpreis” at Frankfurt Book Fair for its original philosophical contribution to economics. In Switzerland, he was listed among the top 100 influential global thinkers (Top 100 Thought Leaders, GDI).

Born in 1977 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sedlacek grew up in Helsinki, Finland, and was educated in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the age of 24, Sedlacek became an economic advisor of Czech president Václav Havel until the end of his term in office. He went back to academia and has written case studies with Harvard University and Georgetown University. Later, he served as a non-political economic advisor to the Minister of Finance and deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, responsible for fiscal reform, pensions and health care reform and a number of tax reforms (VAT, personal income tax and corporate tax). He was responsible for negotiations with The World Bank and OECD. He toured the world on a roadshow for the inaugural Czech Eurobond emission. Afterwards, he received a fellowship at Yale University as a Yale World Fellow 2006, during this time Yale Economic Review ranked him among the Five Hot Young Guns in Economics. For sixteen years, he worked as a Chief Macroeconomic Strategist at a major Czech bank, CSOB. Later, he became a founding and long term member of the National Economic Council, an advisory body to the Government of Czech Republic (NERV).

Tomas Sedlacek was a member of the Program Council for New Economic Thinking of World Economic Forum that meets in Davos and a member of an advisory body to EC president Barroso on New Narrative for Europe. He lectured at Charles University, Anglo-American University, University of New York Prague and currently lectures at Metropolitan University Prague. He sits on boards of many non-profit organizations, Archa Theatre and Vize 97. For sixteen years, he has been publishing weekly columns in major economic newspapers, which then got published in a book trilogy Second Derivative of Desire.

Currently, he is working on three new books:

The Spirit of Economics and The New Republic of the Internet

Job of God—God's Job

Spirit of Europe

A respected media commentator and a business speaker (London Speakers Bureau), he travels internationally to engage in critical discussions on contemporary economic issues, integrating insights from mythology, philosophy, and an array of related disciplines.

Tomáš Sedláček was widowed from sociologist and educator Markéta Sedláčková (†2020) with whom he has a son, Kryštof (*2007). In 2020, he married Tanja Schug who gave birth to their daughter, Europa Markéta.