Jan Michal is a graduate of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Economics and also holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Charles University Faculty of Social Sciences in Prague. He came to CzechInvest from the European Commission, where he served in the Secretariat-General and later as a deputy section director in the Directorate-General for Communication, where he headed the Political and Economic Intelligence Department. During the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2022, he served as Deputy Sherpa in the Office of the Government, where he focused on preparing meetings of the European Council and on energy policy. From 2010 to 2016, he headed the EC Representation in Czechia. During his mission, he took part in, among other things, Czechia’s involvement in the InvestEU programme and cooperation with the European Investment Bank. In 2016, the president of the Chamber of Commerce awarded him the Gold Merkur medal for his active support of the business environment in Czechia. Prior to that, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as at NATO headquarters in Brussels and the United Nations in New York.