Mr. Petr Očko graduated from Information Management and European Integration at the University of Economics in Prague and from Ph.D. studies of Information Economics at the Charles University in Prague. As an expert in the EU economic integration, he has been working at the Ministry of Finance since 2001 on the EU Funds, and since 2004 as an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Finance for the financial market. In 2006 he was appointed by the Government as a National Coordinator for the euro introduction. Since 2007, he worked in the private sphere as an EU project coordinator for Telefónica O2. In 2009, he returned to the state administration as Chief Director at the Ministry of Transport, and since 2010 he served as Section Director for EU Funds and R&D at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). In 2012-2013 he was also in charge of the governmental CzechInvest agency as its entrusted CEO. Since 2015 he headed the Department of Financial Instruments at the MoIT. In March 2016, he was appointed by the Government as chairman of the Czech Technology Agency, the key Czech institution supporting applied research. In July 2018 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade responsible for the newly established Section of Digitization and Innovation at the MoIT.
