Michael Kocáb
Encyclopedia
Michael Kocáb is a Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, singer and political activist.

Kocáb is leader of Pražský výběr, popular music band, which was suppressed by Czechoslovak communist regime in the 1980s. The band is now called Pražský výběr II as most of the band members were changed.

In the beginning of the 1990s, he was the leader of a Parliament commission which negotiated the repatriation of Soviet soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...

s from then Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

.
In April 1990 Kocáb founded together with Oldřich Lichtenberg and Miloslav Zapletal a company Art Production K, where he served as chairman of the board. In May 1991 he became board member of newly privatized building company Montované stavby Praha (MSP). In January 1992 MSP founded Investment privatization fund TREND (IPF TREND) and Kocáb became chairman of its board. Another board Member was his brother-in-law Martin Kratochvíl
Martin Kratochvíl
Martin Kratochvíl is a jazz and jazz rock musician and a businessman from former Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic.In 1964 he co-founded a jazz band Jazz Q...

. In January 1993 companies Art Production K (27.5%), Bonton (27.5%), MSP (10%) and Bankovní dům SKALA (35%) founded a limited liability investment company IC TREND to manage portfolio of IPF TREND for a fee. In February 1995 the managers of IPF TREND founded a closely owned corporation IC TREND for the same purpose. In August 1995 Kocáb, Kratochvíl and other owners of IC TREND sold the company to broker Královéhradecká brokerská společnost (KBS) for a substantial amount of money. The new owners of IC TREND used the acquired company as a vehicle to strip dispersed shareholders of IPF TREND from its assets. After a first fraudulent transaction by KBS managers, used to cover the costs associated with purchase of IC TREND, Kocáb and Kratochvíl resigned from the board of IPF TREND.

Kocáb ran an unsuccessful bid in 2008 Senate election
Czech Senate election, 2008
Senate elections for a third of the members of the Senate were held in the Czech Republic on 17 and 18 October 2008, with a second round on 24 and 25 October 2008...

. In January 2009, he replaced Džamila Stehlíková
Džamila Stehlíková
Džamila Stehlíková , née Almaskyzy is a Kazakh-born Czech politician and a doctor. She is an active member of the Strana zelených and from 2007 to 2009, Stehlíková was the Minister for Human Rights and Minorities.Stehlíková is a naturalized Czech citizen by marriage...

 as the Minister for Human Rights and Minorities.

He is married and has one son and two daughters.

Reference


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK