{"id":"zdenek-bakala","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/zdenek-bakala","language":"en","name":"Zdeněk Bakala","name_en":"Zdeněk Bakala","name_ne":null,"description":"Czech businessman","headline":"Czech businessman","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Zdeněk Bakala (born 7 February 1961) is a Czech-American businessman, investor and philanthropist. After a career in investment banking in the United States and the United Kingdom, he returned to Czechoslovakia in 1991 and founded Patria Finance in 1994. In 2004, an investor group led by Bakala acquired Karbon Invest, the majority owner of the coal-mining company OKD. The mining business was later reorganized under New World Resources (NWR), which was listed on the London, Prague and Warsaw stock exchanges in 2008. The same year, Bakala acquired the Czech media company Economia.","summary_more":["Bakala's ownership of OKD and NWR later became controversial, particularly because of disputes over the former OKD housing portfolio and payments made by the mining company before its insolvency. Several major legal claims connected with these disputes were subsequently dismissed by Czech courts. Bakala and his wife Michaela also established the Bakala Foundation in 2007, which supports education and journalism."],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"7 February 1961","date":"1961-02-07"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Opava","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q156080"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Czech Republic","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213"},{"text":"Czechoslovakia","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33946"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"entrepreneur","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131524"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"University of California, Berkeley","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168756"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P69"}},{"key":"spouse","label":"Spouse","values":[{"text":"Michaela Bakala","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12036655","start":"2010-06-12"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961#P26"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zden%C4%9Bk_Bakala","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Zdeněk Bakala born?","a":"Zdeněk Bakala was born on 7 February 1961 in Opava."},{"q":"Where did Zdeněk Bakala study?","a":"Zdeněk Bakala was educated at University of California, Berkeley."}],"related":[{"name":"Dalibor Dědek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/dalibor-dedek"},{"name":"Evžen Korec","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/evzen-korec"},{"name":"Karel Janeček","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/karel-janecek"},{"name":"Karel Komárek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/karel-komarek"},{"name":"Luděk Sekyra","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ludek-sekyra"},{"name":"Martin Vohánka","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/martin-vohanka"},{"name":"Milan Šrejber","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/milan-srejber"},{"name":"Pavel Baudiš","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/pavel-baudis"},{"name":"Tomáš Čupr","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/tomas-cupr"},{"name":"Zbyněk Frolík","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/zbynek-frolik"},{"name":"Daniel Křetínský","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/daniel-kretinsky"},{"name":"Ivo Lukačovič","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ivo-lukacovic"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":null,"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Zdeněk Bakala","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zden%C4%9Bk_Bakala","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q168961","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168961","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Zdeněk Bakala, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0).","cite":"\"Zdeněk Bakala\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/zdenek-bakala. Retrieved 7 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T11:28:20Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-06","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/zdenek-bakala","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/zdenek-bakala","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/zdenek-bakala?lang=ne"}}