Vladimír Dlouhý (politician)

Vladimír Dlouhý (born 31 July, 1953) is a Czech economist and politician.

After studying at the University of Economics in Prague (1977) and briefly at KU Leuven (1977-1978), Dlouhý completed his postgraduate degree at the Charles University (1980-1982). Between 1977-1989 he was a lecturer at the University of Economics.

From 1978 to December 1989 (the year of the Velvet Revolution) he was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

Dlouhý was appointed as an economic expert to the National Economic Council of the Government by then-Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. He served on the council for its whole duration of eight months. He served as the nation's first Minister of Industry and Trade under then-Prime Minister Václav Klaus.

Dlouhý lectures at the Charles University (since 2000), and between 2004-2010 he was again a lecturer at the University of Economics. Since 1997 Dlouhý has been an International Advisor to Goldman Sachs in Central and Eastern Europe. He is the deputy chairman of the European Group of the Trilateral commission. In June 2012 Dlouhý announced his candidacy for the 2013 Czech presidential election. He was however unable to participate because he had collected an insufficient number of signatures in support of his campaign.