Petr Očko

Deputy Minister for Digitisation and Innovation, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic (Czech Republic)

Petr Očko studied information management and European integration at the University of Economics in Prague and also completed his Ph.D. studies in information economics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. As an expert in the field of European economic integration, he has been working at the Ministry of Finance since 2001 in the field of EU structural funds, since 2004 he has worked as an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Finance for the financial market and in 2006 he was entrusted by the government with the function of national coordinator of the introduction of the euro. Since August 2007, he has worked in the private sector as a coordinator of EU projects at Telefónica O2. He returned to the state administration in 2009 as Chief Director for the EU Budget and Funds at the Ministry of Transport, and from August 2010 he worked as Section Director for EU Funds, Research and Development at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 2012-2013, as the authorized CEO, he was also in charge of the stabilization and development of the CzechInvest agency for business and investment support. Since 2015, he has led the Department of Financial Instruments and Project Management at the Ministry of Industry and Trade and has been preparing in particular the National Innovation Fund project and the transformation of the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank. In March 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic by the government. Since 1 July 2018, he has been Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, managing the Digitization and Innovation Section.