Karel Janeček, MS, MBA, Ph.D.
Czech mathematician, educator, anti-corruption campaigner, author of the D21 voting system – Janeček’s method, presidential candidate. Age 48. Sign Leo. Place of birth Pilsen
“Each of us has gifts that we should use for the benefit of all.
”Karel Janeček, as a three-year-old boy, was fascinated by numbers when his father showed him negative numbers on an outdoor thermometer. Mathematics has accompanied him throughout his life; thanks to it, he has succeeded in business and become financially independent.
Karel already showed entrepreneurial talent during adolescence.
As a te-enager, he sold ice cream on Charles Bridge. Then, he sold books at the Main Railway Station. And already in 1991, he started to run a business as a books distributor for vendors in Prague.
In 1996, Karel Janeček received his MBA degree from Bradley University in Peoria, USA. A year later, he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague, majoring in the Theory of Probability and Mathematical Statistics. In 2004, he also earned a Ph.D. degree in Mathematical Finance from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA.
In 2004–2005 Janeček served as a Research Scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in 2006–2013 he lectured at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague. He was also a member of the scientific council of the Faculty of International Relations at the Prague University of Economics and Business.
For a long time, he has supported research into and the implementation of modern educational methods.
Karel Janeček founded the Anti-Corruption Endowment, the Institute H21, the Karel Janeček Benevolent Fund for the Support of Science, (later to be renamed the Neuron Endowment Fund), the Karel Janeček Foundation Aid Fund with the platform Znesnáze21, the Karel Janeček Foundation and the Science 21 Foundation.
In 2012, he launched the Positive Evolution project with the aim of taking concrete steps for the improvement of the social climate in the Czech Republic. He developed this idea mainly through his endowment funds, philanthropy and the creation of a new voting system, which he named D21 – Janeček’s method.
Karel is the co-owner of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague and the main patron of the Strings of Autumn music festival, which is characterized by a fusion of jazz and classical music, traditions and experiments. In 2021, he reestablished the Czech Nightingale 21 music competition.
In 2020, Forbes magazine ranked Karel Janeček the 84th richest Czech, his fortune was estimated at 2,8 billion CZK. He is one of the largest Czech philanthropists. Forbes magazine ranked him No. 8 on its list of Czech philanthropists 2021. Last year, he donated 65 million CZK
to the fight against coronavirus, science, education, culture, the help people in need and the fight against corruption.
On 21. 01. 2022 Karel Janeček announced his candidacy for president of the Czech Republic.