Mr Leoš Novotný | Chairman of the Board
Leo Express
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Leos Novotny is a Chief Executive Officer at LEO Express, a Central European open-access passenger railway operator founded in 2009 by an investment group owned by the Novotny family.
He is also a Managing Partner & Founder of AAKON Capital, a private equity investment company based in the Czech Republic. Entrepreneurial experience As a son of a successful entrepreneur, Leos Novotny has started his professional career very early and gained a lot of business experience before establishing LEO Express and AAKON Capital. Alongside his studies he held managerial and minority equity positions within HAME A.S. where he was primarily engaged in the UK and Chinese markets. As a Foreign Markets Manager he was fully responsible for HAME’s exhibition representation and organization, for example he held presentations at the most important exhibitions in the food industry across Europe and in Asia. Leos has also played an active role in the sale of HAME to Nordic Partners in 2008. After the sale of HAME Leos joined Raiffeisen Investment AG in Vienna to work on private equity deals within the CEE region as a member of the Financial Sponsors & Real Estate team. Then he became the Secretary of the Czech Minister of Agriculture but he did not stayed in the position for a long time. He quit after 6 months in order to establish AAKON Capital. AAKON Capital is a private equity investment company that sources, arranges, invests and manages private equity investments into small and midcap opportunities in the Czech Republic, the DACH and CEE regions on behalf of its investors. Under AAKON Capital Leos also concluded several private equity deals in the United States’ distressed real estate market worth 25 mn. USD. In the light of inefficiencies, overpricing and lack of services in the CEE rail passenger segment Leos has originated, structured and executed a Czech start-up open-access railway operator LEO Express. Leos acts as the overall sponsor, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of LEO Express. The operation of LEO Express started in November 2012 and since 18th January 2013 it is operating 16 connections per day on the selected route in the Czech Republic. Leos is responsible for further development of LEO Express, currently negotiating with partners in the CEE region and preparing the company for the expansion. He is well prepared for the negotiations as he studied 7 foreign languages including English, French, Russian and Chinese. |
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