Government proposes university rector Ritschelová head Statistical Office

The government has put forward Iva Ritschelová, the rector of Jan Evangelista University in Ústí nad Labem, as a candidate to head the Czech Statistical Office. If appointed by the Czech president, she will replace Jiří Křovák, the acting chairman who followed Jan Fischer in the post after the latter became interim prime minister last spring. Mrs Ritschelová, who is 46, has not commented the decision. The university rector is an expert in macroeconomic aspects of protection of the environment and in environmental economy and policy. As a specialist she has worked with a number of foreign institutions as well as took part in UN missions in places such as Kosovo, Georgia and Azerbaijan.