Professor Jiří Jindra, Dean Emeritus of FIR, passed away

The management of the University of Economics, Prague announces with deep sorrow that on September 8, 2020, Prof. Jiří Jindra, former dean of the Faculty of International Relations passed away at the age of 86. Professor Jindra was the Dean of the Faculty of International Relations from 1995 to 1999. He was a founder of the Department of Business Administration and Commercial Communications and served as the Honorary Vice President of the Association of Trade and Tourism.

Professor Jindra is rightly considered as a guru of Czech retailing. In 1990, he was one of the founders of the Department of Business Administration. Where he newly defined and enforced the use of the term retailing and a highly integrated retailing company for the modern form of retail and its international dimension. He connected the field with practice. Thanks to him, the Faculty of International Relations became a founding member of the newly formed Association of Trade and Tourism in 1990, and Jiří Jindra its first vice-president. As the Dean, together with the Trade Union and the research organization INCOMA, he founded the tradition of the Retail Summit, which is todays largest Central European conference on trade. In 2020, it had a  25th year anniversary. Subsequently, a fundamental university textbook was created for the newly conceived field: Business Entrepreneurship. Retail Management (Pražská, Jindra et al., 1997).

Jiří Jindra was also a real gentleman, a man with a personal charm, decesive when necessary, and at the same time he lend an ear and listened to the opinions of others. He was a great teacher. Honor his memory.

The last farewell to prof. Jindra takes place on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 from 11 am in the large ceremonial hall of the Strašnice Crematorium.