Michael Zantovsky
Michael Zantovsky is a retired Czech diplomat, former Ambassador to the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom, and a former senator of the Czech Parliament and chairman of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Václav Havel Library. In November 1989 he was a founding member of the Civic Forum, an umbrella organization that coordinated the overthrow of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. He subsequently served as a spokesman, press secretary and political director to President Václav Havel. He has also been a prolific author, translator, journalist, and educator, who has translated more than 50 volumes of prose, poetry, drama and non-fiction into Czech. His 2014 biography of his longtime friend Havel: A Life was published in English, Czech and more than a dozen other languages. He taught American studies and Euro-American relations at Charles University, the New York University in Prague and the CEVRO and CERGE institutes. He was President of Aspen Institute Prague and is currently the Honorary President of Aspen Institute Central Europe. Mr Zantovsky studied psychology at Charles University, Prague and McGill University, Montreal and holds a Masters degree summa cum laude. He worked as a clinical psychologist at the Psychiatric Research Institute, Prague.
