Prague Journal

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Today is Thanksgiving in America. Many of our expat friends are visiting the U.S. to be with their families. Some are hosting Czech friends or out-of-town visitors. For those of us without families or large kitchens, Red, Hot, and Blues in Prague has hosted a traditional Thanksgiving dinner since it opened in 1993. When we were here seven years ago, we had Thanksgiving at RHB with our friend Mike Martin who was on sabbatical in England and Rick’s cousin Ronnie who was visiting from Israel. This year we invited my dear friend and colleague Eva and her friend Hanka to join us. Both have visited the U.S., but neither has been there at Thanksgiving, so this was a culinary adventure for them. The dinner was traditional turkey with gravy, mashed and sweet potatoes, creamed corn and beans, cranberry sauce and orange-cranberry relish. For dessert we had apple, mince, pumpkin, and pecan pie. The only thing missing this year was corn bread.
Earlier today I met with Jitka Kunstova, the manager of the Prague office of Rüesch International, a Washington-based financial services firm specializing in foreign exchange and precious metals. Until last month, Rüesch had been owned by its founder, Otto Rüesch, a Zurich-born former currency trader, who worked as an international banker before moving to the United States in 1965. Rüesch started the company with his American wife in 1980, focusing the business on providing international financial transaction services to a niche market of small- and medium-size companies dealing in international trade and currency. The Prague office opened in 1998 and Jitka has been its general manager since 1999. Jitka began her banking career in 1992, first with Komerční banka when it changed from total state control to a public limited company (it was fully privatized in 2001), moving to Citibank in 1996 to open a branch in Pardubice, so she has seen a lot of changes in the Czech financial services industry in the last 12 years.
I usually talk with entrepreneurs, so it was interesting to talk with someone who works for a large company. She runs the Prague branch, which has expanded from three to 18 people in five years, but she still has to answer to top management and stay in line with the corporation’s mission and objectives. Otto Rüesch was a hands-on manager and Jitka’s mentor, so she is bracing herself for changes under the new ownership of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, the large private equity firm that bought Qwest Communications’ yellow pages directories business in 2002.

posted by JWinn @ 8:28 PM