Irena A. Brichta joined 33 St. James’s in 2007 and leads our Central and Eastern Europe initiatives. She is based in the Czech Republic and focuses on senior level search and management assessment assignments for domestic and international clients. She also provides companies and individuals with senior executive outplacement/transition management programmes. She has 25 years senior recruitment experience across the CEE Region in all sectors.

Prior to establishing her own firm, Irena helped Egon Zehnder International start their Prague operations, led Heidrick & Struggles International in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and was latterly Managing Partner, Hudson CR & SR. Previously, as a senior sales and marketing professional, Irena spent 13 years with Ethicon Ltd, UK (a Johnson & Johnson Company) responsible for their CEE medical disposables business; then two years as Medical Franchise Director, J&J Inc Hungary; after that two years as Sales Director, Kraft Foods Budapest.

Irena has been an active Member of the British, US and Canadian Chambers of Commerce in the Czech Republic; a former Supervisory Board Member of ‘neziskovky.cz’; Past President Rotary Club Prague International; and a Past Rotary District Governor of Czech Republic & Slovak Republic. Previously Board Chair of Junior Achievement CR (Young Enterprise), now on the Board of Trustees of Junior Achievement CR, she is active in her Rotary Club and Rotary worldwide and she is Chair of a Czech registered NGO: Disaster Aid Europe z.s (www.disasteraideurope.com) which has provided humanitarian aid to the Ukraine via the Rotary network, since early 2022.

A British/Czech national, born and educated in Britain (MA Hons Czech & Archaeology, University of Glasgow and an MBA, Strathclyde Business School) Irena is bilingual English/Czech. She speaks intermediate French and German.

Telephone: +420 602 200 882

Career Counselling, Coaching & Mentoring
FMCG
Financial Services
Healthcare & Life Sciences
IT, Technology & Telco
Manufacturing
Outplacement
Professional Services
– Legal
– Management Consulting
Transition Management