Ondrej's life and profession in a nutshell
Ondrej was born on 24 December 1975 in Hradec Kralove (Czech Rep.) where he also graduated with distinction at the J.K.Tyla High School (1995). He spent the 1992/93 school year as one of the first students from the then Czechoslovakia to attend Robert E. Lee High School in Midland, Texas.
In 2000 Ondrej graduated from the Law faculty of Charles University in Prague also cum laude. In 2003 he obtained his doctorate degree here as well. In the meantime, however, he spent a year at University of London where he graduated as the second best student in the group obtaining the LL.M degree in banking and financial law. At King's College in London he also worked as a teaching assistant and continued in a Ph.D program which he unfortunately didn't have a chance to finish. He also worked in London for several years - at both Linklaters and ICMA.
Since 2009 Ondrej was a Partner leading the Banking, Finance and Capital Market team at the law firm of Havel, Holásek & Partners which he also helped to found. www.havelholasek.cz
He was a member of the Czech Bar association and Law Society of England and Wales.
Ondrej was a passionate runner and mountain climber. More than anything, however, he was a big man with a big heart. His unexpected demise left a huge hole in our hearts. For all of us, Ondrej will always be a model of decency, fairness, dedication and modesty.
Ondřej's family: At the cabin in Southern Bohemia in the summer of 2012 with his closest family members and his girlfriend Hanka. As Ondrej used to often say: everything is as it's supposed to be...
Message from Mom...
A couple of words...many thanks to those, who are opening Ondrej's website, who condoled with us or came in person to say your last good-bye to our beloved wonderful son and brother. To you, who have written to us through this website - all of those beautiful memories of him, things we didn't even know since he was too modest to share them himself…to you all - only now and here as I have not been capable and won't be for a long time to do it in person or in writing individually - I would like to thank you from my entire tormented heart. Please, don't forget about my son, this exceptional boy, about our dear, forever lost Ondrej.
And I would ask that all of you who also do mountain-climbing or similarly dangerous sports which "fascinate you, recharge you, clear your mind or intoxicate you", in which you keep going further and higher and more, please come sometime to take a look at Ondrej's Mom who has nearly gone insane through this grief, after a heart attack - as the old saying goes for a reason "their heart popped from the grief" - at his sister Zdenka, at their unfathomable pain, at their liters of tears and their despair…nothing will ever be the same again…the terrible wound in our hearts might become a scar one day but the hole left after Ondrej's sudden departure will stay there until our own end…Please try to think in a timely manner about your Moms and Dads, whose joy, love and pride you are, about your siblings and wives, let alone kids who all suddenly stay here left alone, inconsolable forever…not only about the awesome sport…sooner rather than when it is too LATE…
Please dedicate a quiet memory to our Ondrej.
Thank you all,
JUDr. Jana Keslerová
Mom, who loves her Ondrej forever... !!!