Ivan Hodáč at the Aspen Institute Central Europe 13th anniversary reception at the British Embassy in May 2025
The legacy of Ivan Hodáč, remembered across Brussels, Prague, and Central Europe
Text: Jana Neupauerová, Deputy Director of Aspen Institute; Photo: Ondřej Besperát and Aspen Institute
Ivan Hodáč was born in Prague in 1946. His father, also named Ivan Hodáč, was a champion racing driver and a businessman; his aunt was the film star Nataša Gollová. He studied mechanical engineering in Prague, but after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he chose exile, settling in Denmark, where he later earned a degree in economics and political science at the University of Copenhagen. He completed his education at the College of Europe in Bruges, where he stayed on as an assistant professor.
His career took him through the Secretariat-General of the international trade body IFMA/IMACE, after that he became a Senior Vice-President at Time Warner to lead their European corporate office and in 2001, he became Secretary-General of ACEA, the organisation representing Europe’s car manufacturers — a post he held for twelve years, through some of Brussels’ most turbulent car-industry regulation. The Financial Times repeatedly named him among Brussels’ most influential figures; he later advised the European Commission on the EU-US trade partnership (TTIP) and the Czech government on European affairs.
Ivan Hodáč with Madeleine Albright
It was in the final year of his ACEA tenure that Hodáč co-founded what became the Aspen Institute Central Europe, an organisation he would go on to lead for over a decade as President, then Honorary Chairman of the Board and Chairman of its Supervisory Board. Under his direction, what began as a modest idea grew into one of the region’s most respected platforms for democratic dialogue and values-based leadership.
Over the years, the institute directly touched the lives of more than 600 young leaders across Central Europe. Colleagues say he rarely missed a conference or seminar, and always made time for the young people passing through the programme, generously sharing his experience, advice, and encouragement.
Ivan Hodáč, Founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Aspen Institute Central Europe, alongside Dita Charanzová, Vice-President of Aspen Institute Central Europe and former Vice-President of the European Parliament, present the Aspen CE Madeleine K. Albright Leadership Award to Dr. Zsófia Szlamka, Co-Founder of Let’s CEE and Research Lead at Orygen Global, and Bára Stárek, Head of Díky, že můžem, January 2026.
“Nobody can imagine the Aspen Institute in Central Europe without Ivan,” said Tomáš Klvaňa, the institute’s Executive Director, in a tribute published after his death. Pavel Řehák, President of the Institute’s Board, remembered him as a man of enormous energy who left “an enormous footprint – not only in concrete achievements, but above all in the people he inspired.” Dita Charanzová, former Vice-President of the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Institute’s Board, called him one of the most distinctive Czech faces in Brussels and said few people had done as much for the country as he had.
Ivan Hodáč firewalking at Aspen Young Leaders Program in 2018 — friends, colleagues, and young leaders consistently describe him as a man of boundless energy.
Younger members of the Aspen community shared their own memories online. Aneta Hanus said she had always felt he had lived more than one life, and that she was deeply grateful for the community his vision had created. Hubert Czyżewski called him a true European. Zsofia Szlamka said they would remember him as an exceptional person who generously shared his ideas with the younger generation. Petr Roháček recalled meeting Ivan at a crossroads in his life and career, and how Ivan made almost an hour of time to talk everything through with him — a conversation that led to what turned out to be the best possible decision.
News of his death also drew tributes from across Czech politics and business. Former prime minister Mirek Topolánek wrote simply, ‘We will miss you, my friend.’ MEP Danuše Nerudová called him someone who had helped everyone enormously, adding that his absence would leave a huge, empty space. Fellow MEP Jan Farský remembered him as a lobbyist who never pushed, yet always managed to move things forward the most.
Ivan Hodáč with Pepper de Callier, with whom he co-founded the Aspen Institute CE, at the organisation’s launch.
Music was another lifelong passion. Hodáč was a long-standing board member of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Brussels, which he began supporting while heading Time Warner’s European office, attending its concerts regularly with his wife Inneke and lending the Foundation his network and expertise for its programmes of social inclusion through the arts.
Ivan Hodáč with Karolina Kania at an Aspen Young Leaders Meeting in 2026 — he made a point of mentoring the next generation in person
Ivan Hodáč with Jan Švejnar, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and CERGE-EI (left), and Pavel Řehák, President of Aspen Institute CE and Founder of Direct Family (right) — Tomáš Klvaňa, Executive Director of Aspen Institute CE, visible just behind him — at the 2026 Aspen Annual Conference
Ivan Hodáč passed away unexpectedly on July 1, 2026, while road cycling with friends in the Pyrenees — doing, to the end, exactly what he loved. He is survived by his wife, sons, and grandchildren, and by a community of young leaders across Central Europe that he spent the last chapter of his life building — one that carries on, and grows stronger, with everyone who joins it.
Ivan Hodáč (second row, first from the right) surrounded by young leaders at the 17th edition of the Aspen Young Leaders Program in Świeradów-Zdrój, Poland, in 2025. Photo: Tomáš Princ
“Rest in peace” never quite suited people who never stopped moving — as his longtime colleague Petr Jonák, a board member of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, put it in his own tribute, coining a phrase now echoed by many who knew him:
Rest in action, Ivan.