Hrot: Science needs a bridge to people, says Monika Vondráková of Neuron

She is a woman who can connect two seemingly distant worlds — business and science. After years in the private sector, Monika Vondráková now heads the Neuron Foundation, which supports leading Czech scientists and works to raise the prestige of science in society. She herself says her work is still, in a way, business. "I actually have to sell Neuron — just as a company sells its product," she explains. "If someone makes wellington boots, they have to sell them to have the money to run the company. I have to persuade patrons to support scientists, because it is important for our whole society," Monika says in an interview for Hrot magazine (4/2026).

It is precisely the ability to explain complicated things clearly that she considers one of the most important skills she brought with her from the private sector. "Before I joined the company ABRA Software, which very much wanted me, the field of ERP systems was new to me. I knew they were enterprise systems, but from their presentation I had no idea at all what their benefit was," she recalls. But she soon noticed an interesting parallel. "A software company employs mainly programmers — technical professions. And at Neuron there are scientists. Both groups are very rational and exact. And they often have the same problem: they cannot explain their work simply and comprehensibly to the public. They need people who have that skill and who start working with them."

Both at Neuron and at ABRA Software it turned out, she says, that it can be an advantage not to come from the field itself. "I try to tell scientists and engineers to explain everything to me as a layperson. Only then can their knowledge be passed on to the wider public and to customers. What is groundbreaking about it? What is it useful for? I was essentially looking for the simplest way of describing their work. Only then can the public understand their research and its benefits." She took a similar approach to building brands.

"I love brand. Marketing often consists of campaigns, but a brand is what you really are. What you say about yourself and whether you live up to it — in your products, your services and your relationships with customers and employees. The company's DNA is in it," she says. That is why she does not feel comfortable when someone calls her a "marketing person". "Marketing is in a company in order to sell and bring in business opportunities. I am closer to building brands; that is what I enjoy and what fulfils me." When she joined the technology company she even set up a separate brand department — still rather an exception in Czech companies. Vondráková openly admits that the business environment in a leadership role is often tough and does not suit everyone, women least of all. "You have to make quick, big decisions, sometimes unpopular ones. To me a man-and-woman tandem seems ideal. Each sees something different. What a man does not see a woman often does — and vice versa."

This principle of dividing work and cooperating along male and female lines works, she says, in business and in the non-profit sector alike; only the roles are sometimes reversed, at least in their case. "In business I was more in a tandem with Jaroslav Řasa. At Neuron it is the other way round — there I run the organisation and Jaroslav is my right hand." One of the things Vondráková has come to realise during her career is a wonderful privilege: through Neuron and her work she is permanently, continuously learning. It was curiosity that led her to found Neuron.

"I am not a scientist and I would very much rather not play at being one. I have never had anything to do with science. But I have always enjoyed being in contact with clever people," she smiles. After almost twenty years of the Neuron Foundation's existence, Vondráková is now also thinking about the next stage. She takes inspiration from the idea described in the book The Second Mountain by David Brooks. "The first mountain of life is the period when you build a career, want to be successful and have plenty of energy. The second consists in beginning to pass on experience and wisdom. I am slowly beginning to discover the beauties of the second mountain."

And that is the direction in which she wants to move Neuron too. "We are starting to focus far more on young people. We need future scientists, but also future patrons." The foundation is therefore developing new projects aimed at secondary school and university students. According to Vondráková, one of Neuron's long-term goals is also to connect worlds that in the Czech Republic often operate separately. "Science and business still communicate too little here." An example of successful cooperation, she says, is the story of Professor Antonín Holý and the entrepreneur John Martin, thanks to whom drugs for HIV came into being. And Neuron under Vondráková's leadership wants to be present at such successful collaborations.

My advice to women
Asked what she would advise young women who want to succeed, she answers without much thought. "Follow your dream." Travel, she says, matters greatly. "Tomáš Baťa said long ago that young people should go out into the world. That is where they learn the most." She spent several years abroad herself — in Frankfurt, in Israel and in South Africa. "Every country gives you
a different piece of the mosaic. And suddenly you start seeing things in context." It was from these experiences that the idea of Neuron eventually emerged. "I saw how other countries support clever people. And I found it sad that here scientists often leave
for abroad." Today she works to change that. "You have to have big dreams. And then look for ways of reaching them."

The article appeared in the print edition of Hrot magazine (4/2026) on pages 84–85; bottom photo: Tomáš Novák, Hrot