Roman Šimek, Národní lesnický institut

Roman Šimek is an eternal optimist and forester for whom working in the forest is a lifelong calling. Although no one else in his family was a forester, he insisted on studying at the Secondary Forestry School in Trutnov and then at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Agriculture in Brno. As director for more than 20 years, he cared for 4,000 hectares of forest owned by the city of Olomouc. Since 2013, he has been working at the National Forestry Institute, where he specializes mainly in the marketing of timber. He has also been involved in the Association of Municipal and Private Forest Owners of the Czech Republic for many years. Outside of his professional life, he is a passionate orienteering runner, which helps him discover and experience the forest from a different perspective.