Mario Vircik

Mario joined IPM in 2019 as the Head of Advisory, after several years during which he served as a Senior Strategic Advisor and one of the founding initiators of the IPM Growth strategy. He will provide the companies and private clients with the opportunity to utilise a full range of advisory, investment, and capital raising services. Mario joined IPM after an eighteen-year career in public sector finance institutions, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience from that unique perspective to IPM’s activities.

Prior to IPM, Mario served as a Board Representative for Slovakia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”) in London, one of the most recognised global financiers for transition economies. His main responsibilities included maintaining good international relations and promoting the bank’s development agenda, as well as advising on EU policy formulation and responses to geopolitical challenges.

Before his time at the EBRD, Mario was the Director General for the International Relations Department of the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia, after having previously held numerous other national and supranational positions within the ministry. During his tenure, Mario witnessed and was actively involved in Slovakia’s transition from being a centrally governed economy to a fully market orientated democracy. His involvement spanned the preparation of Slovakia’s entry into the EU, its adoption of the Euro the EU‘s post-financial crisis response, knowledge transfer to developing economies via UNDP Public Finance Reform Programme, and SMEs‘ financing related establishment of the Slovak Guarantee and Development Fund that provides early stage and seed financing to start-ups. Mario also served as Acting Director General of the European Funds Department for a period of time.

Mario began his career at the Slovak government within an extremely pro-reform orientated team of the then Deputy Minister of Economy. Slovakia at that time received significant support from the international donors’ community which enabled Mario to work closely on projects with the European Commission, the World Bank Group, EBRD, CEB, OECD, UNDP, USAID, ABACEELI and many other multilateral organisations.

Mario holds a master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Economics in Bratislava. Mario frequently returns to the university as a lecturer on international financial institutions and development related topics.