Joseph Balaz
President BBLA
Josef Baláž - Joseph Balaz - was born on December 22nd 1960 in Prague. He first studied at the Transport Technical College on Dušní street in Prague and then Civil Engineering at ČVUT (Czech Technical University). In 1982 he emigrated to West Germany where he lived for a year and a half before traveling to Canada. From Montreal he moved to New York, where he lives today. After arriving in NYC he found employment with a firm of developers. With a partner he later set up his first construction firm which concentrated on renovation work. Next he established J. Balaz Associates Ltd., which specializes in exclusive residential projects for wealthy clients. The company performed the major reconstruction of one of New York's most famous recording studios, the Hit Factory, which has hosted such stars as Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Steve Wonder and Michael Jackson. In December 2005 Joseph Balaz was elected delegate to the BBLA for the American Fund for Czech and Slovak Leadership Studies. He was then elected head of the committee responsible for administration of Bohemian National Hall. In October 2006 he became president of the BBLA and participated in negotiations with the Czech government on the final phase of repairs to Bohemian National Hall.
Edward Chlanda
Financial Secretary BBLA
Edward Chlanda, Treasurer, former president of EAC Brokerage. He is co-author of several specialized books on insurance issues and he is an active member of NYC Sokol. In 1991 he arranged for the Czechoslovak Army contingent from the Gulf war to come to New York and Washington for the parades.
Blanka Suchanek
Secretary BBLA
Blanka Suchanek, Secretary, born in New York City and grew up in the Yorkville area of Manhattan. As a child, was a student at the Czech School in the Narodni Budova and a gymnast at Sokol New York. In 1998, Ms. Suchanek became a member of the BBLA. Ms. Suchanek is a trustee to the BBLA representing Sokol New York.
Aja Vrzanova-Steindler
Aja Vrzanova-Steindler was born in Prague. Among her many figure skating triumphs, she was National Figure Skating Champion four times, a European Champion, Olympian 1948 (4th place), two times World Champion 1949 - 1950, star of 'Ice Follies" 1951-1954 and star of 'Ice Capades' 1954-1968. She has been honored by Czech president Vaclav Claus. She is the chairperson of the International Coordination Committee for Czechs abroad. The Czech government also honored her as "an outstanding Czech woman in the world". In 2006, she was named by COMENIUS European Company for Arts and Sciences as 'Lady PRO' of 2006 in the Czech Republic. She is currently a member of Zonta Int., a Czech charitable organisation for Czech business women. Last but not least, she was named 'Outstanding Woman' "Czech 100 best" in 2006.
Dr. Vlado Simko
Vlado Simko, M.D., trustee, served on the Board of the American Fund for Czechoslovak Relief and as a trustee of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA) for reconstruction of the historic Bohemian Hall in New York City. Professor of Clinical Medicine at State University New York, Downstate Medical Center at Brooklyn was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1931. After medical and research training and after obtaining boards in internal medicine and clinical chemistry he became research investigator and Head, Laboratory Department at the Research institute for Human Nutrition in Bratislava. Here he earned a C.Sc. (Ph.D.) for research on metabolic effects of heated fat in food. In addition to teaching the graduate students he participated in research on diets for man in space. Since 1982 Dr. Simko is the Chief, Section of Gastroenterology at the Veterans medical center in Brooklyn, NY. He actively joined several Czechoslovak exile organizations, publishing numerous socio-political essays in Slovak democratic exile periodical Nase snahy and in other journals. He is the past and present vice president of the Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) and organizes the biomedical symposia at the world congresses of SVU where he regularly reports on his research. Vlado Simko pledged a grant to the BBLA and its Study Center/Library, in memory of his wife Mary and his son Daniel.
Delegates
Vit Horejs
Vit Horejs, trustee, moved to New York from Prague in 1979 and toured the world with Ta Fantastika Black Light Theatre during the 1980s. In 1990 he co-founded the Czechoslovak-American Theatre and has been the company's artistic director ever since. Vít has translated, written, adapted and directed a dozen plays, including: Once There Was a Village; The Bass Saxophone; The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald; The Historye of Queen Ester; Don Juan, or The Wages of Debauchery; Twelfth Night; The Prose of the Transiberian and of the Little Joan of France; Twelve Iron Sandals; Golem; an experimental interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet; Rusalka, the Little Rivermaid; The White Doe; and CAMT's first theatre work, Faust. He has performed on stage, in films, and on TV. On screen, he played Krojack in Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water. His published works include: "Fifteen years of Adventure, (SVU, 2007); Vít Hořejš's Rare & New Plays (United Stages, 2007); Water Spirit & Stingy Tailor (United Stages, 2007); Pig and Bear (Four Winds /Macmillan, 1989; Dutch translation 1990); Twelve Iron Sandals, (Prentice-Hall, 1985) and an English translation of the Czech puppet plays, Faust (Dilia Press, 1993) and The White Doe (Dilia Press, 1993). He co-produced Faust on a String, an award-winning documentary film about Czech puppetry, and wrote the lead essay for Czechoslovak-American Puppetry (7 Loaves, 1994). Vít has received commissioning grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Jim Henson Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and Columbia University.
