We patiently balance entrepreneurship
and philanthropy

Ladislav Kossár is the founder and CEO of PROVIDA. He leads the foundation’s strategy and its impact investments in sustainable social ventures. Ladislav graduated from law school at Comenius University. He also studied international law and capital markets at universities in Szeged, Utrecht and Harvard University. After briefly working at the United Nations in New York, he spent 4 years in the investment banking and asset management divisions of Deutsche Bank in London and Frankfurt. The past 10 years he focused on real estate finance and early-stage venture investments. He currently manages the wealth of a small family office, mentors young entrepreneurs and advises global non profits such as Nexus Youth Summit and Dalajlama Fellows. In his free time, Ladislav likes to play basketball, admire art and take photographs on his travels.

Lucia Kossárová is co-founder of PROVIDA and program BUDDY, which thrives to ensure that every child not growing up in their own family has at least one person they can trust, and can lead an independent life. As an expert for impact and quality measurement she focuses on child protection, and how to best set up the system for monitoring and evaluating the impact for children, volunteers, Centres for children and families and the entire BUDDY community. She studied social sciences at University College Utrecht and international development at John Hopkins SAIS in the USA and Italy. She worked for the Council of Europe and the World Bank, and later as a consultant on issues of health and social development in various countries around the world. She obtained PhD from the London School of Economics in London, where she also worked as a senior research analyst for the Nuffiled Trust. She focused on the quality measurement and improvement of health services for children and young people. In 2017 she decided to bring her expertise back to Slovakia and she is fully dedicated to the growth and sustainability of program BUDDY. In her free time Lucia loves to travel and spend time with her family and friends.

After studies at the Business Academy in Prešov, she became an accountant and consultant. In 2009 she established the NGO Faith-Love-Hope, through which she hadoriginally wanted to organize summer camps for disabled children. She established the first Svetielko centre in Prešov in May 2011 with the aim to improve the quality of life of her own children. In her spare time, she loves to read history books, especially about fencing adn she hopes she will be able to return to ride horses one day.

Jozef Bardík, a strategy advisor of PROVIDA, focuses on entrepreneurship and investment with social impact. He graduated in strategic management from the Faculty of Management at Comenius University in Bratislava. He worked in private equity as well as in strategic consulting (McKinsey & Company, Deloitte Financial Advisory). He supports “Detstvo Deťom”, a non-profit day care centre working with Roma children in Slovakia and several other non-profits focused primarily on education. He is also an independent investor and consultant in the field of real estate and finance. In his free time Jozef loves travelling around Portugal and India.