Zakladatel

Zakladatel is a noun used in Czech and Slovak to denote a founder or initiator—the person who establishes an organization, company, institution, project, or movement. It is commonly found in biographies, corporate histories, and news reporting to identify the individual responsible for founding or launching something. The term is formed from the verb založit (to establish) and a productive agent suffix that means “one who ....”

In standard spelling, the form is zakladatel in Czech and zakladateľ in Slovak. In texts without diacritics, it may appear as zakladatel. The word can describe founders of businesses, cultural institutions, political movements, or online communities, and it is used in a variety of collocations such as zakladatel společnosti (founder of the company) or zakladateľ projektu (founder of the project).

Usage and nuance: the zakladatel is the person who creates or starts something new; related terms include cofounder (spoluzakladatel in some contexts) and founder-in-chief, depending on the role. The concept is parallel to the English “founder” and to equivalents in other languages, such as the Polish założyciel.

See also: founder, entrepreneurship, biography.