Matěj Brzica: The Youngest School Principal on Leadership and MBA Studies

Matěj Brzica is the youngest primary school principal in the Czech Republic. He leads a primary school in Stříbro and sees his inclusion in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list as both recognition of his work to date and a commitment to continued professional development. At the European School of Business & Management (ESBM), he completed an MBA with a specialization in Management in Education, which enables him to combine practical experience with a managerial and strategic approach to school leadership. In this interview, he talks about leadership, working with people, school management, and why he believes it is important to keep moving forward and never stop learning.

You are one of the youngest primary school principals in the Czech Republic. What was your journey to this role like?

My path to becoming a school principal was not entirely planned in the sense that I had decided at a particular age that I wanted to lead a school. However, I have always enjoyed thinking about how things could be done better, how to move a school forward, and how to create an environment where teachers can work well and children can learn effectively.

Over time, I became increasingly interested not only in education itself but also in how a school operates as an organization. In my view, a school principal cannot simply be a good teacher. They need to understand people, economics, legislation, communication, and strategic planning, while also having a clear vision of where they want to take the school. When the opportunity to apply for a school leadership position arose, I decided to take it. It was a major challenge and, of course, a great responsibility. Looking back, however, I have to say that the opportunity to take responsibility and make tangible changes is what attracts me most to this role.

What did being included in Forbes 30 Under 30 mean to you personally? Do you see it more as recognition or as a responsibility?

Definitely as recognition, but even more so as a responsibility. Being included in Forbes 30 Under 30 confirmed to me that the work I do in education matters and that it has attracted attention beyond the school environment itself. I truly appreciate that. At the same time, I do not feel that anyone was telling me, “Now you have achieved something.” Quite the opposite. It makes you realize that when you are given such an opportunity and people place their trust in you, you should use it as motivation to keep working.

I do not want Forbes to be the pinnacle of my journey. I see it as a very rewarding milestone that motivates me to keep developing myself and, above all, to translate the results of my work into meaningful improvements at the school and in the lives of the people around me.

You already hold a senior leadership position. What led you to decide to pursue an MBA at this stage of your career?

The fact that I was already in a management position was one of the main reasons. When you are actually running a school, you quickly realize that many challenges cannot be solved through educational expertise alone. Suddenly, you are dealing with strategy, finance, human resources, processes, communication, crisis situations, and the long-term development of the organization.

That is why I do not see an MBA as a degree for the sake of having a degree. I want to place some of the things I have learned through practical experience within a broader managerial and strategic framework. Practical experience presents me with specific challenges, while studying helps me find more systematic ways to address them. I believe the ideal approach is to combine both: experience in leading an organization in the real world and a willingness to learn new things from people with backgrounds in different fields and environments.

Many people might think that after achieving so much, further education is no longer necessary. Why do you believe continued professional development is important?

Because I believe that the moment you tell yourself you no longer need to learn, you begin to stagnate professionally. And this is especially true in education. Education is evolving, as are technologies, parents’ expectations, children’s needs, and the demands placed on teachers and school leaders. A principal cannot expect their staff to keep learning while standing still themselves.

Besides, I simply enjoy learning. I do not want to be someone who reaches a certain position and then spends the next several years merely repeating what they have already learned. I want to maintain a certain sense of professional restlessness in the positive sense of the word. I want to keep asking myself what we can do better.

In your opinion, what is the biggest difference between the educational leadership of a school and the actual managerial management of an organization?

A school is a unique type of organization. Its primary output is neither a product nor a service in the traditional sense, but education and human development. This has a significant impact on how it is managed. A school principal needs to understand education, but must also know how to manage an organization. This includes establishing clear roles and responsibilities, managing the budget, developing staff, setting up processes, planning investments, and communicating with parents and the school’s governing body.

However, I consider working with people to be the most important aspect. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if you fail to get your team on board, it will remain just a plan on paper. To me, leadership is not about being in a position of authority and simply handing out tasks. It is about creating the conditions that enable people to do their jobs well, while also having the courage to make decisions when necessary.

Are there specific areas of leadership or management in which you would like to develop further through your MBA studies?

Definitely. I am particularly interested in strategic management, working with people, and the long-term development of an organization. I believe a school cannot develop by focusing only on one academic year at a time. We need to think several years ahead.

I also want to further develop my skills in financial management, change management, and process design. Schools involve a huge amount of day-to-day operational work, and one of the key challenges for a principal is to avoid getting lost in the daily demands while keeping the long-term vision in sight.

Of course, I am also interested in leadership itself, particularly how to lead people with different experiences, opinions, and personalities so that the team works effectively as a whole.

How do you see the role of younger leaders in public education? Is being young more of an advantage or a challenge?

It is both. Being young can be an advantage in terms of energy, openness to new technologies, and a willingness to make changes. At the same time, it can be a challenge because you have to work much harder to prove that your decisions are not simply the result of inexperience or youthful enthusiasm.

However, I do not believe age alone is an indicator of leadership quality. You can have an excellent school principal in their thirties or their sixties. What matters is whether they can take responsibility, work with people, make decisions, and accept the consequences of those decisions.

Personally, I try not to see my position as a competition between younger and more experienced leaders. On the contrary, I believe that combining experience with fresh energy can be highly valuable for education. Younger people can bring new perspectives, while older colleagues contribute a wealth of experience that no amount of formal study can replace.

What are your future professional goals, and how would you like to develop your role as a school principal and your personal growth over the coming years?

First and foremost, I want to continue developing the school I lead. I do not want to be a principal who simply maintains what already exists. I want the school to be modern, open, and high-quality while also preserving a human touch and strong relationships between children, teachers, and parents.

In the long term, I would like to build stronger connections between practical experience in schools and the academic environment. I am interested in pedagogy, didactics, and, more broadly, how we can make education more effective and meaningful. That is why I naturally think not only about how to manage a school well, but also about how to further develop my expertise and share the experience and insights I gain.

If I had to sum up my professional goal in one sentence, I would say that I do not want to be known only as “the youngest school principal.” It is an interesting story, but it is not a professional goal. What matters far more to me is being able to say in a few years that I helped build a school that achieves good results, has a strong team, and, above all, has children who enjoy attending it and genuinely take something valuable away from their education.

I believe that is what leadership is really about — not the position itself, but what you are able to change through it.