Vladimír Dlouhý is a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague. In 1977-78 he completed an MBA programme at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and from 1980 to 1982 pursued postgraduate studies in mathematical statistics and probability at Charles University in Prague.

After completing his studies at the University of Economics in Prague, he was engaged at the university as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Econometrics. In 1984 he became a founding member of the Institute of Forecasting of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, where at first he worked as a researcher, later assuming the post of Deputy Director. From 1989-1992 he served as Minister of the Economy of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic, and from 1992 to June 1997 as Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. He was a member and later Vice-Chairman of the Civic Democratic Alliance and a Member of Parliament.

From September 1997 until the present he has been working as an International Adviser to the investment bank Goldman Sachs, and from 1998 to 2010 he was also engaged as an adviser for ABB. He is currently also the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Chayton Capital (London) and Meridiam Infrastructure (Paris), and a member of the Board of Directors of KSK Power Ventur in Hyderabad (India).

Since 2000 he has taught at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague, and from 2004 to 2010 he was also engaged at the University of Economics in Prague as a teacher and as a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Economics and Public Administration. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Deputy Chairman of the European Group of the Trilateral Commission, and a member of the European Regional Advisory Group of the International Monetary Fund. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and popular articles. He speaks English, German, French, Russian and Spanish.