Guests of the forum

He has been the head of the biggest Polish telecommunications company for two years. He also has a few years experience in the banking sector. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Electronics and Robotics of Poznan University of Technology. He has a fluent knowledge of French arising out of scholarship in Parisian Ecole Centrale. He spent 7 years in France and returned to Poland where he started to work in the financial sector, first in Cetelem bank, for five years. Next he moved to Lukas Bank’s Board and then was appointed as the president in 2005. Since 2006 he has been the president of Telekomunikacja Polska controlled in turn by France Telecom. He cannot complain about lack of work – the company has been loosing its strong position in the market of fixed line connections and for quite a long time it has been on the warpath with the Office of Electronic Communications, which regularly imposes high penalties on TP – Witucki himself was fined with the amount of a few hundred thousand złoty. Business work is not the only thing he is preoccupied with – he is the Chairman of the Programme Council of Civil Forum, which discusses, among other things, visions and programmes related to modernization of Poland. He likes reading historical books, especially related to the Middle Ages. In Krynica he will take part in the panel „Telecommunications of tomorrow in the age of information society. Chances and challenges”.

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Special guest of two Saturday panels, the first one dealing with the role of Poland in Brussels and the other one with the EU Climate Package. Danuta Hübner is the first Polish EU Commissioner. Following the 2001elections won by SLD, she headed the Office of the Committee for European Integration, which she had co-organized in 1996. After the 2003 accession referendum Danuta Hübner was appointed Minister – Member of the Cabinet for European Matters. She is an economist by education. She graduated from the Foreign Trade Faculty of the then School of Planning and Statistic. She was the Fullbright Institute scholarship holder at the University of California in Berkeley, and studied at the European Studies Centre at the University of Sussex. She has been professor of economics since 1992. Her career within the state administration structures started in 1994 when she was appointed advisor in social matters to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Grzegorz Kołodko. Thereafter, she was Deputy Minister of industry and trade. In 1995-1996 she headed the negotiations for Poland’s membership in OECD. Following the 1997 elections, she headed the Office of President Aleksander Kwaśniewski for one year. Since 1998 she was Vice Chairman and then the chair of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, holding the rank of Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.

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He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at Jagiellonian University – and Ph.D studies at Panthéon-Assass University. He holds a Ph.D. degree in law and is an attorney. He lectured at JU and Management Faculty of Warsaw University and at Executive MBA of Warsaw University and Illinois University. In 1992 – 1993 he worked in the Office of the Council of Ministers. He was also an adviser to the Board of Directors of Warsaw Stock Exchange. In 1997 – 1998 he was a collaborator of the Office of the Government’s Plenipotentiary for Pension System’s Reform. He is an expert of Polish Senate’s and Sejm’s committees. In 1994 – 2006 he was vice-president of the Board of Directors of the National Deposit of Securities. Since June 2006 he has been the chairman of the supervisory board of the National Deposit of Securities. He acted also as a judge of a Stock Exchange Court and Arbitration Court at NDS. Furthermore, since 2006, he has been the president of the board of the Supreme Association of Polish Lawyers. His hobby is travelling to places, where customers of conventional travel agencies do not arrive, and also – passionately – off road trips, first of all to South-Eastern Africa and Iceland. In Krynica Ludwik Sobolewski will moderate a panel “Reforms in Central Europe – reasons of successes and failures”, which will be held on Friday, 12.09, at 9.15. — eg

Stanisław Kluza was born on June 2, 1972 in Lubliniec. Economist, Undersecretary of State and Deputy Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz; Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of Jarosław Kaczyński. At present, Chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and also Chairman of the Bank Supervision Authority.

He graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics. In 1994, while in the fourth year of study, he entered research work first as student assistant and then from 1996 as assistant at the Applied Statistics Department, Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics. Since 2002 till the present day, he has been assistant professor at that Department. In 1995, he graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with cum laudae. In 1998, he won the scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science. In 1999 he was granted the Fullbright Commission scholarship for studies at the Washington University in St. Louis in 1999-2000. Thereafter, as holder of the Dekaban-Liddle scholarship, he studied at Glasgow University in 2001. He gained his doctorate in economics in 2001. His scholarly interests include among others: applications of the quantitative methods, statistics, econometrics, time series and monetary policy. —eg

Leszek Balcerowicz is 61 years old. In 1970 he graduated with distinction from the International Trade Faculty of the Central School of Planning and Statistics – SGPiS – (currently the Warsaw School of Economics - SGH) in Warsaw. Four years later he obtained an MBA diploma from St. John’s University in New York and in 1975 he defended his doctoral thesis at SGPiS. In 1992 he became a professor of the Warsaw School of Economics and a year later head of the Chair of International Comparative Studies. During the years 1992 – 2000 he was the chairman of the Supervisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). In September 1989 he was appointed as the deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister in Poland’s first non-Communist government. He was also the head of the Cabinet Economic Council (CEC). He prepared and implemented a plan for rapid stabilisation and transformation of the Polish economy, after it found itself in a deep economic crisis, widely known as “the Balcerowicz plan”. He held these posts until 1991. From 1997 to 2000 once again he held the positions of deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and head of the CEC. In 2001 the Sejm of the Republic of Poland appointed Leszek Balcerowicz as the President of the National Bank of Poland. He is currently lecturing at SGH and heading the Forum for Civic Development (FOR), which he created.

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At the peek of his political career so far, in 2001-2002 Anatoli Kinakh was the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Before that, in 1995 –1996, he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industrial Policy; afterwards, in 2007, he was Minister of the Economy in Julia Timoshenko’s Cabinet. He is a shipbuilding engineer by education and one of the most influential personages in Ukrainian politics and economy. As head for many years of the Ukraine Business and Industry Union grouping several dozen thousand businessmen from different regions of the country, he succeeded in transforming it into a political party. In 2006 its members won seats in the parliament within the Our Ukraine Bloc of President Victor Yushchenko. In 2005 – 2006 Kinakh was Secretary of the Ukrainian Security and National Defence Council attached to President Yushchenko. He was deputy to the Supreme Council in 1998 – 2001 and 2006 – 2007. He chaired the parliamentary commission for national security as well as sub-commissions for the industrial and defense complex and for military technological cooperation. He ran for President in 2004. Having gained 0.93percent of votes, he backed Victor Yushchenko. Anatoli Kinakh is scheduled to take part in the plenary sessions: „Ukraine’s Investment Prospects” and „The Economic Development of Ukraine: Is the Central European Experience Taken Into Account?”.

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49 year old Pawlak was educated as a mechanical engineer. He defended his doctoral dissertation last year. Since 1984 he has run a 17-hectare farm in Kamionka village. His hobbies are modern computer technologies. He doesn’t hide that it is not just an obligation, but also a pleasure to attend ceremonies such as the opening of a new transactional system, based on open source software, at Warsaw Commodity Exchange. Just after graduation from university he became a member of the Polish Union of People’s Party, he became a member of Contract Sejm by its voters. When ZSL transformed into PSL Revival, young Pawlak joined this grouping until today beeing its loyal member. For 6 years he was a member of the Supreme Executive Committee of the party, later becoming its president for a few terms. He was wice prime minister – in 1992, he did not succeed in forming a government – and in 1993 –1995. He has continuously been a Member of Parliament since 1989. In 1995 he ran for president, but received only 4.31 percent of votes. He soon lost the position of the party’s president, which was taken by Jarosław Kalinowski. Pawlak had to wait for his re-election for almost ten years. He returned to politics as a deputy prime minister and a minister of economy in the government of PO – PSL.

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Poroshenko cares for as big as possible share of Ukrainian capital in the banking sector.For many years Poroshenko has been an active businessman, mainly in the sugar industry. In addition to Roshen, a sweets producing concern, he also has shares in Kiev-based shipyard and metallurgical works Lenin’s Forging Shop and Mrija bank.Deputy to the Supreme Council in 1998 – 2005 and 2006 – 2007. Former head of parliamentary budget, financial and banking committees. After election of Victor Yuschenko as the President in 2005 Poroshenko became the secretary of the Security and National Defence Council, coordinating government’s operations. He acted also as a national security adviser of Yuschenko.Poroshenko, the author of a scientific work „Contemporary international economic relations”, is recognized as one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Ukraine, according to rankings TOP-100 and TOP-30 of the „Correspondent” weekly. He is also known for his charity work. He is a frequent guest in the Economic Forum in Krynica. This year he participates in the plenary session of the „Financial crisis 2007 – 2008: reasons and effects. The influence of the crisis on the economies of CentralEuropean countries”.

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Jan Krzysztof Bielecki was active as a politician for many years, in 1991 acting as Poland’s Prime Minister. For five years now Pekao SA, a bank which after acquisition of a part of BPH has become a leader of the banking sector in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. The beginning of his professional career indicated that as a graduate of the Faculty of Transport Economics at Gdansk University in Sopot he would start career as a scientist. He was an assistant in the Institute of Water Transport Economics, but he became quickly involved in the opposition. In the 80’s he was an expert of „Solidarity” and during the martial law he cooperated with the underground Trade Union authorities, this led to his dismissal in 1982 from a post at Machine Transport Ministry. Rapidly he set up his own business, also hiring other opposition activists. Next changes came in 1989 – when after elections Bielecki became a member of the Civil Committee. From January to December 1991 he acted as Poland’s prime minister. In November 1993 he became the representative of Poland in the EBRDevelopment in London. Recent years of his career were related to the banking sector. From 1st October 2003 he is the president of Bank Pekao. He imposed a fast development path for the bank – until 2010, according to the new strategy, revenues of the bank are to increase by 10 percent annually.

Wojciech Heydel was elected by the supervisory board of the company as the new president in April this year. The new head of the company, bound with the biggest Polish fuel company with a three-year contract, devoted his whole professional life to petrochemical industry. He has worked in PKN Orlen since 2004, before taking the president’s post he was the company’s vice-president in charge of sales. After suspension of Piotr Kownacki on 28th February, he became the president of the board of directors. Heydel is 48 years old. He is a Master of Transport Engineering, a graduate of Silesian University of Technology and also the Executive Programme of Michigan University (USA). In 1985 – 1990 he worked in the Oil Technology Institute in Krakow. Later, starting in 1990, he was linked professionally with BP for 14 years, establishing the Polish company of the global concern (British Petroleum Polska). In 2003 he became the president of this company. As the head of Orlen Heydel has a difficult task, because his major collaborator in the board is currently Jacek Krawiec – his chief rival in the competition for the post of PKN Orlen’s president. When the supervisory board appointed Heydel, the minister of treasury officially directed Krawiec to the board of directors as his representative. The strategy of PKN Orlen, prepared by Wojciech Heydel, is expected to come to light in the middle of September.