An alumni of University College London with BSc Planning and Real Estate. He gained his experience on the Real Estate market both in Poland and abroad, especially in the field of capital markets financial analysis, working for companies such as Griffin Real Estate, Jones Lang LaSalle and Arcadis Group. Being an active passionate of alternative real estate investment classes, and property technology, he co-founded ShareSpace.pl, a leading platform for flexible shared office rental. He is also a co-founder of StudentGroup, an operator of the Studentliving.pl portal offering private student dormitories. Together with ShareSpace he has been among the co-organisers of the first property technology event in Poland held Warsaw’s The Heart.

Gilles Clavie, 47, devoted his entire professional career to corporate finance up till 2014. He started in 1993 as Consolidation and Group Financial Reporting Manager in Eridania Beghin-Say, an agro-industrial company. In 2001, he joined the Accor Group in Paris as EMEA Reporting Director for the business and leisure hotel segment. He held the position of a Financial Controller in the Accor Group in the years 2004 through 2010. Gilles Clavie joined Orbis S.A. as a member of the Company’s  Executive Committee in January 2011. He was responsible for strategy, management control, IT systems implementation and asset management. Gilles Clavie headed the Property Management Committee which concentrated on in-depth analysis of various investment projects involving development, construction and maintenance. He was appointed President of the Management Board & CEO of Orbis S.A. in 2014. He was leading the architects team of the historical acquisition by Orbis S.A. of Accor hotel portfolio in Eastern Europe in 2015, thanks to which Orbis significantly increased its operational scale and entered a new development phase. Currently (December 2016), the Orbis Hotel Group comprises 117 hotels (20 000 rooms) in 9 countries of Eastern Europe. Orbis became an international hotel group, which is constantly expanding its network and strengthens its leading position in the region.

Former Minister of the European Affairs, Member of the European Parliament. Born in the UK, graduate from University of Wroclaw, where he received master degree in history. Former Minister of the European Affairs, Minister without Portfolio and former Deputy Minister of Culture and Arts.  Since 2004 he is a member of the European Parliament. Vice-President of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, as well as interparliamentary forum with national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Coordinator in Committee on Budget Control (CONT), member of the Foreign Affairs (AFET) committee in the EP and the Delegation EU – Ukraine. In addition, Vice-President Ryszard Czarnecki is a member of the Delegation DCAS to the EU – Kazakhstan, EU – Kyrgyzstan, the EU – Uzbekistan and the EU – Tajikistan and the Commission to corporations of parliamentary relations between Turkmenistan and Mongolia. He was awarded high state awards by Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia. He holds a Doctor Honoris Causa of the University in Erevan. Author of 6 books.

He began his work in the field of the meetings industry in 2008 as a project manager in the MICE agencies implementing outgoing and incoming projects. In the ongoing events, as one of the first in Poland he implemented the sustainable meeting standard BS 8901 solutions, being responsible for the preparation and implementation of the management system of the Radisson Blu Kraków Hotel on the basis of BS 8901. The facility as the first in the world has been certified by an international company certifying sustainable activities in the meetings industry. Since 2010 at the Warsaw Convention Bureau (Warsaw Tourist Office), he is responsible for the planning and implementation of marketing activities of Warsaw as a destination of meetings, contacts with foreign clients, supervision of the local MICE market researches and cooperation with the scientific community in Warsaw under the ambassador’s congresses. He represented Warsaw as the Tourism Expert in the ONE BSR EU project, under which the international group of collaborators was preparing travel products and strategy for their promotion in the United States and Japan. After changing his position at the Warsaw Convention Bureau into Warsaw Tourism Organization structures, he is responsible, among others, for the acquisition for Warsaw and coordination MCE CEE Warsaw 2015, the first ever Polish international meetings industry B2B event, which was visited by a large group of foreign hosted buyers (meeting planners 80). Since June 2018 he is the Vice-President of Warsaw Tourism Organization.

Jacek Figuła, Chief Commercial Officer of Billon, a company that reinvented technology behind money. Before, Jacek 20 years’ experience in sales leadership and team leading in global corporations: CISCO, UPC, Nortel, DEC and Siemens. At CISCO, he has been leading transformational projects in CEE. At Nortel, Jacek was holding a position of the General Manager of Polish affiliate and multiple sales roles. Holder of MBA at POU & Thames Valley University in London and MSc at EFP – Franco-Polish School of New Technologies in Poznan & Brest.

Mr. Artur Granicki has been employed as the head of a newly established Fintech Department KNF in May 2018. Until than his professional career was focused on judicial aspects of fintech as well as the capital market. He worked as the managing partner of a legal office which he cofounded. He was involved insetting up Start up Poland foundation – a broadly recognized NGO und served as a government adviser in the fintech field. In 2008 he graduated from the law department of Marie-Curie University, Lublin Poland.He studied law at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, Oxford, Great Britain as a part of students exchange program. In 2009 he completed post gradual programsin capital market law at Warsaw University Poland.

Aleks is the Member of the Board of Trustees at Vital Voices Europe in London, UK. Vital Voices Global Partnership is a Washington, DC – based NGO investing in women leadership around the world. She is also Country Head Fiserv Poland at FiservInternational Group.She has over 20 years of experience in the financial tech sector in EMEA. Aleks holds a B.A. in International Relations from University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and anMSc in European Policy Making from London School of Economics in London, UK. In 2015, Aleks participated in the prestigiousFortuneMost Powerful Women/US State DepartmentGlobal Mentoring Program in the US, pairing off US-based women CEOs with emerging women leaders internationally. Following the Fortune Program, Aleks was named the Ambassador of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of the “Parity in Business” Program in Poland in September 2015. In 2016, shortlisted in the Top 10 for the “Woman in Technology” Award by the Banking Technology Awards in London, UK. In 2016, she was invited to the ACJ Leadership Exchange Program in the US,co-organized by the American Jewish Committee and Forum for Dialogue. In March 2017, named in the Top 20 FinTech Women Experts in Poland.Shortlisted in Top 10 for the Paytech Leadership Award in July 2018 in London, recognizing individual contributions to the innovation in IT in the payment industry. In October 2018, Aleks was named the winner of the 2018 Goldman Sachs &Fortune Global Women Leaders Award in the US,recognizing global women leaders paying it forward. She’s a trusted advisor to leaders, mentor to start-ups, wife and a mother of 4 children.

Economist, PhD in economics, Minister of Finance in Marek Belka’s government. He graduated from the Faculty of Transport Economics at the University of Gdansk. In 1987-1993, he worked in international academic institutions, including, among others, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Charles University in Prague and ICESAD in Kitakyushu. He has worked in international organisations, including the World Bank, the UN and the EU. Until 1998, he was employed as a macroeconomist at the Institute for Market Economics. In 1999-2004, he worked with the Center for Social and Economic Research. He has been an advisor for the governments of Bulgaria, Turkmenistan and Slovakia. In 2000-2004, he was chief economist at Bank Millennium S.A., and in 2004-2005, he held the office of Minister of Finance in the government of Marek Belka. From 2012 to 2014, he headed the team of advisors of the President of the Krajowy Fundusz Poręczeniowy „Samorządowa Polska” sp. z o.o. He is currently an independent consultant.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Warsaw Voice magazine. Co-founder of the Children of the Holocaust Association in Poland. Former Vice-President of the Association of Polish Journalists, former head of the Polish section of the Association of European Journalists; former Vice-President of the Association of European Journalists. Press and television commentator, recipient of the Bene Merito award.

Bogusław Liberadzki has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since May 1, 2004. He sits on the parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism and is deputy chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control. Since January 2012, he has been a member of the European Parliament’s Bureau and of the parliament’s College of Quaestors. Liberadzki is also a member of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Japan and a substitute member of the Delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula. In 2008, he was voted the MEP of the Year in recognition of his active role in transport policy. In 2012, he was reelected a member of the Presidency of the Party of European Socialists (PES). That same year, he was elected vice-chairman of Poland’s Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party. Liberadzki has received a number of honors in Poland, including the Medal of the Commission of National Education and the Gold and Silver Crosses of Merit. He specializes in the economics of transport, transportation policies and European transportation systems. He has authored and co-authored a number of research papers, books and other publications in Poland and abroad, including Uwarunkowania rozwoju systemu transportowego Polski (The Determinants of the Polish Transportation System’s Development), Liberalizacja i deregulacja transportu w Unii Europejskiej (The Liberalization and Deregulation of Transportation in the EU), Transport- popyt, podaż, równowaga (Transportation: Demand, Supply and Sustainability), and Ekonomiczne problemy funkcjonowania transportu w USA i wnioski dla systemu transportowego Polski (The Economic Problems of Transportation in the United States and Implications for Poland’s Transport System).

In this role, he supports the Chief and Deputy Chief of Staff in the planning and preparation of the “Better Policies Series”, designed to provide timely and targeted policy advice to Heads of State and Minsters and to support them in making reform happen. Prior to this, Rafal worked as Head of the United Kingdom/Netherlands desk and Deputy Head of Division in the Economics Department. Since joining the Organisation in 2007, he has also worked on different research projects and contributed to the economic surveillance of France, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Tunisia. Before his experience at the OECD, he worked at the Banque de France and was assistant Professor at the University of Montpellier. Rafal a Polish national, holds a PhD in Economics, which he received from Paris Dauphine University in 2004.

Vice President of Polish-American Chamber of Commerce North-East, former Consul, Trade Commissioner and Head of Trade and Investment Section of Polish Consulate General in New York, also journalist and business trainer and entrepreneur. Holds a Postgraduate Master’s Degree in Marketing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Earned a Master’s degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Economics in Katowice. Also graduated from the Mikkeli University of Applied Science in Finland (Bachelor of Business Administration). Alumni of the School of Political and Social Leaders, certified trainer (specializing in negotiations, self-development, communication and public speaking training). Co-founder and President of Supervisory Board of the European Institute “Pro Futuro Europae”. Sabina Klimek was also a Member of the European Commission Business Forum for Multilingualism, Expert for European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium sized Enterprises for Standardization (NORMAPME) in the field of Innovation Management. She is author of many publications in the field of SME’s and author of the book “Entrepreneurship without secrets”.

Doctor of economy, creator of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA; Polish: Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego, KNF), a former chairman of PFSA (2006-2011), Minister and vice-Minister of Finance (2006), chief economist and the director of the Analysis Department at Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej (in Rabobank Group) (2002-2006). He is a faculty member at Warsaw School of Economics (since 1994), where he is affiliated at the Institute of Statistics and Demography. His main fields of interest are: monetary policy, statistics, econometrics, macroeconomics, banking and business cycle. He is the author of numerous presentations and papers in the fields of supervising financial market and macroeconomic analysis.

Historian by education and journalist by profession, with a postgraduate degree from Warsaw University (1982), since 1993 has been General Director of the Warsaw Voice publishing house. Kłosowski is also director of the Warsaw Economic Hub and Poland Meetings Destination conferencing projects.

A lawyer cum economist, PhD in economics with double masters (MBA Executive, and M.A. in InternationalRelations), graduated in Law (specialized in corporate law), has initiated educational cooperation between India and Poland (since 2008) and helped many public and private universities in Poland for their survival and quality education. He is a keen researcher and academician in the area of higher education, international business &legal practices.Dr Kumar leads various research projects, and support business needs in order to fulfill today’s requirements of academia and industries. In current assignment, dr Kumar is working with “Warsaw Stock Exchange” dedicated to ‘GPW Growth Project’. He is responsible forquality enhancement and capacity buildings, academic collaborations and efficient trainings. Dr Kumar’s projects are dedicated to Poland, India and the European Union, based on academia-Industry interlinked model of business cooperation. His initiatives to support universities in Poland has increased well qualified Indian students at Polish universities up to 5500 in 2018, comparing in 2014 when total Indian students studying in Poland were 209. Currently, he is associated with 37 Polish universities, 19 universities from the European Union, 6 universities from non-EU countries, and 49 universities from India. He is also helping Polish business for new initiatives to start businesses with India, and Indian business for Poland. Dr Pradeep Kumar is a founder and the President of‘Indo-European Education Foundation’, and the President of ‘Advanced Business Solutions Institute’, Warsaw, Poland. He is also a Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Nysa (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Nysie), Poland.

Born in Riga on 2 November 1941. Graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics (at that time: Main School of Planning and Statistics) in 1964, and in 1989 received the title of Professor of Economic Sciences. Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Economic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2007-2013) and member of the Committee on Economic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2007-2011); member of NBP Economic Research Committee (since 2009); from January to April 2010, member of the National Development Council of the President of the Republic of Poland and from October 2010 to December 2013, social adviser to the President of the Republic of Poland. Since 2001, Professor at the Bielsko-Biała School of Finances and Law. He is author of academic textbooks and scientific dissertations in the field of economic theory, public finance, history of economic thought of the 20th century and economic transformation from centrally planned to market economy. Minister – director of the Central Planning Office (1989-1991); minister of finance (1992-1993). In 1995-2008, consultant of the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme and other international and non-government organisations in the area of economic transformation, notably in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 2001, member of the Prime Minister’s Council of Socio-Economic Strategy and its vice-chairman in 2004-2006.Member of Parliament of the tenth, first, second and third term. He was member of parlia-mentary commissions and sub- committees dealing with public finance, European integration, public control, audit and economic policy.In 1990 he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa of New York University. In 1993 – elected the best minister of finance in Central and Eastern European countries. On 20 December 2013, the President of the Republic of Poland appointed Professor Jerzy Osiatyński as a member of the Monetary Policy Council.

Graduate of Faculty of Economics, Poznań University of Economics and Business. Alicja has started her career in Mercure Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw, in sales department. In 2007 she joined the Novotel Warszawa Centrum sales team as the Senior Sales Manager then she was promoted to the position of Mice & Leisure Team Leader in Global Sales of AccorHotels. In 2016 she took the position of Director of Key Account Management Poland and Baltic States. She has developed her knowledge and experience working both in hotels and the Global Sales of AccorHotels.

Sławomir Panasiuk – Deputy President of the Management Board of two key infrastructure institutions in the Polish capital market: the central securities depository (KDPW) and the CCP clearing house (KDPW_CCP). Graduate of the Cybernetics Department, major in operation of computer systems; post-graduate studies in IT at the Military University of Technology; and a post-graduate PhD course in Management Science at the College of Management and Finance of the Warsaw School of Economics. Since 1999, he has been working in KDPW in several positions, including Head of the IT Application System Team, Director of the IT Department, and General Director for Technology. In 2006, he was appointed to the Management Board of KDPW. As a Member of the Management Board, he participated in all the major business projects of KDPW. He co-ordinated the implementation of the depository-settlement system kdpw_stream, an unprecedented IT project in the Polish market in terms of the number of involved partners. Since 30 June 2009, he is Deputy President of the Management Board responsible for Operations, Technology and Corporate Security. He is Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Centrum Giełdowe S.A. and Chairman of the WIBOR Council.

Marek Prawda, Ph.D., took up the position of the Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Poland on 1st April 2016. He was the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the European Union between 2012 and 2016. Before that, he was the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Sweden and Germany. In the 1980s, he was an active member of “Solidarność”. He cooperated with the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in the field of the sociology of work in 1984. In his scientific work, he was focussing on Polish-German relations as well as European integration. He was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order of Merit of the Land of Brandenburg and the Cordi Poloniae Medal granted by Konwent Organizacji Polskich (Convention of Polish Organisations) in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Dr Andrzej Raczko was born on 27 February 1953 in Kutno. In 1977, he graduated from the University of Łódź specialising in Econometrics. In 1985, he obtained his PhD in Economics and then worked as an assistant professor at the University of Łódź. He collaborated with academic centres in the United Kingdom, France and Central European countries within the framework of EU research projects. Since the 1990s he has worked in the banking sector, among others in LG Petro Bank SA, where he was CEO. In 1999-2001, working in PKO BP, he was in charge of the mortgage bank project, and in 2003 he was Vice-President of Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej SA. In 2001-2002, Dr Raczko was undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Finance. His responsibilities covered public debt management, financial negotiations with the European Union and co-operation with international financial institutions. Minister of Finance in the final stage of Poland’s accession to the European Union (2003-2004). After 2004 Dr Raczko served as Alternate Executive Director and subsequently as visiting scholar in the International Monetary Fund. He was also Chief Economist and Director of Research Department in the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

Graduate of the Foreign Trade Department, Warsaw School of Economics, 1970. PhD in Economic Geography. In 1979-1980, on a British Council scholarship at the London School of Economics. In 1990-1991, he was an advisor to the Minister of Finance and later Department Director at the Ministry of Privatisation. In 1991-2006, President of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Member and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the National Depository of Securities (KDPW, in 1994-2006). Member of the Executive Board of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) and of the Working Committee of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE, in 1994-2006). Currently Chairman of the Programmatic Board of the Polish Institute of Directors and Member of the Best Practice Committee founded in 2001. Member of the Supervisory Boards of public companies including: Bank BPH, Telekomunikacja Polska, TVN. Advisor to the investment bank Rothschild and the private equity fund Warburg Pincus International. Since 2011, Chairman of the Jury of the Economic Award of the President of Poland. Awarded with the Commander?s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the French L’Ordre National du Merite.

Marc Santora is the Warsaw bureau chief of The New York Times, responsible for covering Central and Eastern Europe, a position he assumed at the end of 2017. Previously, he was a reporter on the metropolitan desk, chronicling the crumbling subway system and breaking news from Hurricane Sandy to Pope Francis’ visit to New York City. Mr. Santora has reported extensively from the Middle East and Africa. In 2003 he covered the invasion of Iraq, and he returned in 2006-2007 to cover the hanging of Saddam Hussein, the spiraling sectarian violence and the implementation of a new strategy by the American military popularly known as the “surge.” After returning from Iraq, Mr. Santora covered the Republican presidential primary, focusing mainly on Senator John McCain. He returned to Iraq for 16 months between 2009 and 2010. He has also reported from Africa for The Times. Mr. Santora was part of a reporting team that was a finalist for a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for its examination of the growing menace of diabetes, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. He was also a correspondent in Hartford, Conn., chronicling the corruption investigation of Gov. John G. Rowland, who eventually resigned, pleaded guilty and served time in prison, and worked in Albany for a brief stint covering New York politics. Mr. Santora joined The Times in 1998 as a clerk in the Washington bureau and worked there for four years as an assistant to the columnist Maureen Dowd. He began as a reporter on the metropolitan desk in 2002. Before joining The Times, Mr. Santora worked at Roll Call, a weekly newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. While in college, he was a reporter at The News-Gazette, a newspaper in Lexington, Va. He was the recipient of the Todd Smith Fellowship in 1997, which paid for an extended trip to Armenia and the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabach, where he reported for The Tampa Tribune on the region’s recovery after years of war. He received separate bachelor’s degrees in journalism and art history from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Mr. Santora was born Nov. 24, 1974 in Basking Ridge, N.J., and grew up there.

Kamil Szymanski is a manager with international experience. Currently the CEO of the Exhibition and Congress Hall of the Subcarpathian Region, he previously held the position of proxy and director of business development at Arena Gdansk Operator Sp. Z o.o. – a company that administers the Energa Stadium in Gdansk. He graduated with a law degree from the Universtiy of Gdansk, a member and active member of ELSA, recipient of a scholarship from the Cirius programme of the Danish government. He had traineeships at the Innsbruck University and the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland. He was the Vice-president of ELSA Poland and ELSA International on behalf of which he coordinated projects in more than 40 countries. He was also responsible for institutional contacts with the Council of Europe, UNESCO, UN ECOSOC, UNICTAL, WIPO, INTA, HRC. In recent years member of the supervisory board, lawyer, IRO, manager at knowledge providers, MM Conferences S.A., co-organizer of the 60 Million Congress.

Chief Economist of the Social Insurance Institution, from Nov 2014. Earlier served as: Permanent Representative of Poland to the OECD, Undersecretary of State at MFA, CEO of Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency and Minister of Finance. From 1995 to 2005 he was CEO of several financial market companies, including PTE Allianz Polska for six years. He graduated from John Caroll University (economics), Case Western Reserve University (operations research), Warsaw School of Economics (accounting), Systems Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Ph.D. in technical sciences).

He started his political carrier in 1969 after having worked as a journalist and having studied history and political sciences. He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1983 until 1999, where he hold a number of senior posts and was mainly dealing with foreign and security policy and European affairs. He was appointed Minister of State for European affairs in the Foreign Office in 1998. In 1999 he became a member of the European Commission, responsible for enlargement until 2004. In 2002 he also took over the responsibility for the European neighbourhood policy. In his second term in the European Commission, from 2004 to 2011 he served as Vice-President and was in charge of enterprise and industry. In this capacity he was the European chairperson of the Transatlantic Economic Council as of 2007. He is now an honorary professor of Viadrina University in Frankfurt/Oder. He has published a number of books and essays on European and other issues. From 2015, he is one of the seven advisors of the Agency for Modernization of Ukraine, working in the area of models integrating Ukraine with the EU.