American Investor (Spring 2015)

American

SPRING 2015

Vol. XXV, No. 2 • ISSN 1506-3240

Investor The quarterly of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland

New Chairman interview, page 22

AmCham Impact Pioneer interview, page 26

Cover Story:

INSIDE: 17 photo pages of AmCham events!

amcham.pl

AmCham Impact Pioneer interview, page 28

In this issue SPRING 2015 Vol. XXV No. 2 A healthy relationship Tucson Dunn, Hospital Development Director at Medicover Group, talks about pioneering the private healthcare sector in Poland, p. 32

MONTHLY MEETING January In search of the golden mean The system of primary and secondary education in Poland is hard to reform, but the business community can help, p. 18

The turn of a friendly card Nikolaus Strohriegel, CEO of Casinos Poland, talks about beating the odds in a changing business environment, p. 34

February Strategic thinking There are many ways the US is vital in shaping Poland’s global outlook, p. 19 March Blowing in the wind Turbulent politics and a lack of visionary leadership may harm economic growth, p. 20 April No change may lead to change?

The real aim of Poland’s presidential campaign in the spring is to shift the balance of power in the fall parliamentary election, p. 21 FOCUS The spirit of optimism Tony Housh, the new AmCham Chairman, talks about how he views his new role and how the chamber may evolve over time to create new business opportunities for its member companies, p. 22 Global experience, local ambitions Project management consultants can help Poland redevelop smart cities, p. 24 COMPANY PROFILE Solutions for the 21st century As AmCham honors GE with the Impact Pioneer Award, Beata Stelmach, president of GE for Poland and the Baltics, talks about the company’s successful past and where it is heading now, p. 26

The you we need to know Maya Krzyżanowska, managing director of Assessment Systems Poland, a global HR specialist, talks about how psychometrics and the Hogan method can add value to companies, p. 35

COVER STORY:

EXPERT Cutting with precision When competitors merge, workforce cuts generate synergies but also legal risks, p. 36

The AmCham Charity Drive helps underprivileged children and single mothers lead more fulfilling lives, p. 14

A second chance Poland creates “pre-packs” as a new legal option for investing in distressed assets, p. 37

Field of dreams

Champion businesses to overcome capital challenges with Citi Sławomir S. Sikora, President of Citibank Poland—a company honored by AmCham with the Impact Pioneer Award—talks about Citibank’s past and how it sees its role in the ever-changing business environment, p. 28

Untaxed settlement?

When settling a dispute over unlawful termination, it may be necessary to seek a ruling on whether to withhold income tax, p. 38 Two sides of a coin Sale and leaseback of an occupied building, p. 39 DEPARTMENTS Letter from the Chairman, p. 3; Newsline, p. 4; Agenda, p. 8; AmCham Committee Guide, p. 13; Photo coverage of AmCham events, pp. 40-56

Captains of capital markets Jacek Siwicki, president of Enterprise Investors, the oldest venture capital and private equity firm in Poland, talks about its culture and the roots of its success, p. 30

SPRING 2015 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Your American Investor

YOUR AMCHAM

On-line resources to AmCham

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tony HousH – APCO Worldwide Chairman

Joanna Bensz – CH2M Polska Vice Chair

JudiTH Gliniecki – CEE Equity Partners Vice Chair

Paul FoGo – JF Legal Treasurer

Rick lada – Individual Member Secretary

MEMBERS Magdalena BurnatMikosz Deloitte

Anna Jakubowski

John Lynch Lynka

Roman Rewald

Weil Gotshal & Manges

Coca-Cola

Jolanta Jaworska IBM Poland & Baltics

Joseph Wancer Bank BGŻ

Marek Kapuściński Procter & Gamble Central Europe

SPONSORS

Check out our revamped website, with enhanced functionality including intuitive grouping of topic threads and multimedia coverage of our events!

MEMBERS This link includes access to AmCham community news, the member directory, information on how to become a member, and a list of companies and individuals who have received AmCham awards.

EVENTS The link Upcoming Events will take you to announcements of our future events. Past Events will take you to our events archive, which includes photo and multimedia coverage of selected events.

COMMITTEES AmCham’s 16 committees are the heart of the organization, providing a forum for business leaders with similar interests to network, share best practices, and discuss relevant topics and issues.

This enables active participation and input on matters of vital importance to members.

The link will take you to a pop-up menu to choose the committee of interest to you.

MEDIA This link will take you to five databases: AmCham in the Press is a database of press clippings about AmCham in Poland. American Investor will take you to a .pdf version of our print quarterly, American Investor, including the most recent edi-

Letter from the Chairman tion as well as archives of past issues.

Video Clips will take you to multimedia coverage of selected AmCham events. AmCham Media Contacts provides contact information for members of the media. Galleries will take you directly to the vast archive of photo coverage of our events.

Dear members and friends of AmCham,

ADVOCACY This link will take you to the archive of our position papers, policy statements, official letters to government ministers, and research papers—all produced in our effort to build a more open and business-friendly economic environment.

T

REGIONS AmCham may be closer than you think. Apart from Warsaw, AmCham has three regional branches, which are active all year long and offer many exciting opportunities to interface with regional business leaders and politicians. Use the Regions menu to find out more about our services in Gdańsk and northern Poland, Kraków & Katowice and southern Poland, and Wrocław and Lower Silesia.

USEFUL LINKS This section provides links to other important US business organizations, such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, and other organizations working for the benefit of transatlantic trade and investment relations.

What’s on

amcham.pl

Your online guide to AmCham activities

he first months of 2015 have been very active for AmCham and our member firms. In this edition of American Investor I invite you to learn more about what we have been doing, what we have accomplished, and what we plan to deliver in this special 25th year of the chamber.

We celebrated a quarter of a century of support for American companies and the transformation of the Polish economy with a wonderful gala event on Valentine’s Day. Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński awarded AmCham a medal for service to Poland during the event and paid high praise to our efforts over the years. On behalf of the Board and the AmCham team, thank you to all those who attended and sponsored such a memorable evening.

While celebrating our accomplishments to date is enjoyable, we have certainly not been distracted from our work on a number of issues. We are highly engaged on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the PLUS-IP innovation program, and continuing to press for improvements in the business environment that will help us more effectively operate in Poland and make the market ever more attractive to new investors.

So far we have hosted ministerial guests from the Foreign Affairs and Education ministries and panels of economic and political experts at our monthly meetings this year. Outside of these Tony Housh meetings, we have been busy engaging with Polish, EU and US AMCHAM CHAIRMAN officials on trade and investment on a frequent basis.

We also hosted the AmCham Diner at the European Economic Congress in Katowice in April. It was another great success for our “meeting place.” Ministers, deputy ministers, MPs, MEPs, business leaders and many member companies found a place to speak face to face and enjoy the comfort of the Diner. It was indeed a hit.

Dorota and the AmCham staff should take a bow for making it the centerpiece of EEC 2015. A lot of work that turned out exceptionally well, thanks!

In this edition you can learn more about our member companies as pioneers, current innovators and thought leaders. I hope you will also use this American Investor as motivation to think about how you and your company can benefit from the range of activities, seminars, meetings and social activities AmCham delivers month after month.

Best regards,

AmCham Auditor:

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2015. All rights reserved.

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

SPRING 2015 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Newsline YOUR AMCHAM AMCHAM STAFF

News from AmCham and its members AmCham Warsaw

Dorota Dabrowski

Managing Director director@amcham.pl

Marzena Drela

Deputy Director marzena.drela@amcham.pl

Anita Kowalska

Events & Media Manager anita.kowalska@amcham.pl

Robert Kruszyna

Office Manager robert.kruszyna@amcham.pl

Barbara Pocialik-Malinowska

Membership and Committees Coordinator barbara.pocialik@amcham.pl

Marta Pawlak

Policy Counsel marta.pawlak@amcham.pl

AmCham in Gdańsk

Alina Gronek

gdansk@amcham.pl

AmCham in Kraków & Katowice

Joanna Bensz

krakow@amcham.pl

AmCham in Wrocław

Monika Ciesielska-Mróz

amcham.wroclaw@pmg.pl

EDITOR

Tom Ćwiok tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl

ENGLISH EDITOR

cHRisToPHeR smiTH christopher.smith@neostrada.pl

Printing

Q Invest Ltd +48 22 424 6600 To contact AmCham please write or call: ul. Emilii Plater 53, WFC 00-113 Warsaw tel: +48 22 520 5999 fax: +48 22 520 5998 e-mail: office@amcham.pl amcham.pl © American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2015.

All rights reserved.

American Investor is the official publication of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland. It is a voice for foreign investors and the business community in Poland.

The magazine strives to keep our members and other readers up to date by following chamber news and reporting on the leading trends in business and policy.

Cover art by Tom Ćwiok letters to the editor should be e-mailed to tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland has received an Honorary Badge of Merit for the Economic Development of the Republic of Poland. The badge was presented to the AmCham Board of Directors at the AmCham 25th Anniversary Gala by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Janusz Piechociński (pictured above left, with Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman).

In his speech, Piechociński highlighted the important role that US investors played in Poland’s economic transformation. “They were bold enough to invest in Poland when nobody believed that the Polish economic transformation would last,” he said. He underlined that for Poles, the engagement of American capital in Poland was a fundamental act of solidarity with a country that was determined to win its “road to freedom.”

But along with capital and new jobs, American investors brought business knowhow to Poland, which was “not only about the freemarket economy, but about the global economy, in which simple market competition was being replaced by an ability to cooperate to create added value, a much more complex virtue,” he said. He also acknowledged the important role AmCham has played over the last 25 years as one of the government’s partners in the ongoing dialogue among stakeholders.

The Deputy Prime Minister predicted that the next 25 years of US-Polish cooperation in business will be even more successful than the past 25 years. “We will take the opportunities that TTIP brings,” he said, “the opportunities that the intensive American capital gives us, and we, together, will utilize the spirit of free, brave nations, who know that they are much stronger together.”

The Honorary Badge of Merit for Economic Development was the seventh such award bestowed upon an organization by the Polish government.

Also to celebrate its 25th anniversary, AmCham gave the Impact Pioneer Award to three companies—CitiHandlowy, GE and United Technologies Corporation—for their early entry into Poland and investments which have had a profound influence on the sectors they operate in. CitiHandlowy pioneered modern banking in Poland and continues to drive innovation in the sector. GE, which first invested in the consumer finance sector, is today recognized as a leader in technology and innovation delivered to a range of industries, including aviation and energy. UTC, which has

invested over USD 1 billion in aviation and defense-related sectors and created over 10,000 high-tech jobs across the country, has had a significant impact on the development of the modern aviation industry in Poland.

In other news, AmCham has launched a program called “30 under 30,” designed to connect young professionals with leaders in the AmCham Poland community who will provide guidance and mentorship based on their own career experience. Through this program participants will have opportunities to meet and learn from experts, government officials, and industry leaders on such topics as career development, emotional intelligence, and management.

The program was inaugurated in March with a networking event at the Westin Warsaw with speakers Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia of ERM, Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide), Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director, and Grzegorz Kozłowski (pictured above) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In news from Kraków, AmCham is a patron of the 21st International MBA Congress taking place there May 15–17. The event is organized by the Cracow University of Economics with keynote speaker Dr. Charles Wankel, Associate Professor of Management at St. John’s University. The event will include networking and study visits to Coca-Cola HSBC, MAN Trucks, Silgan White Cap, and Woodward, followed by dinner with a charity auction and golf tournament. More info at www.kongresMBA.pl.

AmCham Gdańsk

AmCham Gdańsk is now represented by Alina Gronek, a senior consultant at Adecco Poland.

Gronek has been active and supportive of AmCham for many years while representing a variety of member companies during her professional career.

Her past experience includes LOT Polish Airlines, the US Embassy Foreign Commercial Service Department, Nestlé, and Grey Global.

Currently, at Adecco Poland, Gronek is responsible for recruitment projects for strategic sectors of space, aviation, defense, navy, and homeland security. She also operates as a business development executive for Skyfleet Aviation.

At AmCham Gdańsk, Gronek replaced

Newsline News from AmCham and its members Klaudia Jackowska, who put AmCham Gdańsk on its feet and was its leader for over two years.

In March, AmCham Gdańsk held its Spring Business Meeting with guest speakers Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide), and Jacek Mąkinia, Prorector of the Gdańsk University of Technology. Housh briefed local members on the chamber’s plans and priorities this year. Mąkinia talked about the areas where the university seeks cooperation with the private sector, and the opportunities such cooperation may open up for the parties.

AmCham Kraków & Katowice

In March, AmCham Kraków & Katowice held a breakfast meeting with speakers Paweł Tynel and Bogdan Dobrzeniecki from EY, who talked about innovation in business, and Rafał Kulczycki from the Małopolska Center for Entrepreneurship, who gave a presentation on what the center has to offer for the private sector. The venue was the Holiday Inn Kraków.

Also in March, AmCham Kraków & Katowice held a meeting with US Ambassador Stephen D. Mull, who discussed the PolishUS relationship and presented priorities for the US Mission in 2015. The venue again was the Holiday Inn Kraków.

New members Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Poland has joined AmCham. It is represented by Jacek Graliński, public affairs director, who can be reached at +4822-874-3500 and jacek.gralinski@astrazeneca.com.

Healthcare company Chestnut Global Partners Central Europe has joined AmCham. The contact person is Judit Süle, clinical director, who can be reached at +36-1-796-9261 and judit.sule@chestnutce.com.

Hogan Assessment Systems Poland, an HR specialist, has joined AmCham. The contact person is Maya Krzyżanowska, managing director. Her email is maya.krzyzanowska@asystems.as.

AmCham Wrocław

In March, AmCham Wrocław held a Business Breakfast with Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Deputy Minister of Economy, who talked about EU-financed support programs for the development of R&D and innovation in the 2014–2020 financial perspective of the European Union.

Other speakers at the meeting were Bogusława Mazurek and Szymon Żółciński of Crido Taxand in Poland, who gave an overview of the rules governing EU aid to private companies in Poland.

In April, AmCham Wrocław and United Business Development co-hosted a Business Breakfast devoted to a discussion of the personal development evaluation methods of John Zenger and Joseph Folkman, which help top-level managers evolve from good management routines to great leadership.

The speakers from UBD were Peter Strupp, president, and Maria Mycielska-Toth, senior consultant and coach.

CBRE

Commercial real estate consultancy CBRE has announced that its Polish Capital Markets Team gained a market share of nearly 50%, having transacted EUR 1.5 billion out of a total investment volume of EUR 3.1 billion last year. In addition, the team advised on four of the five largest investment deals in 2014.

This success was possible as office acquisitions dominated the investment landscape in the greater Warsaw area, accounting for 37% of total investment volume. The CBRE team advised on key transactions including the acquisitions of the Rondo 1 and Metropolitan office buildings by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, the disposal of the mixed-use complex Plac Unii, the acquisition of Poznań City Center for Resolution/ECE, as well as the acquisition of Ghelamco’s office portfolio for Starwood Capital.

Cushman & Wakefield

Healthcare specialist Interclinic has joined AmCham. The company is represented by Kamil Adamczyk, who can be reached at +48-22-633-8705 and contact@intelclinic.com.

International management consulting firm Oliver Wyman has joined AmCham. The contact person is Nathalie Vanheusden, global executive assistant manager, who can be reached at +48-22-456-4500 and nathalie.vanheusden@oliverwyman.com.

The national air carrier LOT Polish Airlines has joined AmCham. The company’s contact is Sebastian Mikosz, managing director, who can be reached at +48-22-606-7331 and s.mikosz@lot.pl.

Santa Fe Partners, a gastronomic company, has joined AmCham. The contact person is Piotr Grajewski, chairman. He can be reached at +48-22-8512323 and piotr_grajewski@bluecactus.pl.

International expansion firm TMF Poland has joined AmCham. The contact person is Mikołaj Pluciński, chairman of the board. He can be contacted at +4822-456-4500 and emailed at Diana.Szuster@TMF-Group.com.

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, has been appointed property manager of two major Warsaw office buildings by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. Green Corner, with 28,187 m2 of gross leasable area, is located in the Wola district,

and the Kopernik Office Buildings, pictured at the bottom (22,673 m2 GLA), in the Włochy district. C&W will focus on optimizing the cost of the facilities’ operation and increasing the value of the properties. Both buildings are well-recognized on the market and within their category provide outstanding solutions for their tenants. C&W started management of the properties in January 2015.

Dentons

International law firm Dentons and the Chinese firm De Chung announced that they have combined their operations to create the largest global law firm, with 6,500 lawyers in 120 locations, including Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, CIS and the Caucasus, the UK, the US, and all 34 of China’s regional administrative divisions.

The combination of the two law firms was described as a structure with a “polycentric approach,” meaning “no one global headquarters and no dominant national culture.”

On international markets the new firm will be known as Dentons.

GE

GE has announced that it will supply the Galicja Wind Farm in Poland with 27 2.5 MW 103 wind turbines. Ten of the turbines are currently under construction, with another 17 planned to begin construction in 2015. Once operational, the 120 MW Galicja Wind Farm will generate energy equivalent to the amount needed to power approximately 52,000 Polish homes.

Galicja is GE’s first wind farm in Podkarpackie province and will be one of the country’s largest wind farms. It is owned by Lewandpol.

Massive Design

Przemysław Mac Stopa, chief architect of Massive Design, an interior design firm, has designed the press office for Interni, a Milanbased interior design magazine. The design was integrated into the Interni exhibition Energy for Creativity, on display during Milan Design Week and the opening of EXPO Milano 2015, which runs May 1–October 31. The Waves of Creativity Interni Press Office features interior design based on three-dimensionality, with a mix of artistic colorful patterns, geometries and furniture, both customdesigned and for serial production, with a special stripe design and rhomboid-shaped Bolon tile flooring.

Earlier, at the industry-standard competition held by the New York-based Interior Design magazine, Massive Design won three Best of Year Awards 2014 (for Combination of Dissimilar Materials; Unexpected Use of Cement, Ceramics and Natural Materials for Interiors; and Furniture: Contract/Tables) and three Best of Year Honoree Awards (for Architectural Products; Furniture: Residential/Coffee and Cocktail Tables; and Seating: Residential/Accent).

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The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland runs the AmCham Diner at the Krynica Economic Forum on September 8–10, 2015 What is the Krynica Economic Forum?

Organized by the Institute of Eastern Studies since 1992, the Krynica Economic Forum is the largest economic conference in Central & Eastern Europe, consisting of 5 plenary sessions and over 150 discussion panels.

Pundits have dubbed it the “Polish Davos.”

Who attends?

2,500 guest from over 60 countries Attendees include political, economic and social leaders and some 500 journalists.

What is the AmCham Diner?

The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland and the Diner are an integral part of the Krynica Economic Forum. The Diner is known as the place to network with fellow industry leaders, attend engaging panels, and recharge with a cup of coffee.

There you will find - a popular venue for networking opportunities between AmCham members and business and political influencers from all over the world - a platform for business and government dialogue - a draw for national and international VIPs interviews, panels and programs with leading representatives of government and business an opportunity for impact and strategic logo placement - an excellent mix of fun and business with an American twist Our plans This year we’ll be mixing things up and bringing a little bit of Texas to the Polish mountains by transforming our AmCham Diner into AmCham’s Texas Roadhouse!

Your participation is integral to bringing a touch of authenticity to the Roadhouse. If you are interested in attending the event, please do let us know. There are also opportunities to get more involved.

This year, our AmCham Diner will remain a comfortable, all-American setting perfect for networking over a cup of coffee, and will feature a high-quality program that will include: - interviews with Krynica VIP guests and participants - a forum for official and casual discussions - a number of panel discussions We expect very high attendance at the AmCham Diner this year and hope to have many member companies as our partners. Partner benefits include: - participation in the AmCham Main Panel - an opportunity to organize a panel in the AmCham Diner - an option to reserve tables and seats at the Diner - your company logo displayed inside the AmCham Diner - joint branding with the American Chamber of Commerce

For more information contact: Marzena Drela tel. +48 696 022 991 marzena.drela@amcham.pl

SPRING 2015 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Agenda Intelligence from AmCham Committees Defense & Security In March the AmCham Defense & Security Committee held a meeting with US Embassy contacts for defense issues: Matt Willis, Senior Defense Officer from the Defense Attaché Office; Warren Barlow, chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation; and Joseph T. Farrelly, chief of the Political-Military Unit at the Pol-Econ Section. The fourth guest speaker was Bill Czajkowski, Commercial Counselor and head of the US Commercial Service in Poland.

Matt Willis said that his office is about militaryto-military understanding to foster cooperation and help Poland understand what military elements are available for training and cooperation, as well as what US interests are with Poland across its military spectrum. He said that the US Defense Attaché’s office has great cooperation with the General Staff and other elements of the Polish military.

Warren Barlow explained how the mission he leads at the Office of Defense Cooperation differs from that of the Defense Attaché. Defense Cooperation focuses on assessing the pros and cons of military technology and equipment transfers to host countries through commercial deals. While there is a political aspect to what the office does, it is primarily focused on technological aspects.

Joseph T. Farrelly said that the Political-Military Unit deals with military issues from a political perspective and how they affect the foreign policy of the United States and the host country.

His office interacts with a range of government agencies in Poland, especially since Poland is running a major modernization program across its military. The office works on licenses and clearance for the kind of military purchases that Poland wants to make. The office also deals with cybersecurity and arms control issues.

Bill Czajkowski said that the Commerce Department is where most of the Advocacy Center is housed to facilitate the US government’s assistance to US industry in attempts to help US companies win big tenders. Once a company that needs such assistance is vetted by the US government for approval, the Advocacy Center steps in to help it in Poland. But the center is not the only element of the system that helps US companies win business in Poland, and it is best to contact the Commercial Service to learn how to best utilize the help that American diplomacy can provide US companies.

Following their introductory remarks, all the speakers explained in more detail how the agencies they represent can help American companies in Poland seeking government contracts in defense and defense-related areas.

Energy & Environment Katarzyna Snyder, head of the International Negotiations Team at Poland’s Ministry of the Environment, met with the AmCham Energy & Environment Committee in February to talk about the conclusions of the COP 20 climate

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

convention which took place in Lima, Peru, last December.

Snyder said that by 2015 every country that is a party to the convention has to declare what their contribution to COP will be, well in advance of the next COP conference, in Paris.

As far as the EU is concerned, all the member states are viewed as one bloc and are represented in the negotiations by the European Commission and the EU Presidency. The EU has an internal structure through which all 28 EU members agree to certain positions in negotiations. This is where Poland, and every other EU member state, has its say in shaping the EU position. In the end, the position is represented at the negotiating table by the lead negotiators.

The EU has three lead negotiators at present in COP negotiations. With this mechanism, the entire EU has to put on the table its contribution to the future COP agreement.

The EU is committed to reducing the emission of climate-change gases.

Meanwhile, China says that it is going to peak in 2030 and begin to limit its emissions following that year. This position is progress in terms of China being a part of the agreement. On the other hand, China’s reluctance to limit its emissions earlier poses questions for other countries that are willing to limit their emissions of CO2 earlier, as to their economic competitiveness against China.

Snyder said that no party in the convention wants to rush with proclamations of how much they are going to reduce their CO2 emissions, and it seems that more conclusive decisions will be taken after the next COP meeting in Paris.

In March, the AmCham Energy & Environment Committee met with André Chiaradia, former head of the State of Arizona’s Superfund program, addressing environmental issues of dense urban development in East Central Phoenix. Chiaradia talked about the problem of vapor intrusion.

Vapor intrusion, the movement of vapors that escape contaminated soil and groundwater and travel into homes and commercial establishments through penetrations and cracks in foundations and walls, is a long-term environmental exposure hazard and an emerging issue affecting the health of humans and communities, and having an impact on residential and commercial real estate.

Chiaradia said that among the dangerous substances are petroleum carbohydrates such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene.

The other compounds that also pose health hazards are chlorinated hydrocarbons, including tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, trichloroethane, dichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride.

Some of these chemicals are carcinogenic, and others, such as mercury, affect the human nervous system. Others, such as methane, may penetrate into basements, and then when the heating unit is turned on the home could explode. There have been such cases in the US

where homes were built on former landfills.

Dangerous substances do not need to be directly under buildings to pose a threat. When they escape they get into groundwater, and some of them dissolve and travel with this contaminated fluid. As it travels along, it may release or degas some of the compounds into homes or businesses.

Chiaradia said that the problem was diagnosed in the US in the 1970s, and in the 1980s led some states to pass laws that require comprehensive responses, including compensation and liability as well as legal parameters to go after the people who were responsible for the releases.

After talking about procedures, formulas and practices for assessing vapor intrusion dangers for residential and commercial real estate, Chiaradia went on to talk about the experience of the State of Arizona’s Superfund in developing legal and practical aspects of monitoring contaminated areas and strategies for dealing with certain threats. He concluded his presentation by saying that because it deals with human health and safety, prevention is always better and costs less than dealing with the results of vapor intrusion.

Human Resources Management Zbigniew Płaza, managing partner of Boyden Global Executive Search Poland, met with the AmCham Human Resources Management committee in January to talk about how businesspeople who have profiles on LinkedIn, a social site for professionals, should manage their profiles to create a good impression for potential customers and business partners as well as recruiting agencies.

Płaza noted that when considering career development, having a personal professional brand is critical to success in today’s highly competitive world. “No matter whether it is a new job or an attempt to move up in your current organization, maintaining a professional brand, supplemented by social networking, can heighten your chances for a better career,” Płaza said.

He said that individuals who know how to “make noise” about themselves are the most likely to progress in the corporate structure. But the higher they get, the more visible they become to others. People in high positions are always checked out online by other people they meet. If the information available online creates a good image of the person, he or she gains in respectability and is viewed as a credible businessperson.

Recruiters use the same tactics, and they check with web services for professionals such as LinkedIn. In the English-speaking world, LinkedIn is the first point of reference for them. It is where they look for pieces of information about professional aspects of the person they are checking. With this, LinkedIn is becoming a sort of CV for professionals, which should constantly be updated.

D

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Agenda Intelligence from AmCham Committees Recruiting agencies do not stick exclusively to LinkedIn, but do cross-referencing on their candidates, including such social media as Facebook and Twitter. Neither of these services is specifically for professionals, and recruiters do not seek any professional information on their candidates there. However, they do search for negative information. With this, even a fine professional profile on LinkedIn may be not enough if it is coupled with a profile on Facebook or Twitter that includes controversial content.

Płaza said that today LinkedIn is a database of potential candidates that recruiters use as their first source of information. He hinted that because recruiters use keyword searches, a good LinkedIn profile should have a short and simple job title, because people with long and complex job titles never pop up at the top of the search list. “It is about keywords,” Płaza said.

He also noted that the more connections a LinkedIn profile has, the better chance for it to get noticed by recruiters, because profiles are ranked by the number of connections and that is how they get to the top of the search list.

He added that along with a good LinkedIn profile, and a controversy-free presence in other social media, it is good to be identified in Google search as an active professional. Articles about you, news that you spoke at a conference, or interviews published in different media, all boost your chances to get noticed by headhunters and beef up your professional credibility.

Manufacturing

In February the AmCham Manufacturing Committee hosted speaker Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Deputy Minister of Economy, (pictured left, with AmCham Vice Chair and Co-Chair of the Manufacturing Committee Joanna Bensz from CH2M Hill), who talked about the ministry’s priorities in developing R&D and the innovation-based economy in 2015.

Antoniszyn-Klik said that the Ministry of Economy will financially support Polish companies that seek partners in the US and other competitive markets. AmCham may play a role in helping those Polish companies find the right partners in the US. The ministry takes part in Select

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USA, a US government program to attract new investors to America, by helping Polish companies link with companies in the US. AntoniszynKlik said there is room here for the ministry and AmCham to cooperate, especially when “there will be more and more Polish companies interested in going to the US.” Last year the government amended the law governing the services that special economic zones provide to companies investing in the zones. There is now more emphasis put by the government on developing SEZ land with easy access to expressways and good road infrastructure. Thus some new SEZ land will be developed for investors along the S3, S6, S7, S8 and S17 highways. Local governments along those roads are supposed to prepare proper infrastructure for investors and help provide a valuable package of services for investors.

The government also plans to reindustrialize parts of Silesia and western areas of Małopolska province. Under this program, land owned by state companies will be offered to investors for the first time in many years. This comes as a result of recent amendments to the law, which now allows land of state-owned companies to be included in special economic zones. This was the government’s response to the shrinking space for new investors in such regions as Małopolska.

Yet, not all types of modern development projects are valued the same everywhere. When it comes to shared services centers, for example, they are not perceived as interesting in certain areas such as Silesia because they cater to only a specific group of potential employees, young people at the beginning of their professional careers. Meanwhile, in Silesia, where many coal mines are going to be closed, there is a growing need for investments that will redeploy individuals with a background in heavy industry.

The deputy minister said that big companies are not supposed to obtain any financial aid under the programs managed by province governments in the 2014–2020 financial perspective. However, they still can tap into some EU structural funds that are managed by the Ministry of Economy. Among them is Infrastructure and Environment, a program aimed at helping build sustainable energy sources. Its goal is to promote renewable energy sources, the smart grid, storage and transmission of energy, and integration of renewable sources of energy into the main grid.

Antoniszyn-Klik noted that eastern Poland is the best area where foreign direct investors may get financial aid in terms of the conditions that investors have to meet. She cautioned, however, that Poland is no longer a good place for companies interested in developing simple manufacturing facilities. Wages in Poland are too high now compared with Bulgaria and Romania, two countries in the EU which are good places for investing in non-complex manufacturing.

She said that instead, Poland needs to attract investors in more complex industries with high innovation levels, as not too many such investors chose Poland in the previous 20 years.

One added value Poland may offer to such investors is to locate in innovation clusters with hopes for synergy with other investors there.

She said the ministry is looking for more interconnections between Polish and foreign companies, especially those from the US, to engage in deeper business relations.

Antoniszyn-Klik said that for American companies there are opportunities to get involved in reforming Poland’s vocational education by making room for apprentices who want to learn the ropes as part of their school programs. All that the ministry needs to know is what types of jobs need to be staffed so reformers of the vocational education system can create curricula for the specialists that are in demand.

Marketing & Communications Different ways corporations are perceived were the topic at a meeting in February of the AmCham Marketing & Communications Committee with guest speakers Ryszard Solski, CEO of Solski Burson-Marsteller Poland, and Urszula Żurek-Kucharska and Anna Włodarczyk, senior associates in the firm’s Corporate and Financial Practice.

The speakers discussed the key findings of the 2014 CNBC/Burson-Marsteller Global Survey from Main Street to the Executive Suite, which polled the general public and business executives in 25 markets on their opinions about the roles and responsibilities of corporations in society.

The speakers described the different attitudes to corporations across different economic areas, such as developing countries, where corporations are viewed as a source of hope, and developed countries, where corporations are viewed more cynically. They also underlined the main differences in approaching the responsibilities of corporations across different corporate cultures, such as those in the US, China, Russia and Europe.

In Poland specifically, the survey revealed a general mistrust of corporations, with the sample showing much more appreciation for small businesses and self-employed professionals. It found that Poles see corporations as harmful to their national culture and having too much impact on the private life of their employees. They also see corporations as having too much influence on the government and suspect them of not being socially responsible. In turn, they perceive CEOs as individuals who focus on their own business and are not concerned with wage disproportions or irresponsible activities of their companies. To add insult to injury, Poles generally tend to suspect that corporations use illegal methods to gain influence on the government.

However, Poles generally perceive entrepreneurs and corporations as the main driving

Agenda Intelligence from AmCham Committees force in innovation, while the government is seen as inadequate and not responsible for boosting innovativeness. They also believe that the state should not hamper and disturb companies in their innovation-seeking policies.

But when it comes to salaries, Poles think that CEOs earn too much compared to the average citizen. In addition, 67% of the sample in Poland said they believe corporation exploit tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxation.

Real Estate Market trends in commercial real estate were on the agenda of the AmCham Real Estate Committee meeting in March with speakers Charles Taylor, managing partner of Cushman & Wakefield Poland, and Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik, director of the Foreign Investment Department at the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ).

Taylor talked about what investors may expect in the next 12 months in terms of opportu-

nities and threats. He said that the commercial property market has bottomed out, but it still has a long way to go before peak levels.

Taylor said that the last market peak was in 2005–2006, and that the commercial real estate market moves in 7-year cycles between boom and bust.

Poland still has the pole position in Central & Eastern Europe in attracting investment, thanks to its political stability and robust economic growth. The markets in Poland are especially of interest to investors from Germany, the US and the UK, with 45% of all the money entering Poland from those countries.

But there are new investors, mainly from Canada, China and South Korea, whose foremost interest is London and Paris but who are starting to look at Eastern Europe. “That means they are looking at Poland,” Taylor said. So, while US capital still dominates the market in the region, there is a perception that Chinese and other Asian investors will increase their exposure to commercial real estate in Poland.

AmCham Committee Guide Meanwhile, the office market will see a big jump in supply this year, with some 300,000 m2 to be delivered in Warsaw alone. This will have an effect on rents—they will stagnate—and the tenant-driven market will continue until 2017, when the situation is expected to change “because of very strong office takeup in Warsaw,” Taylor said.

Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik observed that the key elements of Poland’s attractiveness to foreign investors are changing, as the country is no longer perceived as a place with cheap labor but as an attractive domestic market for products and services with good opportunities to export to other EU countries as well as to the East.

She quoted a recent study from the European Commission finding that Poland will continue to be the fastest-growing economy in the region of Central & Eastern Europe, thanks to strong domestic consumption coupled with huge investments in infrastructure, including roads and IT, as well as the inflow of EU funds in the 2014–2020 financial perspective.

Tax & Financial Services In March, the AmCham Tax & Financial Services Committee held a tax session entitled “Your 2014 US Tax Return: More Than Just Form 1040.” The speakers were Dagmar Gessner Gaspar and David Villwock from KPMG’s US Tax Center in Frankfurt, who briefed AmCham members on US taxation and talked

about such issues as the net investment income tax, the minimum healthcare coverage requirement, filing requirements, and the effect on US taxpayers of implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Pictured: Mateusz Kobyliński and Andrzej Marczak of KPMG Poland and Dagmar Gessner Gaspar and David Villwock from KPMG’s US Tax Center in Frankfurt.

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Agri, Food & FMCG

Mission: To provide a platform for discussing and overcoming issues and identifying opportunities related to operational activity for companies in the agricultural and food sectors in Poland by creating a basis for dialogue and expertise leveraged among producers, sector professionals, experts and decision-makers in the Polish government.

Chair: Tom Sullivan, C.H. Robinson Poland.

Business Technology & Services

Mission: To provide a platform for discussing, identifying and addressing common SSC/BPO issues related to hightech operations; to maintain contact with local authorities, educational and governmental institutions to present a unified business perspective and options for cooperation. CoChairs: Jacek Stryczyński, Lionbridge; Angelo Pressello, Direct Communication.

Defense & Security

Mission: To discuss issues regarding the defense industry and exchange information, to create a networking forum for members, and to lobby and encourage decision-makers in government. Co-Chairs: Paul Zalucky, IN2KNO; Stan Prusiński, Boeing Europe.

For the most recent information about the work of AmCham Committees and upcoming events visit amcham.pl European Union Affairs

Mission: To provide a forum for member firms to share knowledge and exchange experiences in marketing, communications and PR; provide educational and networking opportunities for member firms interested in these areas; and serve as an advisory body for AmCham. CoChairs: Anya Ogorkiewicz; Ewa Suszek, Deloitte.

Health & Pharma

Real Estate

Mission: To represent the voice and opinions on various issues of the health sector, to discuss conditions, news and challenges of the sector; to provide expertise. Chair: Ernest Bartosik, Unipharm.

Digital Economy

Mission: To provide a forum for innovative companies to support the digital economy in Poland as a key driver of sustainable growth. It aims to raise awareness about the importance of balanced investments in digital infrastructure, fully exploiting digital potential, and increasing competitiveness in the global environment. Co-Chairs: Patrycja Gołos, UPC; Igor Ostrowski, Dentons.

Mission: To create an information exchange forum of HR professionals to share, discuss and learn about the latest trends in HR management and influence local policy and decision-makers. Co-Chairs: Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Poland; Agata Dulnik, Accenture.

Education

Innovation

Mission: To serve as a link between schools, businesses and the community to actively support educational excellence by keeping current on trends, policies and practices that impact education in Poland.

Co-Chairs: Terry Gamble, American School of Warsaw; Małgorzata Krasowska.

Energy & Environment

Mission: To help members develop their energy and environmental business in Poland. By helping members work collectively to overcome any systemic difficulties encountered in their business the committee aims to increase the level and quality of investment and activity in these sectors. Co-Chairs: Izabela Kielichowska, GE International; Michał Koczalski, CEC Government Relations.

Marketing & Communications

Mission: To provide a platform for discussing business-related issues coming out of the EU, including EU funds; to work with AmCham EU on mutual lobbying initiatives; and to represent member companies before the European Commission and the government of Poland. Co-Chairs: Magdalena Burnat-Mikosz, Deloitte; Jerzy Thieme.

Human Resources Management

Mission: To discuss issues regarding the complexities of the real estate market in Poland, and exchange information. To be an educational and networking forum for members and to lobby and influence legislative departments of the Polish government.

Chair: Halina Więckowska, K&L Gates.

SME & Entrepreneurship

Mission: To provide a forum for exchange of ideas/best practices to improve the performance of SMEs; to support entrepreneurship, corporate venturing and the developing start-up community; to identify, understand and promote solutions to facilitate and support the managerial and operational efforts of SMEs through education, networking and lobbying that leverage AmCham resources. Chair: Alain Bobet.

Mission: To monitor innovation initiatives within the Polish government and across industries and commercial organizations, while advocating best practice across innovation approach, discipline, creativity, dimensions, and systems for member companies and the local government and business ecosystems. Chair: Bogusława Skowronski.

Tax & Financial Services

Manufacturing

Travel & Tourism

Mission: To provide a platform for discussing issues and problems related to the manufacturing sector in Poland and to provide networking opportunities; to discuss conditions, news and challenges in the manufacturing sector across Poland; to coordinate with AmCham’s annual Manufacturers’ Forum. Co-Chairs: Joanna Bensz, CH2M Hill; Randy Stiless, 3M Poland.

Mission: To provide a platform for identifying tax and financial issues and create an educational forum to keep AmCham members informed on current and upcoming legislation. Co-Chairs: Marcin Matyka, DLA Piper Wiater; Adam Soska, GE International.

Mission: To provide a platform for discussing issues and problems related to travel, leisure and the hospitality industry and to provide networking opportunities and to discuss trends and standards in the industry that will allow members to fully benefit from AmCham. Co-Chairs: Tim Hyland, FCm Travel Express; Erwin Verhoog, Hilton Warsaw Hotel & Convention Centre.

SPRING 2015 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Cover Story AmCham Charity Drive

Photos courtesy of Wojciech Kucerow

Field of dreams

continuous help

A

mCham has never boasted about its charitable operations. It has conducted them quietly, with the two most visible points being in December of each year, when the chamber runs a major collection of gifts and in-kind donations from its members, and in July, when it holds a raffle at the 4th of July Picnic, which generates financial support for charitable causes. A roundup of what has been done each year appears in every winter issue of this magazine (lead time permitting) and an email is sent to the members. In other words, the chamber keeps a modest, lowprofile approach when it comes to communicating its good works.

In February this year, however, AmCham published the Charity Fund Report, which summarizes 19 years of the philanthropic efforts the chamber undertakes in its Charity Drive. The report talks about the history of the AmCham Charity Drive, how it started and what led to what. It gives a numerical overview of the extent of the aid provided, with a detailed tally of where the aid came from in the last five years. Lists of the most generous donors follow each year’s description.

The report is authored by AmCham’s Anita Kowalska, who has been managing AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

the AmCham Charity Drive for the last 19 years. The report is a factual account of the aid rendered. In a nutshell: nearly PLN 190,000 donated, over 1,500 cartons of goods delivered, and over 1,000 children impacted within the last 19 years. But what it falls short of doing is conveying the meaning of its help to those who needed it.

Big needs

Social welfare institutions provide for the needs of the individuals under their care.

The money comes from the local government and covers basic needs—food, housing and clothing. The cost of everything else—and it may range from extra amounts of hygienic products, food, clothing, trips and boot camps, to fixing leaking roofs and replacing dilapidated central heating—has to be covered by extra funds sourced from sponsors and donors.

“Every single złoty is more than welcome,” said Wojciech Kucerow, director of the Children’s Home in Białystok, which for 9 years has been on the AmCham Charity Drive roster. Most recently AmCham helped him renovate the baths for children (many of them have physical deficiencies and require special baths and physical exer-

cises) and paid for their winter break camp in the mountains in 2014. AmCham also equipped the home with soccer balls and handballs just before the spring season of outdoor games. Now, Kucerow aims to build a mini gymnasium for the children.

Stanisław Skowron, director of the Single Mothers’ Shelter in Słomczyn, near Grójec, another social care institution with which AmCham has been cooperating for years, is attempting to raise PLN 30,000 to replace yet another leaking roof—another phase in the general renovation of the buildings for which AmCham rendered help in previous years too. The money will cover the cost of new roofing, while the work will be provided by the shelter’s staffers and volunteers to save cost.

But while the leaking roof needs fixing, the women and children who live in the shelter do not need to worry about heating anymore. In 2011 AmCham secured financial support from EuRoPol Gaz and provided a gas installation for central heating in the shelter. “Had it not been for AmCham, which got the boiler for us, we would not have had any central heating here,” Skowron said.

Urszula Polanowska, director of the Children’s Home in Rzeszów, with 40 children

So the AmCham Charity Drive is not something that just takes place twice a year, in December and July, but real help that continues throughout the year. It only culminates in December with in-kind donations from AmCham members and friends which are then delivered to different homes on the AmCham roster around Christmas. According to AmCham’s Anita Kowalska, “Those institutions have different financial needs.

So we help cover different costs, such as trips and camps for children, fuel for heating, and other things, such as furniture or specialized equipment, depending on what they ask for currently and how much money we have at our disposal.”

Kowalska pointed out that the help is not a cash giveaway. “We don’t pay cash or make money transfers to their bank accounts,” she explained. “We always agree on what we pay for and get invoices for it from the service providers. For instance, if we agree with a children’s home that we will pay for a twoweek stay for 10 children in the mountains, we get the invoice from where they stayed and pay it. This way we know what we pay for and we know it is needed.”

Kowalska explained that a huge part in making a decision with a children’s home on the exact type of help it receives is that she always makes sure that as many children as possible will benefit from the donation. “We pay for things that relate to or affect all children in a given home, not a selected group.”

member involvement

The continuous and diversified help through the AmCham Charity Drive would not be possible without AmCham’s members. Some of them, especially American corporations which understand the meaning of corporate social responsibility better than most, did not need to be persuaded to get engaged. Companies such as ColgatePalmolive Poland, Procter & Gamble, Panattoni Europe and Boeing have been longterm contributors.

Smaller companies have also played significant roles. One of them is X-press Couriers, which for many years has been supporting the AmCham Charity Drive by providing distribution and collecting gifts among its employees and clients. The reason the company got involved was the personal experience of the company’s president, Adam Tomczak. “We decided to get involved because my family had emigrated to the US in 1981,” he explained. “As refugees there, my parents and I received a

Photo courtesy of Anita Kowalska

The AmCham Charity Drive helps underprivileged children and single mothers lead more fulfilling lives

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(in April the youngest was 2 weeks old and the oldest was 20 years old), many of them with psychological problems and intellectual deficiencies, has a different problem.

“We constantly ask for hygienic products,” she said. “It is a large home, and we use a lot of cleaning and washing chemicals. AmCham keeps sending us those things. We receive packages, containers of things, thanks to which we are never short of those things that we need.”

For Joanna Skimina, director of the Children’s Home in Bochnia, the aid her institution receives from AmCham means that her charges can go to summer holiday camps, and receive personalized gifts for Christmas and in-kind donations. “Covering the cost of summer holidays is a big expenditure for us,” said Skimina. “There are 28 children, and even if sometimes some of them spend summer holidays with their families, there are still many for whom we need to find money to send them away. It is always a difficult problem to find the money. And AmCham always helps to cover those costs.”

AmCham's Dorota Dabrowski, Marzena Drela and Anita Kowalska (who took the picture) visit the Children's Home in Białystok in December 2014

lot of help from other people. Now my company and I give back. Although it is not the same kind of help as my family received, I thought it was a good way to give back and I inspired others in the company.”

And beyond the company too. In the mid2000s Tomczak inspired his sister, a teacher working near New York, to join in.

“Through her efforts, the entire school district she taught in contributed to the Charity Drive through in-kind and financial donations,” Tomczak said. “We sent the money to the Charity Drive. We also sent a container with goods back to Poland and covered the cost of shipping.”

Another company that got involved in the AmCham Charity Drive in an extra-special way was LeasePlan Fleet Management Polska. Four years ago, the company volunteered to receive “Letters to Santa” written by the children of one children’s home (it turned out to be the Bochnia one), and distribute the letters to its workers, who would then each decide what individual wishes to fulfill. As Joanna Pietrzak, HR director at LeasePlan, explained, “We read those letters, our employees buy those things that the senders ask for, and we pack them individually for each recipient and send them via courier to Bochnia. We do it because we know that it is about making somebody’s dreams come true.”

Pietrzak has noticed how the wishes to Santa have evolved over the years. “At the beginning, children were asking for simple things,” she said, “such as cosmetics or bedsheets. As they grew up they now ask about mobile phones, brand-name shoes or iPads.” She added that there will come a time when there will have to be a price limit imposed on what LeasePlan people can buy.

Another company that has been supporting the AmCham Charity Drive for years, Boeing, did an extra thing. As part of Boeing’s Global Month of Service, the company hired a bus and took the children for a daylong trip to Warsaw, where they visited the Copernicus Science Center and the Old Town, and had a look at the airplane technical service area at Warsaw Chopin Airport, where, among others, they saw 787 Dreamliner airplanes that belong to LOT Polish Airlines. For all the children it was an unforgettable trip, and for some it may have been inspirational too.

Małgorzata Całka of Boeing admits that the AmCham Charity Drive was an inspiration for Boeing to extend its help: “We, at Boeing, are committed to support the communities around the world in which we work. A part of Boeing's Corporate Citizenship program is volunteering, which enables employees to spend time helping local organizations like the Children's Home in Bialystok.”

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Cover Story

Anita Kowalska (far right) visits the Single Mothers’ Shelter in Słomczyn

whom to help?

the case of the Single Mothers’ Shelter in Słomczyn. As Stanisław Skowron said, “It is a poor region, and there are more hands outstretched for help than helping hands.”

He said that AmCham is the only business organization that for years has been delivering constant aid. “I can speak only in high terms about what AmCham has done for us. The aid has been really significant.”

Joanna Skimina from Bochnia said that AmCham is the only company providing steady aid for the children’s home she heads: “There is also one company that do-

Photo courtesy of AmCham

According to Anita Kowalska, the choice of institutions AmCham renders help to is no accident. “From the very beginning we were looking at institutions away from Warsaw, where reliable help abounds,” she explained. “We started 19 years ago with a children’s home in Otwock, southeast of Warsaw, and we expanded our reach to southeastern and eastern Poland, relatively poor areas with not much entrepreneurship and business there.”

This choice could not have been better in

Processing Charity Drive in-kind donations at the AmCham office

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

nates PLN 1,000 each year to cover the cost of our Christmas Eve party, and that’s it.

Sometimes there are companies who are with us for a year or two, but then they change their strategy and disappear.”

Urszula Polanowska from Rzeszów has similar problems. Along with AmCham, there is only one company, Provident Polska, which has been supporting the children’s home for years by covering the cost of the children’s summer holidays.

Only Wojciech Kucerow does not complain. Along with AmCham and Boeing, his children’s home gets regular donations from a number of local businesses. This is why, along with equipping it with worldclass hydro massage gear and an arts workshop, his institution supports a scholarship—PLN 400 plus dormitory accommodation costs—for one of the former pupils who undertook linguistic studies in Gdańsk. “She speaks three foreign languages and is studying a fourth,” Kucerow explained. “That’s why we are helping her.”

he explained. “And they delivered it. Now they don’t call us. They get involved in more spectacular projects.”

Polanowska similarly observed that many companies approach her institution with little to offer, but with huge expectations when it comes to public relations. “In most cases, I have to refuse.”

Reduced responsibility

According to a report on CSR in Poland, entitled Co-Responsible Business 1989–2014: The Evolution of Responsibility in Polish Companies and Why All Stakeholders Have to Review Their Approach to Responsibility, compiled by ThinkTank magazine, affiliated with Polish Confederation Lewiatan, Polish society is characterized by “reduced responsibility.” This results in people’s disin-

rience and mobilized and inspired them to go further and be even more effective. The examples of Boeing, LeasePlan and X-press Couriers, and perhaps many more, show that the AmCham Charity Drive can influence individuals so they do feel personally responsible.

The Charity Drive has made an impact on those who received the aid. Everyone American Investor talked to stressed not only the professionalism of the AmCham people with whom they work, but also their tact and sensitivity. “I am a director but also a beggar,” explained Wojciech Kucerow.

“The things that we are dealing with every day are children and poverty. So it is really good to talk to AmCham people to get a different perspective.”

less money around

Yet all the directors that American Investor talked to underlined that in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain financial aid for their institutions. One reason for that, said Urszula Polanowska from Rzeszów, could have been a change in regulations governing the financing of social care institutions, such as foster homes and children’s homes, introduced some two years ago. Before that, each institution could have a bank account to which donors could transfer money. After the change, those who want to give cash donations to the institution of their choice have to pay it into a municipal bank account from which the money is then transferred to the institution indicated in the original money transfer. This discourages potential donors, because many of them do not want to give money to the local government but to the children’s home of their choice. And even if the money eventually reaches the home, it is accounted for as part of the municipal budget, not as extra money earmarked for the institution of their choice.

Another problem is the global economic crisis, which seems to have caused many companies to cut their budgets for corporate social responsibility. As Wojciech Kucerow observed, “Years back there were more companies around with more money.

Today, there are fewer of them, and there is less money too.”

Stanisław Skowron from Słomczyn noted that in the past companies were more willing to help because they approached social responsibility instinctively. “Ten years ago companies were calling us if they had a surplus of something, asking if we needed it,”

Photo courtesy of Wojciech Kucerow

Photo courtesy of AmCham

AmCham Charity Drive

Children from the Children's Home in Białystok spend their 2015 winter holiday in the mountains, a stay co-financed by AmCham (see also pictures on page 14) clination to get engaged in matters other than their own. This stalls social and economic development, ThinkTank editor-inchief Paweł Rabiej wrote in the preface to the report.

“The effects of this are devastating,” Rabiej wrote. “An extremely low level of feeling that one is responsible for the common life, the city, the country, and the planet, leads to social bankruptcy.”

Rabiej also wrote that according to ThinkTank experts, Polish and foreign companies should share their experience in CSR to inspire one another. They also should expand their CSR policies and build larger coalitions to make a real impact and inspire an “individual, personal sense of responsibility.”

In this light, one could say that for over 19 years, the AmCham Charity Drive has been doing just that. By creating a broader coalition of socially responsible companies, AmCham has shared knowledge and expe-

evolving csR

With its low-profile and result-driven approach, the AmCham Charity Drive is strong testimony to good American CSR, the foundations of which were laid more than 100 years ago with such publications as The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie (the first Polish edition appeared in 2012). And if Prof. Wojciech Władysław Gasparski, a specialist on ethics and economy, is right, as quoted in the ThinkTank report, the Charity Drive, because of the concept and philosophy it represents, will become even more needed in the future than it has been in the past. This is because following a phase of learning what CSR is, and a phase of embracing the new concept with enthusiasm in charitable ways in the late 1990s, Polish companies changed their approach to CSR and now see it mainly as a form of marketing, with an emphasis on self-promotion and good public relations.

This is the true “reduced responsibility” Rabiej wrote about: responsibility for the company’s own wellbeing.

This is what is happening now in Poland, according to Gasparski. He calls this phase “the age of glory,” as it is characterized by companies boasting about their “internal codes of ethics, reports on CSR, CSR programs, and the activities of corporate foundations.”

So the CSR concept continues to evolve in a way that puts more and more emphasis on self-interest. Today, the ThinkTank report notes, companies look for new ways to build their CSR strategies, focusing on their customers and suppliers.

Giving confidence

Meanwhile the AmCham Charity Drive has on its radar, among others, disadvantaged children in orphanages, single mothers who often battle more than one abuse problem, or children with psychological and intellectual deficiencies.

According to Urszula Polanowska, the proportion of children with psychological and intellectual deficiencies is slowly growing across the system of state-run children’s homes in Poland. The cause is the growth of the foster family system, where private families take in children and get state subsidies in return. Naturally, foster parents pick children who are healthy and the least problematic to take care of.

“There are many children who cannot find foster parents,” Polanowska said. “There are children who are too difficult to be taken care of by foster parents. So we have to take care of them.”

But Polanowska is positive that she and her team in Rzeszów will manage. She knows that AmCham is a trusted partner in a long-term relationship. It gives her confidence in her ability to take care of other things. She has just filed an application with a regional development fund that utilizes EU structural funds, seeking money to build a multipurpose sporting ground so her charges will no longer “bruise their ankles and knees playing on a strip of asphalt,” she said.

“The playing ground is my dream. I’m sure I’ll make it come true.”

Tom Ćwiok

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Monthly Meeting January

February

In search of the golden mean

Strategic thinking There are many ways the US is vital in shaping Poland’s global outlook

The system of primary and secondary education in Poland is hard to reform, but the business community can help

T

he erratic state of the Polish education system on the primary and secondary levels was on the agenda of the AmCham Monthly Meeting in January with guest speaker Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Minister of Education.

Comparing education in Poland and the US, Minister Kluzik-Rostkowska said that while the Polish system delivers well when it comes to providing a desirable level of education to the average student, it lags behind the US system in its ability to siphon out high-potential students and provide them with the kind of education that will let their talents grow to reach new heights.

With this inability, the minister said, the Polish system breeds mediocrity and complacency.

One reason is that school principals find it nearly impossible to retain ambitious young teachers who recognize the need for change. They are constrained in their HR policies by the Teachers Charter, a 1982 act that establishes the foundations for the teaching profession.

Under the Teachers Charter, teachers are entitled to certain rights, and the longer they work in the profession the more rights they get. “It is almost impossible for principals to fire old teachers who refuse to change their ways to meet the demands of the modern day,” said the minister. “All because of the charter.”

Kluzik-Rostkowska said that the charter gives teachers rights such as more than 50 days off per school year. Full-time employment, as defined in the charter, requires only 17 in-class hours of work per week, as compared to 31 in the US. Because of that, in general, older teachers are disinclined to take on more hours, and in some cases they do not show up for work even when they are supposed to, during the summer holidays for instance.

It is true that Polish teachers have to boost their competencies to attain the status of “senior teacher,” but once they do they are under no obligation to continue to adjust to the changing needs of the education system. For a junior teacher, it takes 9 years to obtain “senior teacher” status, but after that, as the minister put it, “they can

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work for the next 30 years without changing a thing about how they teach.”

The population decline makes things even worse for system reformers, as with the declining numbers of students in primary education, more and more young and ambitious teachers are fired because schools have to downsize their staff and senior teachers are impossible to fire. In fact, they block the inflow of fresh blood to the system and make it increasingly expensive to run.

Kluzik-Rostkowska noted that the cost of the system has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. While in 2004 it cost the government PLN 19 billion, by 2014 the annual cost had risen to PLN 40 billion. In the same time the number of students in the system dropped by 1 million and the number of teachers dropped by 35,000.

Today Poland has 39,000 primary and secondary schools, employing 600,000 teachers.

Vocational training The minister said that while some small improvements in the system have been made, such as the introduction of final exams for sixth-graders, any major reforms will only be possible after the Teachers Charter is amended.

Nevertheless, she said it is her ambition to oversee the recovery of the vocational education system in Poland, which has been nearly dismantled. The problem is that many schools offer vocational training in professions that are no longer in demand— only because they still have teachers who can teach those professions.

Schools are also in need of professionals to teach career planning, but they are discouraged from cooperating with the schools as principals often object to their lack of formal pedagogical training. But sooner or later vocational schools will have to open up to cooperation with the private sector, the minister said.

Another problem is that to learn vocational skills, students should undergo internships with companies operating in the industry they are studying. Polish businesses will not cooperate in this area, argu-

ing that they have no budget to make work for students.

This is supposed to change in 2014– 2015, the minister said, as with solid financing from the EU the ministry will be able to pay companies to create internship positions for students. new ideas During Q&A, the minister said she is open to suggestions from the business community, especially when it comes to vocational training. The business community is more than welcome to help the ministry draw up the curriculum, she said.

Commenting on some of the ideas mentioned by AmCham members in the audience, such as Design Thinking, a new method of teaching soft skills through group activities developed at Stanford University, Kluzik-Rostkowska said that while she may be an enthusiast of this approach, and even willing to create a pilot program to implement the concept, she doubted that Design Thinking could be implemented across the entire system—again because of the Teachers Charter.

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MEET THE SPEAKER

Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Minister of Education, has extensive experience in politics, beginning in 2005 when she was appointed as assistant to the Mayor of Warsaw for women and family issues. She then served as Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy, responsible for gender equality issues, and subsequently as Minister of Labor and Social Policy. She became Minister of Education in November 2013. She also heads the Polish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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he AmCham Monthly Meeting in February, with guest speakers Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Marcin Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, was devoted to some of the most critical issues in Poland’s international policy, including cooperation with the US, Polish support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Poland and the us Presenting the agenda of US-Polish cooperation, Deputy Minister Kacperczyk referred to the most recent visit to Washington by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grzegorz Schetyna. She said Schetyna’s agenda covered security issues, including the Middle East region, in particular terrorism threats from the “Islamic State,” but also the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the destabilization of Ukraine.

Apart from that, Schetyna held talks on US-Polish economic cooperation. Kacperczyk noted that economic cooperation with the US is becoming particularly intense, as Poland and the US have signed a letter of intent to create the US-Poland Innovation Council, a body which will be responsible for matching US and Polish companies, “in particular projects for which some financial assistance will be provided over the next 7 years, probably with other EU partners.”

Kacperczyk added that the US is “a natural partner for cooperation in projects of this kind. IT, medical and industrial companies are interested in it.”

TTiP Speaking of TTIP, which is currently being negotiated between the US and the EU, Kacperczyk said that it is not a simple or classic trade agreement, but a major project that attempts to set new standards for global trade. This is why certain aspects of the negotiations, such as confidentiality, have to be revisited. “There is a lot of mistrust because of the secrecy of those negotiations,” she explained. She said this is a vital issue, because before TTIP can become reality it has to be ratified by all the EU member states. “If we

want to get public acceptance of the agreement in Europe, we need more open negotiations.”

She added that Poland is an active participant in drawing up the EU agenda for the negotiations, especially when it comes to the energy chapter.

Marcin Zaborowski pointed out that in general, if TTIP brings the US focus back to Europe, that is something that is good for Poland, especially in light of the current situation on the Russia-Ukraine front. In economic terms, TTIP is good, Zaborowski said, “not just because of big, strategic thinking, but because it will benefit jobs growth and other vital economic areas.”

Zaborowski noted, however, that despite the obvious benefits TTIP may bring, the business community needs to do more to share with the public a positive message about the EU-US free-trade agreement, because there are adversaries of TTIP who are making a lot of noise—not because TTIP is bad for Poland but because it is bad for Russia.

Zaborowski also said that where energy is concerned, TTIP gives the EU a chance to receive liquefied natural gas from the US. With an open channel for supply of LNG from the US to different EU countries, the whole energy situation in the EU will change so that countries now reliant on energy supplies from Russia, such as Hungary, will be able to shed their economic dependency on Russia.

“The larger the US involvement in the energy sector in Europe is, the better it is for Europe,” Zaborowski said. “I think that there will be very few democratically minded Europeans who would question that.”

Russia and ukraine Talking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Zaborowski said that while the large Russian-speaking populations in the regions of Donbas and Luhansk may be seeking autonomy for historical and other reasons, the process needs to occur “within the existing rules of international law.”

Zaborowski said it is possible that Ukraine is not all that Russia would like to get. He mentioned that big Russian-speaking popu-

lations exist in the Baltic States, and it is not excluded that Russia may try to use them to destabilize NATO. “There may be a group of concerned Russian-speaking citizens who may try to take to arms to protect some values they believe in,” he explained. If this happens, according to Zaborowski, different NATO countries may have different opinions whether or not such a move is in fact a declaration of war on a NATO member state.

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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, has an extensive career at the ministry. In 2005– 2009 she was a member of Poland’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and was appointed head of the ministry’s Department of Economic Cooperation. As part of the European Commission’s intern programs, she worked at the Center for Energy and Public Policy at Columbia University. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, Kacperczyk has also participated in programs at the Warsaw School of Economics, the Instituts d’Études Politiques in France, Columbia University, and Saarland University in Germany.

Marcin Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, specializes in US affairs, European security and defense policies, and the enlargement of the European Union. He earned his PhD at the University of Birmingham, where he also lectured on international affairs and European integration. Zaborowski studied at the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris and acted as transatlantic program director there in 2004–2009.

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Monthly Meeting March

April

Blowing in the wind

No change may lead to change?

Turbulent politics and a lack of visionary leadership may harm economic growth

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n March, AmCham members and friends met to discuss the state of the Polish economy, including threats to its relatively steady growth. The speakers were economist Ryszard Petru and journalist Bartosz Węglarczyk.

Looking at the world today from a purely economic perspective, the discussion took an optimistic turn, with Ryszard Petru remarking on the robust growth of the US economy, and significant growth momentum for the EU as well, including Poland.

Petru noted that in light of the most recent economic data, Poland’s growth is strong at around 3% per year. Growth is driven by internal demand, but investments from the private sector, which have increased in recent months, play a significant part in building consumer confidence. With the continuous inflow of EU funds in the 2014–2020 financial perspective, it seems that the Polish economy is poised for growth in 2015 and beyond.

And even if the economy shows some deflationary trends, Poles do not fear deflation and will outlast it. Even the parliamentary election, scheduled for fall this year, should not pose any specific threats to continued economic growth, Petru said.

Russian dilemmas Both speakers agreed, however, that while the Polish economy seems confident, the external political situation and the lack of strong political leadership in the EU pose certain threats.

Petru observed that in economic terms, the Ukraine-Russia war and EU import bans Russia has introduced on a range of products made in Poland do not do too much harm to the Polish economy. First, this is because the sanctions concern only food products. Second, if Russia extends the sanctions to different ranges of products, it will affect only a small part of Poland’s exports. “Poland sells 80% of its exports to EU countries,” Petru explained.

“If Russia introduced more bans on Polish products, the exporters will adjust and find other export markets.”

But Bartosz Węglarczyk noted that if the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalates, “things may go beyond the economic”—meaning that the economic rationale will no longer apply in predicting political developments.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin may already have stopped thinking in economic terms, Węglarczyk said. Based on his long experience as a correspondent in Moscow, Węglarczyk warned that Russian politics are always unpredictable: “Anything can happen.”

This is particularly problematic given that it is not clear who Putin’s advisors are and what their political goals are. What is clear is that Putin governs Russia not through democratic mechanisms, but as if he were a tsar—and the West cannot be sure of anything.

Poor political leadership Węglarczyk and Petru expressed strong criticism of European and Polish political leaders, who they said do not have a clear vision of how to deal with current problems to safeguard further economic development for the EU. For Węglarczyk, the EU-Greece negotiations over Greece’s debt reveal the weakness of the EU’s political leadership.

“When it was announced that the negotiations would be postponed for four months, it was hailed as a success, which it was not,” Węglarczyk said. “But four months is how far into the future the EU politicians can see.”

Petru observed that there is a similar situation in Poland, with the government trying to focus on random problems that pop up along the way, but it lacks a strategic focus such as long-term energy policy or economic growth. “I don’t know what strategy in the energy sector Poland is going to have 20 years from now,” Petru said. “It is important to know if Poland wants to import energy or rather have cheap energy sources at home. Those are two different approaches.”

Petru noted that another dangerous problem in Poland is posed by the “middle-income trap.” He explained that as more and more Poles actually achieve a middle-income level, and feel happy where they are income-wise, politicians do not try to talk about the need to develop the Polish economy further so that it is more innovative and delivers more value. “What the government does is a patchwork of decisions that are not always connected, but in the end the government calls it a strategy just to pretend there is one,” Petru said. He added that this is dangerous approach in the long run. Instead, the government should work towards making the economy grow faster, with new investments coming into the country, to utilize a huge workforce which so far is idle. “Poland has 1 million people

who live in rural areas and who are not utilized for the economy right now,” Petru said. “They should be put to work and pay social security.”

Because of this lack of long-term political vision for economic development, Węglarczyk said it may happen that come the fall parliamentary election, there may be more people in the next government who are opposed to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership which is currently being negotiated between the US and the EU. So far, Poland has been a strong proponent of TTIP. But the new Parliament may be much less enthusiastic about TTIP and may even reject it—especially if Greece does, which Węglarczyk said is nearly certain.

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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Ryszard Petru is president of the Association of Polish Economists. Petru was economic advisor to Leszek Balcerowicz, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in 1997–2000. He worked for the World Bank, with his responsibilities covering Poland and Hungary.

He has also served as a board member of many companies in Poland and chief economist for several major banks.

Bartosz Węglarczyk is deputy editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita, one of the largest Polish dailies. His career in journalism started in 1989 at Gazeta Wyborcza, and in the 1990s he was its correspondent in Moscow, Brussels, and Washington. Węglarczyk has his own television show on TVN, one of the largest stations in Poland.

MEET THE SPEAKERS

The real aim of Poland’s presidential campaign in the spring is to shift the balance of power in the fall parliamentary election

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ith Poland’s presidential campaign in full swing, AmCham members met in April to discuss the presidential election, its economic aspects, and how its impact may carry over to another election—to the Parliament in the fall. The speakers were Marek Matraszek of CEC Government Relations, Wawrzyniec Smoczyński of Polityka Insight, and Prof.

Witold Orłowski, economic advisor to PwC. limited power Explaining the intricacies of the Polish Constitution, Marek Matraszek said that presidential elections are not significant in terms of policy development. Even though the Constitution requires direct election of the president, it gives the head of state limited executive powers.

Matraszek observed that in the opinion polls, the clear frontrunner is the incumbent President Bronisław Komorowski. “The last time an incumbent president faced a challenge from outside was in 2000, and the incumbent won,” Matraszek recalled. “Komorowski has been president for five years, and that gives him substantial advantages in terms of his position, his track record and his ability to mobilize significant financing from his party.”

Matraszek noted that although there are 11 candidates on the ballot, Komorowski has only one serious competitor: Andrzej Duda, the candidate of the opposition party Law & Justice (PiS). Because it is unlikely that Komorowski will win in the first round on May 10, as most polls indicate, the campaign will gain a dramatic swing before the runoff on May 24. Matraszek predicted that as before in such cases, there will be sharp polarization of the votes, and although ultimately Duda is likely to lose, he will gain a significant level of support. “A 45% vote loses you a presidential race,” as Matraszek explained, “but a 45% level of support in the parliamentary campaign is quite a different matter.” He said that if Duda loses but PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński names Duda as the PiS candidate for prime minister in this fall’s parliamentary election, Duda could convert that support from a losing presidential effort into a winning parliamentary effort.

a question of momentum For Wawrzyniec Smoczyński, it is not necessary that the levels of support in the presidential election should translate into levels of support for political parties in the parliamentary elections, but the link will be “the momentum after the second round.”

Smoczyński said it is hard to predict how strong Komorowski will emerge after the presidential election. “If he wins in the first round, he will be very independent in his last term in office,” Smoczyński explained. The Polish Constitution provides that it is the president who names the next prime minister and invites him or her to form a new government. The president is free to choose as he wishes, and does not have to pick the leader of the party that came in first in the parliamentary election. Komorowski has already said that he does not feel obliged to choose the leader of the winning party. If PiS wins but Komorowski instead invites Civic Platform (PO) to form another government, it could spell political crisis. collaboration or cohabitation?

According to Witold Orłowski, poor collaboration between the president and the government may be bad news for the economy.

When the president and the government are from the same political party, he said, the resulting political stability has a positive effect on the economy. Not so with cohabitation.

“With wars between them,” he said, “the economy is the ultimate victim. We have seen it in the past, when the president vetoed parliamentary bills that are critical for economic development and the business environment.”

Orłowski also noted that because presidential campaigns are ideologically charged, anti-EU forces may use the issue of Poland’s adoption of the euro to seek support among conservative electorates. This may have a negative impact on the actual process of adoption of the euro by Poland, something the country pledged to do in the EU accession treaty.

But in fact, Poland may adopt the euro rather sooner than later. According to Orłowski, “The economy is in pretty decent shape, and Poland may fulfill the Maastricht treaty criteria for euro adoption this year.”

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Marek Matraszek is the head of CEC Government Relations. He is a philosophy, politics and economics graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he earned a master’s degree in Russian and East European studies.

He was a freelance political consultant in Poland and worked with the British Conservative Party and the US Republican Party in their activities in Central Europe. In 1992 he was appointed to represent the Margaret Thatcher Foundation in the region, and today represents Conservatives Abroad in Poland. Marek has also written widely on Polish and international affairs in English-language publications and has published a study of the Polish political scene, The Politics of Restoration.

Witold M. Orłowski is a professor of economics, working mainly on the economics of transition and European integration. He is the founder of the Independent Center for Economic Studies, one of Poland’s leading economic think-tanks, and dean of the business school at the Warsaw University of Technology. He is chief economic advisor to PwC Polska, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Council, deputy chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum in Warsaw, and Special Advisor to the European Commission. He served as economic advisor to former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and a member of the National Development Council of the late President Lech Kaczyński.

Wawrzyniec Smoczyński is the founder and director of Polityka Insight, a daily information service in English and Polish. A journalist and foreign editor at the weekly Polityka, he won the Kwiatkowski Award for economic writing (2010), the Polish Grand Press Award (2011), and the Woyciechowski Prize for outstanding journalism (2012). Open Society Fellow (2008), Marshall Memorial Fellow (2009), Munich Young Leader (2010), and IMF Journalism Fellow (2011). An Egyptology graduate of the University of Warsaw, he also studied linguistics and Coptology at the University of Göttingen, Germany.

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21

Focus New Chairman Interview

The spirit of optimism American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Tony Housh, the new AmCham Chairman, about how he views his new role and how the chamber may evolve over time to create new business opportunities for its member companies

How would you describe the specifics of being the chairman?

The role of the chairman is to be more of a face for the organization, to speak about the issues that are important to our members, to the Polish economy. It is also about trying to help provide some guidance to the organization in conjunction with all the members of MEET THE NEW CHAIRMAN

Tony Housh is a senior counselor for the global strategic advisory firm APCO Worldwide and principal of the Warsaw-based advisory firm CGC Advisors. He has 20 years of experience in Poland and Central Europe focused on regulatory, investment, European Union and Transatlantic affairs.

His experience includes privatizations and M&A as a member of the board of directors of the NASDAQ- and WSE-listed CEDC and strategic advisory and risk management roles in the energy, pharmaceutical, security, financial services and technology fields. His previous roles include serving as the director of AmCham, Country Officer for Poland at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance, and analyst roles in London and Brussels.

Tony is a consultant to the World Bank in the innovation field and is a member of the US-Poland Innovation Council, founded in Los Angeles in November 2014. He speaks and writes as an expert on behalf of the Geopolitical Information Service in Liechtenstein and the Presidential Forum on Public Debate in Poland.

He has received his MA in European integration (cum laude) from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and previously received his BA in history and political science with a concentration on Soviet & East European Studies at the University of Kansas. Tony was a visiting student in Soviet studies at the University of Essex and is an alumnus of the Salzburg Seminar.

In November 2014 he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski.

In his free time Tony supports two soccer teams that his sons play in. This includes playing the roles of driver, cameraman, mentor, and occasionally paramedic.

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

Photo by Jacek Dominski

what made you volunteer to serve as amcham chairman?

I’ve been involved in the chamber since 1996, following in the active and engaged leadership of Mac Raczkiewicz, Roman Rewald and Joseph Wancer. With the chairmanship position vacant, I put myself forward, as did other candidates, and was pleased and honored to be elected by my fellow board members.

the board. But it also comes down to the fact that somebody has to do it: We need a chairman, and I’m fortunate to have a good board for it. what are the top issues that amcham has on its agenda as a lobbying organization and a partner to government ministries and agencies that deal with business?

With reasonably strong growth in Poland’s gross domestic product for the last few years and the outlook fairly good, we are in a fortunate position to talk about the benefits of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the EU and the US. We are also fortunate to be able to talk about what type of education we need so our workforce continues to be first-class and attractive to investors. Furthermore, we can talk about the importance of innovation, and we can talk about the issues of AmCham’s participation in the US-Poland Innovation Council, part of the two countries’ agreement to boost cooperation between American and Polish innovative companies, called PLUS-IP. So we are involved in a wide range of issues, which have shifted from mechani-

cal, regulatory and legal aspects in the past to long-term growth and development and the investment attractiveness of Poland. when it comes to delivering service to member companies, what are the main challenges today?

It is about bringing our activities closer to our members. Our member companies have a presence not just in Warsaw. They have offices, factories and service centers all over the country. It is important to me and to the board this year and the next that we try to increase the amount of our outreach and activity in the Gdańsk office, Kraków-Katowice and Wrocław, so we bring our activities closer to the members and they are more involved. We have had a quite active program in the regions, and we want to build on that and make those events more frequent and deliver more value. I plan to participate in regional events more often to make sure people understand how important our contacts and our delivery of services are.

In addition, we continually need to expose ourselves to companies that are not members or may feel that the chamber’s activities are too far away from them to benefit from, so we continue to work on outreach and how we talk to people. The value proposition we offer is strong. Companies look at the value proposition, and it is up to us to make companies understand what the value proposition is, what they can get for their membership and how to utilize it fully. what do you think are the values that amcham brings to the governmentbusiness dialogue in Poland?

One of AmCham’s core values is the “Yes we can” attitude rather than “No we can’t” in solving problems and finding ways to grow. It is about dialogue and open communication. Government works best and the civil society works best when you have some version of the classic American town-hall meeting, which is an open exchange of dialogue and opinions where you can share your concerns and have a say in the decisionmaking process. You can have your say in discussing the pros and cons of ideas for generating business and new jobs, and generally helping the economy grow.

In addition, AmCham has the spirit of optimism that things can be done, and cooperation and open dialogue are the way forward.

This is where we will be going forward and discussing TTIP, intellectual property issues, and labor force needs. Nobody accomplishes very much for very long if they work in isolation and are too secretive. This is an important role for the chamber in the medium- and longer-term future. I understand that, and everyone on the board understands that. Business and capital, especially large job-generating sectors, require, for investment to happen, a little bit of sta-

bility, a vision and idea for how this market can go forward and how it is going to look, not this year and next year but 5–10 years from now. This is where a longer-term vision comes in to shape fundamental policies of job creation and economic growth, so investors invest and reinvest and don’t worry about short-term changes and shocks.

AmCham has its voice and concerns.

Most things that we champion or recommend are usually echoed by our collaborative partners—Polish business organizations, such as Lewiatan, the Business Center Club, the Polish Business Roundtable, and the Polish Chamber of Commerce. We have many levels of cooperation and common goals in many things.

Poland is part of the european union, and a lot of eu policymaking affects the business environment in Poland. How does Brussels factor into amcham’s advocacy?

As AmCham we need to think of the issues that concern our companies, how they want to grow, and how they are going to develop their own investments further and attract new companies to the chamber. We don’t live in isolation in Poland, so we are aware what the issues are and the key drivers at the European Union level, as well as the comparative advantages for Poland and the areas where it may not be as attractive as we would like. Since so much reform and development has taken place in the last 25 years, now we have to decide what’s going on in our markets, government policies, and legislation.

But we also need to be looking over the horizon and seeing what they are talking about in Brussels and what steps they are taking, in, say, the Czech Republic, so they suddenly become more attractive in a certain market than other EU member states. It is important that we as an organization have not just boots on the ground but a helicopter view so we see where there are opportunities and threats and we see what trends are developing so we can send the best message to our partners in government.

ple. This is one thing we want to communicate better to potential members now that there are multiple levels to engage with AmCham through their membership.

This year amcham is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Poland. what is the significance of that round number for the organization?

2015 is an interesting year because we have a number of occasions, as we did last year, to communicate to current members and future members that the organization has grown and matured and has plans to keep going on and growing.

The chamber has been around for 25 years, and that is a milestone. AmCham and a free, democratic Poland are kind of the same age. We have grown along with defining moments in Polish history. That is what makes the AmCham 25th anniversary in Poland special. The free market in Poland

and our organization have grown up together, and American companies have been a part of the Polish economic success. what would you consider a personal success as amcham leader in 2015– 2016?

I would consider it a personal success if we see an increase in corporate members and if we can expand our footprint in terms of reference points for transatlantic issues and investment attractiveness. We are on a good track for doing both. Everything else is going to flow from those two things. If we have more members, we have a bigger footprint. With new members we have an improved budget and the opportunity to deliver more services to the members. Then we can fulfill our other roles in expanding our presence on these key issues.

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what would you tell us companies so they’d consider joining?

It is important to be a member of the chamber in terms of good corporate citizenship, supporting the American business community abroad and in this marketplace. This is a baseline responsibility of American business.

The second is to take advantage of membership. It is not just about coming to the monthly meeting, but there is a lot of knowledge transfer and a lot of business contacts generated through our committees, task forces and working groups. AmCham has a lot to offer not just for general managers but also for other specialists, such as finance people, HR managers, and regulatory peo-

SPRING 2015 AMERICAN INVESTOR

23

Focus Smart and competitive cities

Global experience, local ambitions

By Joanna Bensz

Project management consultants can help Poland redevelop smart cities

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he current European Union budgetary perspective for 2014–2020 provides Poland with multiple opportunities for urban regeneration and revitalization projects with the view to increase the competitiveness of its cities.

While the previous EU financing period of 2007–2013 earmarked up to PLN 5 billion for city regeneration, the current period will offer five times that much for this purpose. According to Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and Minister of Infrastructure and Development Maria Wasiak, Poland will spend PLN 25 billion on renewal projects.

Out of that, PLN 15 billion will come from regional programs, PLN 7 billion from national funds, and the remaining PLN 3 billion from the Polish state budget. a chance to improve a lot The guidelines for a new Urban Renewal Act adopted by the Council of Ministers on March 24, 2015, include holistic solutions for revitalizing rundown areas with inadequate infrastructure and public areas, and otherwise posing challenges to the communities that live in those areas.

In most cases, these are city centers, old districts, postindustrial areas, former rail connection sites (e.g. stations and sidings), disused port facilities and old military and defense infrastructure. Such places often negatively impact their communities, contributing to such problems as unemployment, poverty, high crime rates, education problems, lack of participation in public and cultural life, environmental degradation, poor urban transit and a lack of public spaces.

Revitalization doesn’t mean just the reconstruction and adaptation of buildings, but above all it is focused on solving social problems, raising housing standards, improving public spaces, and increasing the economic attractiveness of the area in question. An integrated regeneration process should be conducted through dialogue with the local community and all stakeholders to ensure maximized positive effects. driving at a competitive city When it comes to defining a competitive city, the consensus is that it is a place where there are long-term jobs available and the authorities have a vision for its

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AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

sustained economic growth. In other words, competitive cities are vibrant, accessible, financially sound communities that attract business and provide a rich social fabric and an environment where people want to live and work.

One of Poland’s most regeneration-oriented city is Łódź, which is currently realizing its pilot regeneration program. It

ship, major universities and other educational institutions, and institutional leaders. Through developing and implementing relevant city plans, private partners create holistic and integrated solutions tailor-made for each specific city and project. Companies with a proven track record from various projects have expertise that gives them the potential to create a per-

Revitalization of the Sunderland port created homes and industrial, office and mixed-use spaces consists of 20 projects which will serve as an example for other Polish programs of this nature. Other cities, including Warsaw, Kraków and Rzeszów, are also introducing their first activities in this field.

Private sector in competitive cities While the city is responsible for implementing the necessary steps, there are private partners who play an important role by contributing their international experience from delivering similar projects.

Their roles include developing and leveraging strategic client advisor relationships with key city stakeholders, such as the mayor’s office, developers, C-suite leader-

formance-management approach to monitor, report and manage city regeneration plan implementation. This, in turn, minimizes potential risks from project delays and cost overruns.

Trust plays an important part in city regeneration. Trusted private partners apply their knowhow to identifying the city’s priorities and mobilizing project teams with strong capabilities from across the industry. International teams combining world-class expertise with local market understanding establish the grounds for proper communications and reporting, something which is often underestimated in the public sector.

The sunderland example The smart city concept is increasingly being embraced by various municipalities in different countries, often with excellent results. One such example is the English port city of Sunderland, southeast of Newcastle. With the decline of coal mining and other heavy industries, such as shipbuilding, Sunderland suffered accelerated industrial decline through the 1980s. This eroded the port’s ability to function as a viable business and an employment generator for the indigenous population.

The port’s regeneration vision sought to achieve a step-change in the use and image of the site and surrounding area, linking these back to the city, opening up the area to the wider public, raising its profile, and serving as a catalyst for major improvements in neighboring areas.

The vision leader As a consultant and project manager in this GBP 80 million project, employee-owned program management firm CH2M led the visioning aspect, created the master plan, and produced the economic and infrastructure frameworks for transforming the existing, struggling port into a major commercial and industrial park. The new framework envisioned the potential to create 3,000 new jobs and 400 new homes alongside a modern and efficient consolidated new port facility—all crucial to realizing the client’s aspirations for city-wide regeneration.

The largest regeneration project in the UK at the time, the project provided solutions to create 100,000 m2 of industrial floor space, 40,000 m2 of office space, and 20,000 m2 of mixed-use development, augmented by a plan for 150 waterside apartments and water-based leisure facilities, all coexisting with a modern port facility. The team had to overcome numerous physical, operational, delivery and stakeholder challenges to realize successful outcomes on this highly complex redevelopment project.

A key challenge was the consolidation and continued operation of the port to free up land for development. A detailed feasibility study and master plan focused on reconfiguring the operational port to free up major tracts of brownfield land for alternative uses. This included optimizing land use and operational efficiency, a comprehensive business viability study for the port, and strategic business model guidance for its future operation and management. Crucially, the studies provided the city council with confident solutions for procuring a private-sector port operator.

concern, having faced criticism over the handling of past consultations in this area of the city. The site was also one of many strategic regeneration opportunities in the city, all coming online around the same time. It was therefore vital to reflect the needs of the wider regeneration strategy when considering viable end uses and in planning offsite transport and infrastructure impacts and requirements.

The challenges included grounding the regeneration in local culture and diversity.

This required implementing public, private and “other” partnerships that fostered an environment of creative yet practical innovation. For instance, an inclusive housing strategy was implemented to serve all income levels.

Other designs included an intelligent mobility platform that combined mass transportation infrastructure for pedestrians and automobiles to enhance commerce and meet the needs of those who live, work, and visit there.

Attracting investment to generate growth was another challenge. It was not just about transportation, buildings and other infrastructure, but integrating the historic and cultural fabric with creativity and innovation to create a sense of place in the public realm. This is what creates community— that sense of belonging to something special about “my place.”

To bring impartiality to the process, the

project management company designed and directed the methodology, protocols, materials and reporting mechanisms, and facilitated all stakeholder interviews and presentations. The company’s two-stage public consultation strategy was a central plank in arriving at a preferred development solution in line with the city’s wider regeneration activities with the support of all key stakeholders. The methods applied

by CH2M were pivotal in ensuring sustained support from all the stakeholders, and were the pillars on which the ultimate success of the project rested. a model for Poland The Sunderland project shows how much a project management company with global experience can bring to the table for a relatively small yet ambitious local community which strives to change its economic and social status quo.

With EU and national backing, Polish cities can implement the kind of win/win solutions developed in Sunderland and elsewhere around the world.

•

The author is country manager of CH2M in Poland and Vice Chair of AmCham.

She can be reached at Joanna.Bensz@ch2m.com

sustained stakeholder support Key stakeholder engagement was a sensitive area for this project but critical to its deliverability. This was a particular client

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Company profile Impact Pioneer Interview

Solutions for the 21 century st

Photo courtesy of GE

The Engineering Design Center was established 15 years ago through a simple agreement, whereby GE began collaboration with the Polish Aviation Institute in Warsaw to utilize the Polish scientific potential and GE’s experience. At the beginning, GE had seven people in the EDC project. Today EDC employs 1,900 engineers who develop technology that meets the demands of our company globally.

EDC is about nothing else but the commercialization of science. It is an R&D center that tests and improves existing technologies and develops new solutions.

For instance, one of the GE’s latest jet engines, the GEnx, has a new component entirely developed by EDC. We are so successful because Polish engineers have an excellent education and are open-minded.

As AmCham honors GE with the Impact Pioneer Award for the company’s early entry into the Polish market, its significant investments, and its continuing relevance for the Polish economy, American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Beata Stelmach, president of GE for Poland and the Baltics, about the company’s successful past and where it is heading now 26

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what are your feelings about the impact Pioneer award?

It is a symbolic award, as it comes 25 years after the start of Poland’s successful economic transformation. American companies, including GE, were the first to come to Poland as foreign investors, followed later by companies from other countries.

Ge is a strong technology brand, but the group’s first investments in Poland were in the financial sector…

The first sector we invested in was consumer finance. We entered Poland going by the book. It was the financial sector first to give Polish consumers a chance to participate in the growing consumer market. The Polish society wanted to catch up for the time it lost in terms of the saving generation, and was in need of consumer finance to start buying goods which reflected the changing economic reality. But later, we brought to Poland our technology together with our faith in the local talent and skills. one of the best examples of that faith in local talent and skills is the engineering design center, a joint project of Ge and the Polish aviation institute.

isn’t the commercialization of science just what the Polish economy desperately needs?

Yes, and it is where the entire Polish science is heading today. In recent years, it has become clear that a basic upgrade of infrastructure, which is obviously necessary for a modern economy, is just not enough for it to be competitive. What we need is an innovative economy. The government has come up with a range of mechanisms and systemic solutions to make science work with the private sector in utilizing the funds from the European Union in the current financial perspective.

It involves the creation of consortia to utilize the collaboration between scientific centers and commercial entities.

This is in fact what we did with the collaboration between EDC and the Aviation Institute a long time ago. Today, such a need for collaboration with the private sector is recognized by major universities in Poland. GE pioneered it in Poland. When you look at our Engineering Design Center in Warsaw, you will see that it is not only about aviation technologies. We use synergies in turbine technology and develop technologies for the oil and gas industries as well. We collaborate with the Gdańsk University of Technology in developing technologies for undersea oil and gas extraction. Together with the university we also train specialists in this area. It is a win-win situation for the private sector and for academia. This is how the two spheres should work together. last year Ge opened an iT center of excellence in kraków for the Ge healthcare division. what requirements do you have for the people you hire?

Early last year we decided that we would establish an IT support center for our healthcare operations. The goal is to establish a competence center that would support our healthcare operations in the region. Now we are hiring, and the center is supposed to employ 200 IT engineers by the end of 2015. Those are people who can work in an international environment, who know foreign languages. It is pivotal for the people we hire that they can adjust to different business cultures, because they are different in different countries. Our concept works, and we hire specialists from the countries our center is going to deliver its services to. I have to say that our geographical location is very attractive for many professionals from the region who come to work in Kraków. They are pricecompetitive as compared to their colleagues from Western Europe, but they are excellent when it comes to learning new skills. So we are happy that we have access to highly educated people in the region, and we hope that there will be a lot of synergies at our center in Kraków, which will help us extend our services to other sectors, such as energy management.

them. With this, we hope that BielskoBiała will become a hub for developing energy management solutions that will be applied the world over.

But the Brilliant Factory model is what other companies also do. Today it is not enough just to sell readymade products. It is essential to learn about the needs of your customers even if they cannot properly name them in technical terms. It is our part to learn those needs and design the solutions that answer those needs.

This is how the industry is going to work in the years to come. so there is a new paradigm emerging in B2B relationships?

This is because technological advancements allow for creation of solutions that our customers are not always aware of. We are talking about intelligent networks, big data mining, efficient turbines. For instance, one of the major problems with wind farms was how they react to fastchanging wind conditions. So we come up with microchips attached to each turbine.

But they work as an intelligent network.

When one chip senses a change in the

ble, and if there have to be changes they need to be known well in advance for the business community. Everybody talks now about the change in regulations governing state subsidies for renewable energy producers. The new law came to light in early 2014, but it had been preceded by long discussions.

The same issue may appear when you look at cogeneration. The current system will come to an end in 2018. It takes some 3-4 years to build a cogeneration power station. So if you start your project today, you will not finish by the time the current system of supports ends. And investors do not know what system will replace the current one. To invest, investors need stability and predictability. with the scope of your investments in Poland, would it be hard for Ge to relocate its business to other countries that offer less-expensive labor or a faster-growing market?

We have been here for the last 25 years, and we will remain in Poland for the next 25 years. With our total investments in Poland of over USD 1.3 billion since 1992,

We have been here for the last 25 years, and we will remain in Poland for the next 25 years. With our total investments in Poland of over USD 1.3 billion since 1992, we have become a part of the Polish economy. and this year you are opening a production center in Bielsko-Biała, which aims to integrate Ge’s knowhow with its customers’ needs. where are you with this project now?

The Bielsko-Biała project is our most recent one. Nearly two years ago we acquired an energy management component producer and a company that produces components for the aviation industry. Now, since industries have been changing very rapidly in recent years, it is not enough today to show your potential customers your products and solutions. You have to sit down with them and learn exactly what they need. Then you have to come up with a solution that matches that exact demand.

So, today our customers are not just customers who come and pick up our products, but they become our partners who work with us to get tailor-made products.

We call this new approach “Brilliant Factory.” This is the ultimate way we can answer the needs of our clients. So far we have four such Brilliant Factories globally, and the one in Bielsko-Biała is one of

wind, the entire wind farm is capable of adjusting all windmills to optimally face the oncoming wind. So we can manage the risk of changing winds and optimize the efficiency of the entire wind farm with one intelligent network. This is important in Poland, the fifth-most attractive country for wind energy investments in Europe. We have a lot of wind, but the real challenge is to have effective wind farms not only where there is a lot of wind but in other regions too, so there is full coverage of wind energy across the country. We have the technology, but there is no readymade solution for every possible location. Those solutions are worked out in collaboration with wind energy companies for the particular locations of their wind farms. This is the optimal way of working together. it is understandable that you are happy about the way the company has been growing in Poland. But is there anything to complain about?

The legal environment for business is important in every country. It has to be sta-

”

we have become a part of the Polish economy. Through our 12 companies in Poland, we employ over 10,000 people directly and perhaps support three times that number of jobs indirectly. When you look at our five production centers, in Kłodzko, Łódź, Bielsko-Biała and Dzierżoniów, which specialize in electrical equipment and aircraft parts and components, you will see that approximately 90% of their sales go to global clients. On the other hand, we will invest USD 54 million in direct investment in the new Brilliant Factory in BielskoBiała. Those numbers show how deeply we have grown into the Polish economy. We cannot just relocate our operations someplace else because the labor there is cheaper. It is about risks and business growth. There are fewer risks than ever before in Poland. And business is growing because we know that GE can partner with many companies in Poland that seek ultramodern technology solutions.

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Company profile Impact Pioneer Interview

Champion businesses to overcome capital challenges with Citi American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Sławomir S. Sikora, chief country officer for Citi in Poland—a company honored by AmCham with the Impact Pioneer Award for its early entry into the Polish market, its significant investments, and its relevance until today— about Citi's past in Poland and how it sees its role in the ever-changing business environment.

Photo courtesy of Citi

sounds like an ambitious plan. and how about the development of “smart banking”? you haven’t mentioned

citi arrived in Poland in the early 1990s. what did it actually bring to Poland?

That is an extremely complex question, and I could really elaborate on it. To keep it brief, however, I will only mention three aspects which I believe to be of key importance. First, by deciding to invest its capital in Poland, Citi played an important role in the process of stabilizing and shaping the Polish banking sector. Second, Citi brought to Poland its global knowhow, from financial solutions such as credit cards or online banking to a brand-new approach to management and the way bankers’ work looks.

let’s get back to the question of what citi brought to Poland. what was the third element, the third value?

This is a very measurable result: Hundreds of international companies that have already entered the Polish market, or are planning to, rely on Citi Handlowy’s assistance, thereby proving their confidence in Citi’s global network. Today, Citi Handlowy continues to support the activities of Polish companies that expand into the international arena.

Precisely—in the financial services sector, it has become quite common to say that if you want to become a fully fledged banker, citi is the place to gain experience. i wonder if this was true only back in the 1990s.

I don’t mean to sound immodest, but I think it is still largely true today. Citi’s organizational structure and work culture, which encompasses dynamic changes, have always enabled our employees to gain vast knowledge of local and international banking in a very short time. Citi special-

i’m guessing you mean the emerging markets champions program? what is citi Handlowy’s role in that program and how can the bank help such global players or local entities with global aspirations achieve success?

Today, talent and ideas account for more than half of success. Google’s CEO in Poland once told me that the Internet eliminated all barriers to doing business— all except for capital-related obstacles.

This is where our role begins. We are here to support Polish and multinational com-

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nomic climate in Poland?

In Poland, Citi has been active in two areas. The first one is its banking activity, pursued through Citi Handlowy. In this area we have adopted a clear-cut development strategy, which is part of our well-defined strategy: serving large companies, supporting Polish champions on international markets, maintaining the leading position on financial markets, and in the retail banking sector providing VIP customers, including global ones, with comprehensive services, with credit cards as a particularly strong product. Secondly, Citi’s operations in Poland also include Citi Service Center. The center in Poland provides services to customers in over 60 countries in which Citi currently operates.

We remain one of the largest US-based employers operating in Poland. We employ a total of over 7,000 individuals in the bank and CSC. This year, we are planning to create approximately 700 new jobs in such areas as custody, transactional banking, AML and IT services.

ists create solutions targeted to customers in Poland and in over 100 other countries around the world.

panies in taking up such capital-related challenges. Today, the Emerging Markets Champions program, run by Citi Handlowy in Poland, comprises over 100 countries in which our group operates. If a Polandbased company offers an attractive product and has an idea of how to promote it abroad, we support it by providing it with banking infrastructure to facilitate international expansion. If a multinational company is interested in investing in Central & Eastern Europe, our job is to convince it that Poland is the right destination for such investments and that we can help implement investment-related expansion plans. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved, including the company, the bank and the state. is Poland a good place for foreign investors and their capital?

We expect that the Polish economy will grow by over 3.5% this year. The unemployment rate is expected to fall and consumer sentiment is likely to improve. So, Poland will most likely continue to attract foreign investors. is citi one of the companies that intend to benefit from the favorable eco-

that. your company was the first to implement it, but similar solutions have begun to appear on the market.

The banking sector resembles the technology sector—there is no copyright. It is true that we were the first company to implement this idea. We developed the Smart Banking concept over a year and a half ago.

Thanks to this, we are over 12 months ahead of our competitors, colloquially speaking. While the market is still testing its solutions in this area, we have already managed to increase the number of our Smart Banking outlets fourfold. By reorganizing the retail banking distribution model, we have created one of the most efficient networks operating on the market.

Today we can focus on its development. is this intended to be citi Handlowy’s remedy for low interest rates and the drop in interchange fees?

I am convinced that we are well-prepared for the upcoming months. Over a year and a half ago we made a series of key decisions regarding these issues. One of them was to reorganize the retail banking model.

Additionally, we intend to respond to these market challenges by bolstering our lend-

ing activity, expanding our FX market share, and increasing our trade finance activities. Efficient management of net interest margin is another item on our list of current priorities. let’s move on to a lighter, yet equally important topic. Globally, citi has been involved in various activities for the benefit of local communities. is that the case in Poland as well?

Yes, definitely. Our foundation has been active for over 10 years. We carry out various activities aimed at raising financial awareness. Each year, our employees and partners devote thousands of hours to help those in need, to coach organizations and schools. We are the leader and one of the most ardent promoters of corporate volunteerism in Poland.

This social involvement has proved to be a solid base of our organization. Many young people who start their professional career at Citi Handlowy or Citi Service Center consider our CSR activities an important factor which, in fact, often convinces them to choose Citi as their employer. And I am personally very pleased with that.

•

Company profile 25th Anniversary Interview

Captains of capital markets

enterprise investors is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year in may. it emerged in Poland as the asset manager of the Polish-american enterprise Fund. The fund was in charge of a financial aid program approved by the us congress, which earmarked usd 240 million to help Poland build its financial sector from scratch. ei delivered beyond expectations, and in 1998, in an unprecedented move, the Polishamerican enterprise Fund returned usd 120 million to the us government. what were the key ingredients of your success back then?

The key to our success was our EI team, including the company founders, whom I will talk about in a moment. What also had a good impact on our business was external circumstances that shaped the economic environment.

We were lucky to begin our business in an emerging free-market economy, set on the right course of development thanks to the reforms of Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz along with a group of politicians who were bold enough to implement difficult reforms even at the cost of losing political support from a significant group of the electorate—individuals who were not yet ready to carry the burden of reforming Poland.

Our business strategy in Poland was good because it had been proven in practice: We were flexible with what we offered, which included loans and equity investments, adjusting the scale of each to match the market demand as the years went by. We established financial institutions with branches across the country and thus we were able to reach and answer the needs of a wide group of clients.

By pursuing such a flexible strategy, the

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Polish-Amerian Enterprise Fund was able not only to return half of the amount of the original loan to the US government, but to donate USD 250 million as core capital to the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, a major NGO which we established. The foundation continues the fund’s original mission of building democratic institutions and supporting the development of a civic society in Poland. So with our excellent business performance and our establishment of the foundation, we have two good reasons to be proud of what we have achieved so far.

for companies in Poland?

I wouldn’t like to repeat old phrases such as “the largest economy in the region of Central & Eastern Europe” or “a skilled labor force.” For many of our investors, the speed with which the entire economy grows, as well as individual companies, is reason enough. Add to that the convergence of domestic consumption with the old EU countries, growing internationalization of business, and a large number of dynamic private entrepreneurs who drive growth that is unparalleled anywhere else in Europe.

Going back to the people, enterprise investors was established in Poland by pioneers of the venture capital industry in the us, John P. Birkelund and Robert G. Faris, who were both luminaries of the best of the venture capital culture. what is their influence on the company’s culture and how it works in the Polish reality?

We were very fortunate to have been introduced to the business of venture capital by John P. Birkelund, who was the chairman of the board of directors, and Robert G. Faris, who was president.

Bob used to say that politicians should be kept from direct involvement in business at a minimum by the distance of an outstretched arm. Both of them are highly admired for their achievements in business.

One of their accomplishments is that they both knew how to create a good team in Poland. The team, in its basic lineup, is still there as EI partners. So John and Bob are still with us, not only through their portraits hanging on the wall of our executive room but through personal daily involvement in our processes of project selection, cooperation with companies, and calculating opportunities and risks. All of us in EI are their apprentices.

in the course of doing business, enterprise investors introduced some industry standards such as those governing management options, iPos and bank

you are in the financial services sector, and that means that you invest your clients’ money. That requires “selling” the region and the company to your clients first. what are the selling points

Photo courtesy of Enterprise Investors

American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Jacek Siwicki, president of Enterprise Investors, the oldest venture capital and private equity firm in Poland, about its culture and the roots of its success

Indeed, we have pioneered a lot of solutions for the private equity sector in Poland. We keep generating exceptional knowledge and we keep sharing it. Since 2013 we have been cooperating with the Polish edition of Harvard Business Review in sharing our knowledge through editorial cooperation as well as through face-to-face breakfast meetings held by the HBR, at which our experts meet with Poland’s leading businesspeople. In 2013 we analyzed issues governing management buyouts. In 2014 we focused on how to set a company on the path of fast growth in foreign markets, which included solving the dilemma of whether growth is best attained by mergers and acquisitions or through organic growth.

This year we are sharing our experience on how to grow a company’s value effectively.

I’m sure that our experience in those three areas testifies to the success of the private equity sector in Poland.

leverage, as there were no set rules for those types of transactions before ei actually used them in practice. as far back as 1993 you were running environmental audits of the companies you were eyeing for investment, a practice which only years later became standard. what are the solutions that enterprise investors is pioneering in Poland today when it comes to types of transactions and management practice?

apart from making money for your investors, ei has been engaged in funding non-commercial enterprises, such as the one already mentioned, the Polish-american Freedom Foundation. in 1997 ei opened a dedicated credit line for companies damaged by the flood in wrocław. what is the company’s take on corporate social responsibility today?

We pioneered CSR from the very beginning of our presence in Poland, even when CSR was not such a household name as it is today. As early as 1991, when we were still the Polish-American Enterprise Fund, we established the Educational Enterprise Foundation, which specializes in helping young people learn about entrepreneurship.

With its scholarship programs, the foundation has helped thousands of young and talented people who come mainly from small and medium-sized towns. The foundation is up and running today. And for many years Enterprise Investors has been supporting the Academy of Capital Market Leaders, a program of training and paid internships, which is managed by the Lesław Paga Foundation, an NGO dedicated to growing future business leaders, together with the Polish Institute of Directors, a foundation dedicated to promoting highest standards in corporate governance. So I can say that CSR is part of our DNA.

capital firms in the marketplace. We have a short list of sectors in which we do not invest. When it comes to our capital engagement, we have two categories of investments: EUR 5–10 million and EUR 20–50 million. We are willing to buy a minority stake in a company we invest in, but also are ready to take a controlling share in it.

With this our offer is attractive to the majority of our potential partners. So while we don’t have any special investment philosophy that would make us different from other such firms in the market, what does set us apart from them is our 25 years of business experience in Poland.

what are the company's plans for 2015 and beyond?

We plan to invest all the money we have in our current pool, and then we will work on establishing another investment fund.

And also we will continue to cooperate with AmCham. Together with the chamber we went to the European Economic Congress in Katowice in April, and we will be with AmCham at the 25th Economic Forum in Krynica in September.

•

For more information on terms and pricing please visit our website

www.absl.pl

so far you have invested euR 1.6 billion in 132 companies, and exited 106 investments with gross proceeds of almost euR 2.2 billion. what is your investment philosophy? in what way do you think ei differs from other venture capital funds in the marketplace today?

I don’t think we have an investment philosophy that sets us apart from other venture

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Company profile 20th Anniversary Interview

A healthy relationship

what is the extent of medicover Group’s operations in Poland?

Medicover Group has been in Poland for the last 20 years. The group has a chain of clinics in Poland and three hospitals. In addition to our flagship Medicover Hospital—which last year treated over 100,000 local patients and 10,000 foreign patients—we have Centrum Medyczne Damiana, a hospital, which is our maternity brand.

The Medicover Hospital in Warsaw, which has 180 beds, celebrated its fifth anniversary last year. The medical staff associated with the hospital has over 300 doctors. We can cover anything from pediatric cases all the way up to cardiac surgery and everything in between, including neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and any type of serious surgery.

In addition, the Medicover Hospital has an urgent care center, also called the emergency department. It is the first urgent care facility accredited in Europe to be a member of the Urgent Care Association of America. We are focused on making sure that we maintain our standards at that international level. Urgent care is one of the fastest-growing departments in our hospital. It is open 24/7. It serves as a walk-in clinic where patients do not need appointments and can come in if they have any sickness or are injured.

The medicover Hospital in warsaw was ranked 2015 Best international Hospital by the international Healthcare commission usa. in 2014 the hospital was awarded an international five-star rating for maternity care.

The rating is based on clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction as well as the volume of patients treated each year. We follow the exact patient satisfaction survey model established in the US, called HCAPS. All 4,000 hospitals in the US follow this model. It asks the same questions at every hospital the same way, using the

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Photo courtesy Medicover

American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Tucson Dunn, Hospital Development Director at Medicover Group, about pioneering the private healthcare sector in Poland

same methodology. This allows us to compare our score with any named hospital in the US. We choose Johns Hopkins as our comparable model, and I can proudly say that we are doing much better than Johns Hopkins in terms of patient satisfaction. It is mainly due to the fact we are a brand-new facility, unlike some of the buildings at Johns Hopkins, and we are small while Johns Hopkins is huge. Because we are small we have much more personal attention. A doctor can spend more time with the patient. The doctors can know their patients by name, the nurse can know the patient by name, where in a big institution like Johns Hopkins that is rare because it is so big. So this becomes much more of a personalized experience here in Warsaw, and that helps us improve our patient satisfaction.

Having american origins, you must be very well connected with the us healthcare system.

One of the interesting things is that we have a very long reach to attract doctors from the US, including Polish doctors

working in the US. We can get them to work with us in terms of providing a second opinion. Sometimes they even return to do procedures here. We found that there are over 400 prominent Polish doctors working in the US. These doctors work in famous institutions like Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, the Mayo Clinic, and the Cleveland Clinic, and they all want to help Poland improve its healthcare system, so they all provide an outreach to Poland through Medicover, and provide training. We also allow Polish doctors to go to the US to get different types of training there and return back here to improve their practice. This is helping us grow our medical staff across a wide range of specialties. in what way do you utilize new technology in healthcare?

Technology obviously is very useful with diagnosis and monitoring. But the latest innovation that may be meaningful is the “medical home.” The problem is that there is no centralized online record that you can go to and see everything that happened to you over the last five years no matter where you were. Each hospital in Poland is required by law to keep medical records for years, but they are not required to share it with other hospitals. So if you have been in three different hospitals you need to contact each of them individually to get your medical record to have the full picture.

Medicover, with our clinics, hospitals, and laboratories in 11 countries, has moved in that direction. If you are part of the Medicover network and one of our clients, Medicover becomes your “medical home.”

You will have a medical record that sits with us in our repository that then works with all of our clinics, pharmacy and laboratory.

Over the years your information is intact here in one place and easily accessible to you. We will network through all our clinics and hospitals so your record is easily seen in a clinic in Kraków or any other place, and the doctor can instantly pull your record and see your medical history. It is in operation in the US, and Medicover was the first in Poland to have that concept work as widely as it does. what kind of health insurance do you accept?

Medicover accepts a range of payment options from cash patients to patients with private health insurance to patients who have national health insurance. We will accept any major insurance product such as Cigna, Bupa, Aetna, and of course Medicover. Last year we founded relationships with some new insurance companies, such as Blue Cross, Humana, and Universal Healthcare, and accept their patients too.

When it comes to covering corporate clients, we offer an insurance product through Medicover insurance, or the hospital itself can offer some type of package program for the company. apart from healthcare departments, you have a wellness center in warsaw.

How does it fit into the group’s mission?

We have a wellness center at Medicover Hospital that offers executive health screening. It is for middle-aged executives who work in a high-stress environment. It is good for them to take a step back once in a while and have a full examination from head to toe to make sure that their health is in good order. We have a comprehensive test with a wide range of benchmarks that we examine to find out if the patient is in good health. We look at all the different types of blood tests, nutrition, stress level, lifestyle, organs, systems, muscles and bones, the overall fitness parameters.

Based on that we show our clients where they are in terms of health. It is a dialogue, coaching to get them to the optimum health if they need it. This type of service is booming now. Many companies in Poland and abroad are sending their executives to us. what is driving your business in the healthcare sector?

The business drivers at the Medicover Hospital are personalized service, prompt treatment, and good follow-up. We want our patients to be our clients for a long time. So we establish relationships that are deeper than those in the public sector. We want to be your medical home.

What makes Medicover unique is that we spend a lot of time educating and coaching our patients. Instead of just saying what the problem is and giving a prescription for the drugs that are supposed to cure it, we explain to our patients what is causing their disease and how it can be prevented and how they can live with the disease, as long as they know what to do and their family members also know what to do. It is much more of an interactive and educational consultation than just seeing a patient and telling him or her what drugs to take and when to come back again. So we really care about the clinical outcome.

We want our patients to be the best they can be, and prescribing drugs is not our first agenda. The true motivator for us is a patient who is going to give a good referral to other patients. So keeping you healthy is our number one goal. what can you say about medicover’s plans for the future?

One of the newest programs, which will start in September, is the new clinic, called the American Clinic, in Warsaw. It will be located at the hospital. It will feature all English-speaking staff. We hope to link this with hospitals in the US, so if it happens to be an American patient from Georgia we can then link that back to whatever leading hospital in Georgia the patient wants us to. If the patient is from California, we can link back with Stanford; if the patient is from Illinois we can link back with the University of Chicago. So we will be able to provide a second opinion that is from the area that the patient is from. It won’t be limited just to the US, but we will be able to link this Warsaw-based clinic to

doctors in the UK and other countries.

The American Clinic will offer pediatrics, gynecology, and internal medicine as a start.

One of the special features of the American Clinic will be that each patient will be assigned a personal care manager. This personal care manager will be the one point of contact with this patient for any care needs they have. The personal care manager will be available to speak with the patient at any time. In other words, the patient will be able to call the personal care manager 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and if they have an issue the care manager then organizes anything that the patient may need. It means that if a patient has a need, they have somebody they can reach to without having to go through a call center and multiple layers of communication.

Personal care managers will not be doctors but trained professionals such as nurses or care assistants. They will be trained to be able to direct the patient where they need to go, as they will be acting like a secretary to get notes and information and the coordination for the patient. They will be organizing tests and making sure those test reports go where they need to go on time.

But we are also looking at other opportunities to expand. We recently acquired 2.5 hectares of land next to the hospital in Warsaw. We are anticipating building some type of facility there, possibly for outpatients. We are doing a feasibility study for an international training and education center for doctors so we can bring in the best of practice around the world to train here at Medicover.

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Boost your company exposure by sponsoring AmCham events We offer a unique opportunity to increase your company’s visibility through sponsorship of AmCham events, by promoting your company to the business and diplomatic community and receiving media coverage. AmCham events in Warsaw include business mixers, high-level discussion panels at CEO Forums, as well as our big annual events, the 4th of July Picnic and the AmCham Diner at the Krynica Economic Forum, both of which attract hundreds of guests.

In addition to AmCham’s Warsaw events, companies can sponsor events in Kraków, Katowice, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. Events include business mixers, conferences, the AmCham Academy in Kraków, and more.

For more information on events, please contact us at

anita.kowalska@amcham.pl

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Company profile 25th Anniversary Interview

Assessment Systems Poland

The turn of a friendly card

The you we need to know

what were the challenges?

During the first years of operation, we encountered very rapid growth of the business. New casinos opened one after another. Poles flocked to see casinos, which had previously been forbidden and were known only from movies and literature. The times were crazy. Businesses tried to find their way in the new, free economy.

The golden times ended in 1992 with introduction of a new gaming law that changed the environment for running that business. At that time foreign capital had to leave Poland, and taxes increased considerably. Thanks to the company’s policies, and dedicated, highly trained employees, we successfully managed to meet all the challenges.

During 25 years of history, we’ve undergone several changes in gambling laws and growing competition. Still, we have managed to keep throughout all those years what is the biggest value for us— the highest standard and security of the services we offer to our customers. We also introduced a responsible gambling 34

AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

How big is your network? To whom do you cater?

Casinos Poland runs 9 casinos in Poland, in all the main cities like Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Łódź, Wrocław and Katowice.

Polish casinos are visited by almost every social group—from tourists to blue-collar workers, through white-collar workers to top management, celebrities and politicians. Like everywhere in the world!

How is the corporate culture at casinos Poland?

Although the casino’s structure seems hierarchical, we prefer easygoing, friendly relations, minimizing barriers between boss and staff. We prefer to develop organically as an organization, listening closely to casino employees’ suggestions and improvement concepts. We use new management tools to speed up communications and response. We try not to miss the main goal: We are a service industry, and besides casino knowledge, human resources are our real asset.

is casinos Poland involved in csR programs?

Casinos have their own kind of social responsibility, which addresses the main hazards related to their core business of gaming. This is the notion of responsible gaming. The concept is widely recognized and widespread in more developed markets of Western Europe and the world’s major gambling markets. In Poland it is quite new, and in fact Casinos Poland is a pioneer of responsible gaming in this country. We are aware that gambling can become a problem. We make sure that our customers are well informed about the risks and have specially trained employees on all our gaming floors. We also closely cooperate with leading Polish institutions that deal with problematic gambling behavior.

During 25 years of history, we’ve undergone several changes in gambling laws and growing competition. Still, we have managed to keep throughout all those years what is the biggest value for us— the highest standard and security of the services we offer to our customers.

How do you see the company’s future?

First, we are focused on keeping and increasing our market share in the face of the illegal low-stakes slot machine business. We have implemented new slot systems and are optimizing our organizational model to be more flexible and ready to respond at the right moment.

2014 and 2015 are years of slot equipment modernization, implementation of a new strategy for our gaming offer, and improvement of customer service.

How do you measure your own success as ceo of casinos Poland?

It is not about me or my personal success or achievements, and it never will be. It is not by coincidence that Casinos Poland has excellent and dedicated managers and employees. Being part of such a successful organization is what counts.

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American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Maya Krzyżanowska, managing director of Assessment Systems Poland, a global HR specialist, about how psychometrics and the Hogan method can add value to companies what are the core competencies of assessment systems?

We help HR departments in creating strategies to aid the company’s business so it translates into a higher return on investment for the company. In other words, we help companies effectively utilize their people for business based on personality analysis and how it translates into behavioral patterns the company may seek or may intend to avoid.

For instance, we can evaluate an employee as of what makes him or her productive and how this person needs to be motivated to follow that positive track. We can trace this productivity potential through many different criteria that express different personal traits. There are companies that seek assertive people because assertiveness is a part of the company’s culture. But there are companies that favor people who are forthcoming and understanding, and we can siphon such characters out of a group of different characters.

We also survey people for their ability to learn and adapt to the changing business environment—again a very important personality trait in today’s business environment. We can also evaluate people as to their resistance to stress at the workplace and how they may react. Some people, when under stress, are very difficult to work with, and we can recommend what to do to keep them effective and mitigate risks for the company.

How do you do it?

We have a methodology that has been developed over the years by Robert Hogan, number one in psychology of business, who made a name for himself when he quit his academic work and began to advise companies. His approach was controversial for the academic circles back then because one of its manifestos was that in order to find personal harmony, people should focus on understanding how they are perceived by oth-

ers and how it impacts their relations with other people, instead of focusing on how they perceive themselves. Hogan said, “The you that you know is hardly worth knowing.”

This went against all the Freudian personal development theories that were popular back then.

Yet his methodology turned out to work for business. The Hogan methodology has become an extremely effective tool for HR managers in corporations.

So, for instance, when it comes to dealing with stressful situations, Hogan set apart 11 types of behavior that an individual may

Photo courtesy of Assessment Systems Poland

what is the history of casinos Poland?

The history of Casinos Poland is as long as the history of democratic Poland. The company was set up by Casinos Austria International, LOT Polish Airlines and Porty Lotnicze, the state airport operator.

In 1989, together with political change, a new economic order began, allowing also for opening up the gambling market. In July 1989 the company started to operate the first legal Polish casino since World War II. It was in Kraków, at the Hotel Pod Różą.

Last year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Casinos Poland. During those years we faced many changes on the gambling market.

program after the American Century Casinos Group acquired a majority stake in Casinos Poland.

Photo courtesy of Casinos Poland

American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Nikolaus Strohriegel, CEO of Casinos Poland, about beating the odds in a changing business environment

have, which determine his or her relations with others and, in a corporate environment, may become risks or assets for the company.

Someone who challenges his or her bosses when under stress poses a certain risk for the company. But other types of people may act in a completely different way when under stress. They may withdraw from the company’s life and put on a wait-and-see attitude, which has its implications for the company.

How about people, such as top managers or board members, who must be there but who find it difficult, in certain circumstances, to work with each other? can you help?

Yes, indeed. It is the core of what we do. For instance, as a board member you may be discussing something you know deep down inside that you are right about. But your col-

leagues on the board may question your competency. Their behavior, which challenges some of your deepest personal convictions, may be making you angry or sardonic or sarcastic. This will show and, guided by emotions, everybody will start fighting to protect their own convictions. But this is wrong, and we can help you learn how you need to act so people around you know that you are right and perceive you as an authority. We can work with one person, but we also can work with two or more, so they improve their communications and behaviors for the benefit of the team or corporate unit they are part of. i suspect that acting in such a way that people perceive me as an authority in what i’m talking about requires different approaches to different targets, like age groups, cultures, and economic status?

It is true. We adjust our methodology to fit the specifics of each country we are in. We calibrate it against such factors as the country’s history and culture, social changes, economy, and others. We are in 48 countries around the world, and we keep calibrating our tools so their accuracy is above 90% for each country we are in. In other words, if we determine that someone will try to challenge his or her bosses when under stress, there is at least a 90% chance that this person will actually act like that when push comes to shove.

We calibrate our methodology so it is in sync with the reality, and many factors count.

The last time we undertook a major recalibration was following the global economic crisis. The crisis caused a major social change across many countries. Some behavioral patterns changed because of the lack of confidence in the economy. So we do it for every country we are in. with such diverse factors shaping the field of your competencies, it must be difficult to talk simply about the value proposition that you have for corporations. How do you popularize the knowledge of what you do across the business community?

In every country where we are, we have a range of conferences and seminars to talk about where the world is going in terms of effective HR. We talk about the challenges and solutions. In Poland this year, we will hold a conference on May 11–12 with Robert Hogan as the keynote speaker. It will be the first time in Poland the business community will have a chance to meet with Robert Hogan. The first day of the conference is exclusively dedicated to members of AmCham and the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, who will hear Mr. Hogan speak about effective judgment in business—what impedes it and what makes it efficient.

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Expert Employment law

Bankruptcy law

Cutting with precision

A second chance

When competitors merge, workforce cuts generate synergies but also legal risks

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ith a joint venture planned between enterprises that have so far been competitors, the most problematic issues may not lie in the field of competition law, but in the field of employment law.

This occurs particularly when at the level of the holding companies, whose subsidiaries are creating the joint venture, a global transaction framework agreement is entered into specifying such items as the maximum number of employees from each of the entities who can join the newly created joint entity in each country covered by the agreement. In the case of a hypothetical client, let us suppose that this number is smaller than the number of persons currently working at the Polish subsidiary.

The fate of the rest of the workers is then pretty much sealed. what is allowed before consolidation?

The hypothetical situation raises a number of questions. The most important of them is whether such a global agreement can effectively define the number of employees who will be “transferred.”

The answer is generally negative. Pursuant to the established case law of the Supreme Court of Poland under Labor Code Art. 231 and of the Court of Justice of the European Union under the Transfers of Undertakings Directive (2001/23/EC), contractual specification or modification of the number of employees subject, in this case, to transfer by operation of law to the newly established employer should be regarded as ineffective against the employees.

In Poland, conducting layoffs of employees under these condi-

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tions will carry a high risk of violation of Labor Code Art. 231 §6, under which transfer of the workplace or part of the workplace cannot provide grounds justifying termination of employment by the employer.

So is there any room for maneuvering? Certainly. One avenue to consider is termination of employment e.g. by agreement of the parties, ideally at the request of the employee. But even that is not a risk-free approach.

The stated grounds for termination could be entirely unrelated to transfer of the workplace or part of the workplace, but it may be difficult for the employer to defend these grounds.

Traps in selection of employees The next question is whether, prior to establishment of the joint-venture company, each of the existing employers can select which of its own employees will be laid off based on specified business and operational needs.

The answer is not obvious.

Competing entities are involved, which means that difficulties in communicating should be expected, as well as a lack of trust and a disinclination or inability to share employment procedures. On top of that, the systems and criteria for employee evaluation applied in the past by each group may be entirely incompatible.

So it looks like a stalemate.

Even the most skillfully conducted process for establishing the criteria for selecting employees to move to the newly created employer will be subject to a substantial risk of being found to be illusory, because the only authentic criterion would be the business and operational needs

AMERICAN INVESTOR SPRING 2015

of the new employer, not those of the existing employers.

Here an additional challenge arises for legal advisers involved in such transactions. They need to balance the risks that have been signaled with the proposal of innovative and creative solutions enabling them to implement the ultimate business model. Layoffs could be conducted before establishing the joint-venture company, but based on uniform and consistent selection criteria set up by all of the employers. Such layoffs could also be conducted after creation of the new employer, but only after all of the staff of the existing employers become employees of the new company.

The latter solution is optimal for making an objective comparison of the usefulness of the employees for the new company, considering the synergies as well as any problems connected with combining several groups of staff in a new entity.

Permissible external support An employer conducting layoffs for economic reasons must be able to prove that it applied fair and objective criteria in selecting staff for layoffs and considered all employees affected by the reasons forcing it to terminate employment. If rules for proceeding are established, particularly criteria for selecting staff to be laid off, they should also be applied consistently to all employees.

Particularly interesting and helpful in this context is the judgment of the Supreme Court of Poland of June 1, 2012 (Case II PK 258/11) concerning the employer’s right to establish criteria for selection of employees for termination in group layoffs.

This ruling was issued in a

By Dr. Szymon Kubiak, legal adviser and partner, Employment Law Practice, Wardyński & Partners

situation where, in connection with a planned reorganization and consolidation of the sales departments of two companies, an evaluation of the competencies of the employees of the two companies was conducted for the purpose of selecting staff to be laid off. The evaluation program was conducted by an outside firm—an assessment center.

The court permitted the employer to use as the sole criterion for selection of staff to be laid off an assessment of the employees’ competencies that were relevant from the point of view of the employer, ignoring other criteria, such as their previous career path, length of employment, professional experience or qualifications.

This means that an employer is entitled to establish criteria for selecting staff to be let go in group layoffs so that the employees possessing the competencies most desired by the employer under the new, post-consolidation circumstances are retained.

The court upheld the role of external firms offering services such as assessment center, enabling a comprehensive and objective evaluation of employees and selection of staff for layoffs in a manner that is uniform across both of the merging entities. Based on this ruling, an employer choosing staff to be laid off may rely if it wishes exclusively on an assessment by professional advisers specializing in evaluation of employees’ competencies and capable of conducting an objective evaluation based on a developed methodology.

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Poland creates “pre-packs” as a new legal option for investing in distressed assets

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he Polish Sejm has just adopted an act introducing a new Restructuring Law and also amending the existing Bankruptcy Law. The reform is aimed at changing the current stigmatizing attitude towards business failures and providing “second chance” restructuring options to businesses affected by financial difficulties.

The new regulations, which are planned to enter into force at the beginning of 2016, are perceived as rather debtorfriendly and at the same time entailing new risks for creditors. Nonetheless, from investors’ point of view, the regulations may bring interesting new possibilities.

Prepackaged sale The act introduces a Polish type of “pre-pack” as part of the amended bankruptcy procedure.

“Pre-pack” is short for “prepackaged sale” and refers to an arrangement made to sell all or part of a company’s business or assets to a buyer before formal insolvency proceedings are commenced and a court administrator is appointed. When the smallest hint that insolvency is imminent is value-destructive, it is crucial to prepare in silence. The essence of prepacks is therefore that all the preparatory work is carried out before the instigation of insolvency proceedings and the sale is effected immediately or shortly after the administrator’s appointment.

Although controversial for their lack of transparency, the failure to put the business on the open market, and the inability of creditors to be in-

volved in the process, such a restructuring tool is provided for in a great majority of countries with well-developed restructuring laws. Pre-packs were first widely used in the US and the UK, attracting many Continental enterprises to look overseas to find effective restructuring tools that were lacking in their national legal systems. Currently, the most popular are still prepackaged sales conducted within UK administration proceedings and US Chapter 11, but in the last couple of years French and Dutch courts have been open to allowing prepackaged restructuring as well.

The benefits of pre-packs are broadly recognized and somewhat outweigh their drawbacks.

A prepackaged sale minimizes the potential erosion of value that often arises in a drawn-out sales process and can result in quick and smooth transfer of the business, often without adverse publicity and market and media speculation. Ensuring the continuity of the business, it is a good tool that works in harmony with a “second chance” policy.

The Polish way Polish lawmakers also perceived the multiple advantages of prepacks. The bankruptcy reform just adopted by the Sejm provides for a Polish style of prepack. Namely, it will be expressly permitted to file for approval of a prepackaged sale of an enterprise, or part of an enterprise, simultaneously with filing for a company’s bankruptcy.

The terms and conditions of a Polish pre-pack are to be prenegotiated and approved by the court simultaneously with the

By Agnieszka Ziółek, Senior Associate, and Joanna Nycz, Junior Lawyer, Banking and International Finance Department, CMS

declaration of bankruptcy. The court will need to know at least the price offered for the distressed assets and the prospective purchaser. With such knowledge in hand, the court will be able to determine whether or not the price exceeds the amount that could likely be achieved in the course of bankruptcy proceedings (less the costs of proceedings). If this test is positive, the application will have to be accepted. If the price offered is close to the amount determined in this manner, the court will be permitted to grant the application if it is supported by important social considerations, such as retention of employment or the possibility to preserve the debtor’s undertaking.

Balancing interests In order to balance the benefit to the debtor and the interests of its secured creditors, as well as to ensure the fairness of the transaction, the pre-pack rules are stricter in cases where the assets to be sold are encumbered with a registered pledge or where they are to be transferred to an entity related to the debtor. Firstly, the regulation adopted prohibits the option of filing an application for approval of a pre-pack if the application concerns assets encumbered with a registered pledge and the pledge agreement provides for satisfaction by seizure of the pledged assets or sale at public auction. This restriction can only be lifted with the pledgee’s consent, which should be enclosed with the application.

Secondly, an application for approval of a pre-pack where an entity related to the debtor is

indicated as the potential purchaser will only be approved if the sale price is no lower than the value of the distressed assets determined by an expert appointed by the court. This solution is based on the assumption that it is unreasonable to automatically exclude related entities from pre-packs, but the creditors’ rights should be particularly secured in such cases.

Purchase without encumbrances From investors’ perspective, Polish pre-packs offer a particularly interesting restructuring tool. A prepackaged sale will enable them to acquire assets of an entity in financial difficulties for a good price, nowhere near exorbitant, and, what is particularly significant, free of encumbrances (with some minor exclusions, such as utility transmission easements).

The investors can then start from a clean slate with the acquired business, without worrying about their predecessors’ obligations, including the debtor’s tax liabilities. The transaction can thus be conducted with a much higher degree of legal safety, and the due diligence process may be significantly limited, resulting in visible savings on the costs of the transaction.

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37

Expert Tax law

Tax law

Untaxed settlement?

Two sides of a coin

When settling a dispute over unlawful termination, it may be necessary to seek a ruling on whether to withhold income tax

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he new year has brought many changes in Poland’s tax laws. One of them is an amendment to Art. 21(1)(3) of the Personal Income Tax Act, extending the catalogue of sources of labor law enabling the payment of PIT-exempt damages or compensation. Under the new wording of this section, damages or compensation received is exempt from income tax if the amounts or the rules for determining the amounts arise directly from the provisions of separate acts (such as the Labor Code) or secondary regulations issued on the basis of those acts. Also, damages or compensation is tax-exempt if the amounts or the rules for determining the amounts arise directly from the provisions of collective bargaining agreements, other collective arrangements, or rules, regulations and statutes referred to in Art. 9 §1 of the Labor Code, which are based on the act.

Practical approach In practical terms, interpretation of this regulation will determine whether the employer should withhold or not withhold income tax on the amount paid to an employee as damages or compensation. The concern with appropriate application of this regulation arises if damages are paid to the employee under a settlement reached as a result of unlawful termination of the employment relationship.

Damages paid on the basis of such a settlement also constitute income for the employee.

Pursuant to the PIT Act, income from an employment relationship includes any type of payment or allowance resulting

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in a financial benefit to the taxpayer and arising out of the relationship between the employee and the employer or any related relationship. Such income therefore also includes an amount of money provided for in a settlement between the employer and the employee. out-of-court settlements Pursuant to Art. 21(1)(3) of the PIT Act, damages and compensation arising out of agreements and settlements other than those concluded before the court are always taxable.

It is therefore beyond doubt that income tax will be imposed on damages paid under a settlement other than one made before the court. Thus, from this perspective concluding an outof-court settlement is disadvantageous. in-court settlement The question then arises if, in the event of a settlement concluded before the court, the damages or compensation paid will be tax-exempt, or, when paying this amount to the employee, the employer (or ex-employer) must withhold personal income tax.

The law itself does not provide a direct answer. On top of that, the tax authorities take differing views on this issue.

Some tax authorities are of the opinion that Art. 21(1)(3) of the PIT Act cannot be applied in this situation because the damages or compensation does not arise directly from provisions of labor law but instead from the arrangements made between the parties to the settlement, and therefore such damages or compensation is of a purely contractual nature.

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By Dominika Kupisz, advocate and head of the Tax Practice, Squire Patton Boggs Święcicki Krześniak

This stance was also presented by the Supreme Administrative Court in its recently issued ruling of January 21, 2015 (Case II FSK 2918/12). a different take Alternatively, an attempt may be made to apply Art. 21(1)(3b) of the PIT Act as the legal basis for tax exemption of the compensation paid. Under this section, other damages or compensation received as a result of a judgment or judicial settlement is exempt from PIT up to the amount stipulated in the judgment or settlement, except for damages or compensation received in connection with business activity conducted by the taxpayer or relating to benefits the taxpayer could have obtained if he or she had not suffered the injury.

Here, certain tax authorities maintain that damages paid to an employee for unlawful termination of the employment contract are intended to compensate the employee for losses as a result of the termination of employment and the expected benefit to the employee in the form of the salary the employee would have received if the injury had not occurred. Consequently, they do not allow the exemption. conflicting tax rulings For example, in a tax ruling dated April 4, 2014 (no.

IPTPB1/415-706/13-2/DS), the head of the Łódź Tax Chamber decided that the consideration stipulated in a settlement granted to the employee for injury in the form of termination of his or her contract is not exempt from tax under either Art. 21(1)(3) or Art. 21(1)(3b) of

the PIT Act. According to the tax authority, “The amount of or rules for determination of the consideration in question do not directly result from the provisions of separate acts or secondary legislation. Moreover, such damages represent compensation for expected benefits, in the form of salary for work, which have been lost by the employee as a result of the termination of the contract.” A similar position was presented by the head of the Bydgoszcz Tax Chamber in a tax ruling dated August 19, 2014 (no.

ITPB1/415-607/14/AD).

However, in another interpretation a few days earlier, issued on August 10, 2014 (no. ITPB2 /415-282/14/IB), the very same tax authority—the head of the Bydgoszcz Tax Chamber— stated that damages received for illegal termination of the contract do enjoy a tax exemption.

To be on the safe side As presented above, in similar cases the position taken by the tax authorities, or even the same tax authority, may differ completely. Therefore, when entering into a settlement with an employee, to insure that the payment is tax-exempt the employer must word the settlement carefully, conclude the settlement before the court, and possibly also apply for a tax ruling to protect the employer as the tax withholding agent.

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Sale and leaseback of an occupied building

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ale and leaseback transactions are a common practice on the Polish real estate market. The essence of the transaction is that the owner sells a property (e.g. a building) but the seller continues to occupy the property as the lessee or tenant under a lease or tenancy agreement with the buyer as the lessor or landlord. The main benefit for the seller is to free up cash frozen in real estate, which can then be used to finance current operations or devoted to other investments. Meanwhile, the buyer invests its capital and obtains a constant stream of rental income from the property. Sale and leaseback transactions are often a major element of restructuring programs seeking to restore or improve the seller’s liquidity.

They can also serve as a form of tax optimization, as the relatively low write-off for depreciation of the building is replaced by a higher deduction for the rent currently being paid by the former owner under the lease or tenancy.

collect the benefits flowing from the property. Such benefits without a doubt include the rent collected from the lessees under their lease agreements.

Under Civil Code Art. 509 §1, a creditor may assign a claim to a third party without the debtor’s consent unless it would be inconsistent with a statute, a contractual reservation, or the nature of the obligation. This means that in this case, if the leases do not contain restrictions against assigning rights under the lease, it may be recognized that as a result of conclusion of the tenancy agreement the landlord has assigned to the tenant the rights and claims arising out of the leases. It is also possible to transfer the obligations under the leases by obtaining the consent to such transfer from the individual lessees. But sometimes this solution can be difficult to carry out. Obtaining the consent of all lessees in the building may be time-consuming if there are many lessees, and not all of the lessees may be willing to provide their consent.

multiple leases An interesting example is sale and leaseback transactions involving buildings where the premises are occupied by several lessees. In that case, under Art. 678 §1 of Poland’s Civil Code, as a result of the sale of the building, by operation of law the new owner of the building steps into the shoes of the previous owner as a party to the lease relationships for the spaces in the building. At the same time, under a tenancy agreement concluded along with the sale agreement, the new owner delivers the building to the seller in exchange for the tenancy rent and gives the former owner the right to use the building and

who receives payments?

So often the parties to the sale and leaseback transaction for a building occupied by lessees decide to proceed without obtaining consent from all of the lessees to transfer the obligations under their leases. But this decision generates uncertainty about which entity is entitled to receive payments under the leases and required to issue invoices to the lessees for performance of lease services and pay tax on the receivables: the new owner which is a party to the lease agreements, or the former owner—now a tenant entitled to collect the benefits of the tenancy?

On one hand, it may be said

By Aleksandra Faderewska-Waszkiewicz, advocate, tax adviser and partner, and Magdalena Szwarc-Brożyna, advocate and partner, Łaszczuk & Partners

that in that case the entity entitled to collect lease rent from the lessees and to issue invoices to the lessees for performance of lease services is the landlord (i.e. the new owner of the building).

An argument in favor of this position is the fact that the obligations arising under the leases continue to rest with the landlord.

The most important obligation of the landlord (which is also the lessor under the leases) is primarily the duty to perform lease services, i.e. to ensure the lessees full use of the premises they occupy in the building in the manner described in the lease agreement. Thus if the landlord continues to bear the obligation to perform the service of leasing the space, it may consistently be recognized that the landlord is also the entity entitled to charge a fee for the service performed. This position was adopted by the Director of the Warsaw Tax Chamber in a tax interpretation issued on July 25, 2005 (No. 1401/HTI/4407/14-18/05/EN), finding that the most salient fact is that despite assigning to the former owner its right to receive rent under the leases, the landlord continues to be the lessor, i.e. the provider of lease services, which obligates it to issue invoices documenting performance of the lease services.

On the other hand, it may be argued that in this case the entity entitled to collect rent from the lessees and to issue invoices to the lessees for performance of lease services is the tenant (i.e. the former owner of the building). As a result of the agreement concluded for tenancy of the building, the landlord (i.e. the new owner of the building) will not de facto perform lease services, but the lease services will be

performed only by the tenant.

The landlord will perform only the service of tenancy of the property. This position was adopted by the Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of June 30, 2009 (Case I FSK 781/08), which was issued as the result of an appeal from the tax interpretation referred to above.

The court did not agree with the position of the tax authority. Instead, the court held that in the case of VAT, what is subject to taxation is the services that are actually performed, and therefore in a case where in connection with the terms of the tenancy agreement, it is the tenant that will actually perform the service of leasing the space and collect rent from the lessees for this service, then the tax obligation rests on the tenant as the VAT payer. In consequence, it is also the tenant that will be obligated to issue VAT invoices documenting the performance of the lease services. all things not settled Currently there are no other judgments or tax interpretations addressing the issue discussed above which would indicate an established line of interpretation by the tax authorities or the courts. The tax interpretation and judgment discussed above were both issued in the same case.

There continues to be a risk of inconsistent positions of the tax authorities and the courts on this issue, which unfortunately is a fairly common situation in Poland. Therefore, to be fully protected from a tax perspective, the taxpayer has no option but to apply for an individual tax interpretation. In this situation that appears to be the only good solution.

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Events AmCham Kraków & Katowice

AmCham Gdańsk

Gender, culture and management

Tri-chamber party in the Tri-City

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mCham Kraków & Katowice held its Annual Christmas Mixer at the Sheraton Kraków Hotel. The mixer was preceded by a meeting with journalist Dorota

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Warakomska, Agnieszka Bilińska, CEO of Vital Voices Poland, and Ilona Chodorowska, director of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, who talked about manage-

ment styles in relation to gender and cultural differences. The discussion was moderated by Joanna Bensz, CH2M Hill country manager and AmCham Vice Chair.

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n December, AmCham Gdańsk held a Christmas reception in Sopot jointly with the GermanPolish Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Polish Swedish

Chamber of Commerce. Among the participants were members of the chambers as well as local business organizations, the diplomatic corps, and local government. The event

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1. Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chair and Kraków & Katowice Director (CH2M Hill). 2. Agnieszka Bilińska, Vital Voices Poland; Dorota Warakomska; Ilona Chodorowska, British Polish Chamber of Commerce. 3. Bogdan Maliszewski, UL International Polska; Jacek Legendziewicz, Jordan Group. 4. Agnieszka Steblecka; Joanna Bensz; Dorota Warakomska; Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director.

5. Olaf Kammel, Delphi Automotive; Jacek Drabik, Motorola Solutions. 6. Adam Czechanowski, Deloitte; Tomasz Owsiak, CH2M Hill.

7. Marzena Drela; Jacek Drabik; Krzysztof Put, Coca-Cola HBC Polska. 8. Brian George, US Consulate General in Kraków; Charles Frederick, Planate Management Group. 9. Joanna Bensz; Paweł Mazur, Wardyński & Partners. 10. Tadeusz Dulian, Deloitte; Ryszard Kruk, Enterprise Investors. 11. Krzysztof Put; Małgorzata Jamrozik, CH2M Hill. 12. Monika Dąbrowska, Lufthansa; Joanna Bensz; Marzena Drela; Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM Polska. 13. Jarosław Maślanka, Pega; Jowita Gdula, Iron Mountain. 14. Joanna Bensz; Andrew Lubelski; Zoriana Zozulia.

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combined German and American holiday traditions and the Swedish Saint Lucia’s Day.

1. A warm welcome at the registration desk. 2. The party has begun. 3. Cornelia Pieper, German Consul General in Gdańsk, delivers welcome notes. 4. Piotr Kowalczuk, Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk; Maria Montowska, director of the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. 5. Joanna Jaczewska, Lufthansa Systems; Maria Montowska, Magdalena Gruchała, Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. 6. Robert Zieliński, CEO of Dr. Oetker Polska, welcomes the guests. 7. The candlelit St. Lucia procession by students from the University of Gdańsk Department of Scandinavian Studies and the Medical University of Gdańsk, under the direction of Mateusz Trepkowski, celebrates an old Swedish tradition. 8. Monika Tarnowska, French Honorary Consul; Klaudia Jackowska, AmCham Gdańsk; Maria Montowska.

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Events Monthly Meeting in January

Carnival Business Mixer

Skills and education system

Carnival revelry

mCham started the 2015 Monthly Meeting program with Minister of Education Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, who met the chamber in January to talk about how

mCham and the Blue Cactus & Iguana Lounge joined forces to host the Carnival Busi-

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the system is changing to adjust to the dropping numbers of students, and about reforms encouraging schools to teach skills in demand on the labor market. AmCham is a strong propo-

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1. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide); Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Minister of Education. 2. Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska. 3. Anna Sieńko, IBM; Tony Housh. 4. Joseph Wancer, AmCham Board Member (Bank BGŻ); Tony Housh. 5. Magdalena Dziewguć, Google. 6. Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska; Anna Wieraszko, Amway. 7. Małgorzata Krasowska, Polish-US Fulbright Commission; Anna Czajkowska, InterContinental Warsaw; Ela Raczkowska, Vital Voices. 8. Brenda VanHorn, US Commercial Service; Jacek Drabik, Motorola Solutions.

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ness Mixer in February. The highlight of the evening was a big lottery drawing with attractive prizes for party-

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goers. The event also offered many opportunities to network with a wide range of business executives.

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1. Piotr Grajewski, Santa Fe Partners. 2. Marcin Sadło, InterContinental Warsaw; Aneta Mandziuk, Izabela Torebko, CBRE; Renata Stepowicz, InterContinental Warsaw. 3. Marek Matraszek, CEC Government Relations; Daniel Hall, US Embassy; George Michalski.

4. Ela Raczkowska, Vital Voices; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Anna Jakubowski, AmCham Board Member (Coca-Cola Poland Services); Aniela Hejnowska, Groupon. 5. The party in progress. 6. Richard Żabiński, Focus Research International; Dorota Dabrowski; Steven Lefever, Frost & Sullivan. 7. Lucky lottery winner Adam Bergmann, IN2KNO. 8. Live station with Mexican specialties. 9. Dorota Dabrowski; Witold Lisowski, Bose. 10. Monika Smorawska, Agata Prosińska, Starwood Hotels.

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Events Monthly Meeting in February

AmCham Anniversary Gala

Discussing business opportunities

Celebrating 25 years of success

eputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Katarzyna Kacperczyk and Marcin Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, were the guest

speakers at the Monthly Meeting in February. They talked about bilateral US-Poland business opportunities in the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership,

eputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński was among 800 guests who attended the AmCham 25th Anniversary Ball—the “Hollywood Gala”—to celebrate the

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the free-trade agreement currently being negotiated by the US and the EU.

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outstanding food and great music.

The venue was the ATM Film Production Studio complex in Warsaw.

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1. John Lynch, AmCham Board Member (Lynka); Stephen D. Mull, US Ambassador. 2. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide); Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Marcin Zaborowski, Polish Institute of Foreign Affairs.

3. William Czajkowski, US Commercial Service; Angelo Pressello, Direct Communication. 4. Marcin Zaborowski; Katarzyna Kacperczyk. 5. Katarzyna Kacperczyk; Stephen D. Mull. 6. The meeting in progress. 7. Marten Schoenrock, InterContinental Warsaw; Robert Grader, Warsaw Marriott. 8. Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director; Ryszard Kruk, Enterprise Investors.

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success of American investors who contributed their confidence, capital and knowhow to make a real impact on Poland’s future. The evening was full of Hollywood glamour, elegance,

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1. AmCham Board members Anna Jakubowski (Coca-Cola Poland Services), Marek Kapuściński (Procter & Gamble), Joanna Bensz (CH2M Hill) and Joseph Wancer (Bank BGŻ), with Janusz Piechociński, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy; Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide); Stephen D. Mull, US Ambassador to Poland; Board members Jolanta Jaworska (IBM) and Roman Rewald (Weil Gotshal); and Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director. 2. Joseph Wancer; Janusz Piechociński; Tony Housh with the Honorary Badge of Merit for the Economic Development of the Republic of Poland, an honor which AmCham received from the Polish government; Stephen D. Mull. 3. Tony Housh slices the AmCham 25th Anniversary birthday cake, courtesy of the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel.

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Events AmCham Anniversary Gala 11

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4. The gala in progress. 5. Joseph Wancer; Stephen D. Mull; Chery Stephen; Krystyna Wancer. 6. Tony Housh; Janusz Piechociński; Joanna Bensz. 7. Małgorzata Krasowska, Polish-US Fulbright Commission; Dorota Dabrowski; Jarosław Mulewicz, Avon Cosmetics Polska. 8. Paul Beach, United Technologies Corporation; Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director; Alon Redlich, United Technologies Corporation. 9. Tony Housh; Paweł Zegarłowicz, Citi Handlowy; Izabella Gorzelak, GE; Paul Beach; Stephen D. Mull; Dorota Dabrowski. 10. Amway guests with Chery Stephen. 11. Krystyna Wancer; Joseph Wancer; Elżbieta Pełka; Stephen D. Mull; Chery Stephen. 12. Dorota Dabrowski performs a Doris Day song. 13. Anna Jakubowski; Joanna Bensz; Marek Kapuściński.

14. Andrzej Dycha, Deputy Minister of Economy; Joseph Wancer; Ryszard Petru, Association of Polish Economists. 15. Tom Ćwiok, Tomasz Kaniecki, Barbara Pocialik, Marta Pawlak, AmCham; Tony Housh; Marzena Drela; Dorota Dabrowski; Andrzej Dycha; Anita Kowalska, Robert Kruszyna, AmCham. 16. Roman Rewald; Bożena Lublińska-Kasprzak, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. 17. Karolina Pańta, UTC; Anita Kowalska; Jagoda Domańska, Raytheon. 18. Dorota Dabrowski; Eligiusz Krześniak, Joanna Bistram, Squire Patton Boggs.

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Events Monthly Meeting in March

AmCham Anniversary Gala 19

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March with guest speakers Bartosz Węglarczyk, deputy editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita daily, and Ryszard

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Petru, president of the Association of Polish Economists. The venue was the InterContinental Warsaw.

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19. Anna Pietrzak, Amway; Dorota Dabrowski; Stephen D. Mull. 20. Stephen D. Mull; Joseph Wancer; Michał Boni, Member of the European Parliament. 21. Roman Rewald; Anna Jakubowski; Ryszard Kruk, Enterprise Investors. 22. Ryszard Kruk; Dorota Warakomska. 23. The ball in full swing. 24. Charles Frederick, Chris Decker, Planate Management Group. 25. Anita Kowalska; William Czajkowski, US Commercial Service; Marzena Drela; Paweł Pietrasiński. 26. Bartosz Wiśniewski, Aleksandra Wiśniewska, Air-France KLM Delta. 27. Barbara DeBenedetti; David DeBenedetti, DeBenedetti Majewski Szcześniak; Tony Housh; Agnieszka Kosowska, Colgate.

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he economic prospects for Poland in 2015 were the topic at the Monthly Meeting in

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1. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide). 2. Tony Housh; Bartosz Węglarczyk, Rzeczpospolita; Ryszard Petru, Association of Polish Economists. 3. Zofia Schnitzer, Ministry of Economy; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director. 4. Anita Kowalska, AmCham; Bartosz Węglarczyk. 5. William Czajkowski, Angela Palazzolo, US Embassy. 6. Monthly Meeting in progress.

7. Krzysztof Lubkiewicz, Raiffeisen Bank Polska; Ernest Bartosik, Unipharm. 8. Ryszard Petru; Tony Housh.

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Events Innovation Breakfast, AmCham Kraków & Katowice

Business Breakfast, AmCham Wrocław

Business, government and innovation

How to best spend EU money

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n March, AmCham Kraków & Katowice held a breakfast meeting devoted to innovation, with guest speakers including Paweł Tynel and Bogdan Dobrzeniecki from EY, and Rafał Kulczycki from the Małopolska Center of Entrepreneurship.

The venue was the Holiday Inn Kraków Hotel.

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n March, AmCham Wrocław held a Business Breakfast with keynote speaker Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Deputy Minister of Economy, who talked about EU grants for Poland in the 20142020 financial perspective, with a focus on support for R&D, available programs for innovative and environmental investments, and effective preparation of planned projects.

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1. Ellen Germain, US Consul General in Kraków. 2. Paweł Tynel, EY; Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chair (CH2M Hill). 3. John Lynch, AmCham Board Member (Lynka); Ellen Germain. 4. Stanley Urban, IMS Polska; John Lynch. 5. Rafał Solecki, Małopolska Center of Entrepreneurship; Joanna Bensz. 6. Rafał Kulczycki, City of Kraków Development Department. 7. Olaf Kammel, Delphi; Andrew Caruso, US Consulate. 8. Marek Guzik, US Consulate; Krzysztof Krzosztofiak, Kraków Technological Park; Marcin Nowak, Capgemini.

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1. Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Deputy Minister of Economy. 2. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director. 3. Andrzej Modrzyk, Pittsburgh Glass Works; Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chair (CH2M Hill). 4. Lucyna Drewniowska, Panattoni Europe; Marcin Zawadzki, Crido Taxand. 5. Tomasz Matkowski, Bergman Engineering. 6. Malcolm Ridge, Michał Tłaczała, IBM Poland. 7. Marzena Strojecka; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz, AmCham Wrocław Director (PM Group); Monika Słomka, PM Group. 8. Bogusława Mazurek, Crido Taxand.

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Events Business Mixer in March

Breakfast Meeting, AmCham Kraków & Katowice

Spring at last!

A man with a mission

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n March, AmCham members and friends met for the Spring Business Mixer at the Westin Warsaw Hotel.

As always, the meeting was a great opportunity to interface with fellow businesspeople in an informal way and try your luck at the raffle.

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1. The mixer in progress. 2. Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM Polska, with AmCham 30 Under 30 program participants. 3. Stefan Friedl, Westin Warsaw Hotel; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director. 4. Aniela Hejnowska; Anna Opala, Groupon.

5. Stan Urban; Rick Lada, AmCham Secretary. 6. Lucky winner of the AmCham raffle.

7. Dorota Dziubek; Radosław Sawicki, FedEx Express. 8. Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director; Mirosław Leszczyński, John Deere Polska. 9. Judith Gliniecki, AmCham Vice Chair (CEE Equity Partners); Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide). 10. Stefan Friedl; Duarte Silva Gonçalo, Sheraton Warsaw; Anna Jakubowski, AmCham Board Member (Coca-Cola Poland Services). 11. Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia; Tony Housh; Marek Matraszek, CEC Government Relations.

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n March, AmCham Kraków & Katowice held a Regional Breakfast Meeting with guest speaker US Ambassador Stephen D. Mull, who discussed the PolishUS relationship and presented priorities for the US Mission in 2015. The venue was the Holiday Inn Kraków.

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1. Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chair (CH2M Hill). 2. Introductory notes by Joanna Bensz. 3. Krzysztof Put, Coca-Cola Hellenic; Marek Guzik, US Consulate General. 4. Jarosław Maślanka, Pega; Jacek Zalewski, ARUP; Jan Małolepszy, Pega. 5. US Ambassador Stephen D. Mull. 6. Joanna Bensz; Jacek Woźniak, Małopolska Regional Council. 7. John Sheehan, International Paper; Kocza Zsolt, ADM Shared Services Centre Europe. 8. John Lynch, AmCham Board Member (Lynka); Stephen D. Mull.

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Events Monthly Meeting in April

Business Mixer/AmCham Gdańsk

Gdańsk calling

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n March, AmCham Gdańsk held a Spring Business Mixer with two guest speakers. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman, talked about AmCham’s plans and priorities for 2015, and Prof.

Jacek Mąkinia, Prorector of the Gdańsk University of Technology, briefed the participants to identify areas of collaboration, opportunity and concern for business. The venue was the Radisson Blu Hotel Gdańsk.

Elections ahead!

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omestic politics were on the agenda of the Monthly Meeting in April, as Poland is facing two major elections this year: the presidential election in the spring and the parliamentary election in the fall. The venue of the meeting was the InterContinental Warsaw.

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1. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide). 2. Jacek Mąkinia, Gdańsk University of Technology. 3. Damian Borkowski, Rolls-Royce Poland; Piotr Żurowski, KPMG. 4. Mariusz Wiśniewski, CBRE; Dorota Dobrzyńska, Bank Millennium. 5. Elżbieta Kryńska, Adecco Poland; Alina Gronek, AmCham Gdańsk Director (Adecco Poland); Mateusz Stawicki, Iron Mountain. 6. Marcin Zagórski, Amazon Polska; Damian Borkowski; Piotr Żurowski. 7. Damian Borkowski; Mateusz Stawicki; Alina Gronek.

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1. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide); Marek Matraszek, CEC Government Relations; Prof. Witold Orłowski, PwC; Wawrzyniec Smoczyński, Polityka Insight. 2. Alain Bobet; Wawrzyniec Smoczyński. 3. Brenda VanHorn, US Commercial Service; Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM; Judith Gliniecki, AmCham Vice Chair (CEE Equity Partners); Angelo Pressello, Direct Communication. 4. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Sebastian Arana, 3M Poland. 5. Ryszard Kruk, Enterprise Investors; Gedeon Werner. 6. Tony Housh; Marek Matraszek. 7. Paweł Wideł, General Motors; Jerzy Chlebowski, EY. 8. Witold Orłowski gives an interview for Polish Radio.

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Events Business Breakfast/AmCham Wrocław

Leadership agenda

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n April, AmCham Wrocław held a Business Breakfast meeting together with United Business Development, HR specialists, to discuss leadership development based on John Zenger and Joseph Folkman’s approaches. The keynote speakers were Peter Strupp, president of UBD, and Maria Mycielska-Toth, senior consultant and coach at UBD.

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1. The workshop in progress. 2. Peter Strupp, United Business Development. 3. Monika Ciesielska-Mróz, AmCham Wrocław Director (PM Group); Maria Mycielska-Toth, United Business Development. 4. Christopher Jasiak, Esperotia Energy Investments; Dariusz Janasiak, Raiffeisen Bank Polska. 5. Dariusz Skiba, HSBC Bank Polska; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz. 6. Marek Musiał, EY; Rafał Szafraniec, KPMG. 7. Karolina Figura, Miller Canfield.

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