British Polish Chamber of Commerce

Antoni F. Reczek, Chairman of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce was President of the Board of PricewaterhouseCoopers Sp. z o.o., PwC’s Polish auditing firm. He was PwC’s Central and Eastern European Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs Leader.

Antoni has over thirty years of experience in the provision of audit and advisory services. He has worked full time in Great Britain, New Zealand, Africa and Poland. Since 1990 he has worked in Poland. Antoni is a UK qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAS) and is a registered auditor in Poland (KIBR).

Specialising in the financial services sector he is involved in the audit of financial sector companies, inward investment, capital markets, legislative work and public policy matters.

Currently he is a member of several bodies: European Financial Reporting Group (EFRAG), Consultative Group of the European Regulators in the Capital Markets Committee, Polish Auditing Standards Board, Polish Accounting Standards Board and is a member of the Financial Board of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Michael has been working in Poland since 2004 in Real Estate and Construction. Extensive experience in international trade and currently trading physical commodities on an international level. Experience includes working for the Brazilian Government as their Marketing consultant for over 7 years and a major South East Asian Multi National. Michael recognises the need for professional advice and service to enable trade at international level.

Nicholas is a partner in the Warsaw based commercial law firm Richardson & Wspolnicy in partnership with Porwisz i Partnerzy. He studied law at Oxford University, and after qualifying as a solicitor, he worked at Slaughter and May. He came to Poland in 1994 with Baker & McKenzie. Before setting up his own law firm, he was a partner with Norton Rose

Daria Kulińska is a Corporate Communications Manager at Tesco Polska, being responsible for external and internal communications. She has 15 years of experience in the PR and communications field. Before joining Tesco she was working at the National Stadium in Warsaw being responsible for PR activities from the construction of the stadium to the EURO 2012 Championships. She started her career in the oil&gas sector working as the regional communications manager in companies like PKN ORLEN, Unipetrol in Czech Republic and MOL in Hungary. Daria graduated from the Warsaw University in Management and Marketing. She is living in Warsaw and working partly in Kraków.

Marzena Richter has acquired broad and in depth professional experience. In 1991 she was one of the few persons, who conducted the first audits to International Financial Reporting Standards in Poland and in other countries in Eastern Europe, e.g. in Bulgaria, commissioned by the World Bank and private investors. Before coming to Poland she also worked in international tax havens such as the Channel Islands. Marzena Richter qualified in the UK as a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and has more than 20 years post qualification experience. In 1993 she became a member of the equivalent Polish body recognized for auditing, the Polish Chamber of Auditors and has since been in practice as Staniszewski & Richter for the last 19 years.

Rory is Head of Corporate Finance in CEE for Jones Lang LaSalle, a global leading real estate advisory firm. Rory has been living in Central & Eastern Europe for more than ten years and has experience in real estate private equity, fund management and finance. Rory received his BSc from the University of Reading and hold an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management.

As Executive Director of the BPCC in 2005 Barbara was awarded the Queen’s honour, an MBE (Master of the Order of the British Empire), for her 13 years service to British Companies in Poland.

Barbara has worked in training, client services and business development and has now returned to her roots in event management.

She has her own consulting company ‘Conselt’ and is an associate of the world leader in venue finding, ‘HelmsBriscoe’.

Barbara is on the Sue Ryder Foundation board and is its driving force behind the ‘Rat Race’, an annual charity fun run in business suits.

UK born to Irish Polish parents. She is married with 10 year old twins.

Aneta has several years of experience in marketing and communications, covering different sectors which present many professional challenges. She has been with Diageo for over nine years, a global leader in the alcoholic beverages industry, the owner of brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys, Guinness. At Diageo, Aneta is responsible for the corporate relations agenda (including government affairs, corporate communications, PR and internal communications) covering 55 countries mainly from continental Europe, including Poland. In addition to that, she serves as the Chairperson of the Committee for Corporate Social Responsibility of the Association of Employers Polish Spirits Industry.

Prior to Diageo, she worked at Polpharma, where her responsibilities included creating a department dealing with Brand PR. She began her professional career working as a communications specialist at a PR agency, where she cooperated with companies from many different sectors, including IT, financial, FMCG and pharmaceutical industries. Aneta is a graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Warsaw. She is fluent in English, Italian and Bulgarian and has a working command of German and Russian.

Has extensive experience in the financial services industry. He holds an engineering degree with honors from Liverpool University. He is a qualified statutory auditor certified in the United Kingdom. From 1998 to 2007 he worked for GE Capital where he held managerial positions in finance. From 2007 to 2008 he acted in the capacity of CEO of AAS Balta, the largest insurer in Latvia. From 2008 to 2009 he was the director of sales in the Intouch Insurance Group, the holding company belonging to the RSA Group. From 2009 he has been in the Management Board of Link4 Towarzystwa Ubezpieczeń S.A. and from 2012 he has been its CEO. He received an award for being the Man of the Year in Insurance in 2014 conferred by Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa.

Appointed as President of the previous Association in August 2012 and now Chairman of COBCOE, David Thomas is a former Chairman of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce 2003-2010, Vice Chairman 2000-2003 and Vice Chairman of COBCOE from 2007 to 2012. David Thomas’ professional occupation is as CEO and Principal Partner Financier Sp. z o.o., a corporate finance boutique, based in Warsaw and a Board Member of Net Investing Sp. z o.o.
Previous roles include Country Head of Coopers & Lybrand; Deputy CEO of Schroder; Head of Investment Banking, ING Barings, Executive Director of Baring Brothers UK; Managing Director of HSBC and Head of Corporate and Investment Banking.

David has been working in the Consumer Finance Sector of Financial Services for more than 25 years in numerous senior Operational and Functional roles and has been working in Central Europe since 2003 for International Personal Finance (IPF).

Marcin Andrukowicz is a manager and a Board Member of Wieliczka Salt Mine Tourist Route Ltd, one of the most important tourist attractions in Poland and Central Europe. His main tasks in Wieliczka are to conduct the division consists of more than 100 employees and to implement restructurising strategies and to make all processes more efficient and profitable. The mine, managed and restructured by Marcin, in the first year of implementation of the strategy developed by him increased its sales by 70% and improved the financial results by 40%.

Iwona has been working for Tesco since June 2008. Her responsibilities include internal and external communications and CSR strategy. Prior to that she was the head of Public Affairs and Communications department at Coca-Cola Poland Services. Her professional career also includes working for Philip Morris Polska S.A. and 10 years in the petroleum industry.

David Buckle is an international corporate lawyer and a member of the Institute of Directors. In addition to his extensive work with international clients, David has worked with more than 50 boards of directors, SMEs, listed companies and state owned enterprises on corporate governance issues.

Dariusz Kucharski is currently the CRO and the Management Board Member of HSBC Bank Polska S.A. In this role, he oversees the management of risk on an enterprise-wide basis and is responsible for the bank’s risk discipline including credit, market, operational and security risk. Dariusz joined HSBC in 2005 having previously held a variety of roles in treasury, audit and risk management at ING, Arthur Andersen and Raiffeisen Bank.
Dariusz holds a degree in Finance from University of Economics in Krakow and the qualification of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Andrzej developed his professional career in well-known global corporations: United Technologies Company (SAC), General Electric (GETS), Komatsu (Dressta), Huta Stalowa Wola. Since 2012 has worked for Rolls-Royce in Business Development Executive position, based in SSC Krakow. His background includes both engineering and business management. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering and Master of Business Administration in general management and international trade. Speaks native Polish, fluent English and German. Married with Małgorzata, has two daughters Barbara & Aleksandra. Loves playing music, running, skiing and hiking.

Mark Sutherland is CFO for Provident Polska, part of the IPF PLC group which is a FTSE 250 consumer lending business with operations across a number of CEE markets as well as Mexico, Spain and Australia. The Polish business delivers over half of IPF PLC group profit and has been present on the Polish market for 20 years. It has more than 700k customers and employs c. 8k people across the whole of Poland. Mark has worked and lived in Poland for six years. He read Economics at Durham University and is a Chartered Accountant and originally trained and worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in London in the 1990s. Since then he has held a variety of international financial services CFO roles before joining IPF in 2010.

Lucyna Baca-Lönn – leadership, executive and business coach and graphologist, is the founder and director of Graphology Solutions Group (2008), which provides leadership development programmes and executive selection processes with an application of the scientific methods and assessments. Ms Baca-Lönn is the author of several leadership development programmes. She is a member of the British Academy of Graphology and the International Graphological Colloquium, and has completed doctoral studies in the science of management at Kozminski University. She is a member of the British Academy of Graphology and the International Graphological Colloquium. She has completed doctoral studies in the science of management and postgraduate studies in professional coaching at Kozminski University. Ms Baca-Lönn is a leadership advisor to the BPCC Board and serves as a board member of the IPCC. Her company, Graphology Solutions Group has become the winner of AI 2017 Business Excellence Rewards as Best Graphology & Coaching Consultancy 2017 – Europe and the winner of International Emerging Markets Awards 2017 as the Best International Leadership Development Experts & Award for Excellence in Graphology Analysis – Poland. She speaks fluently five languages.

As Director of DIT Poland, Lech heads a team of 12 business development experts who identify high value opportunities in the Polish market and provide assistance to large UK companies with a focus on energy & mining, rail & infrastructure, financial & professional services, defence & security, healthcare and automotive. A former Open Society Institute Fellow at Duke University in North Carolina, Lech has degrees in sociology, journalism and economics from Warsaw University, Collegium Civitas, and the Polish Academy of Sciences. Before joining the Embassy’s Policy Team in 2015, for over a decade Lech covered business and economic news from Poland for Sweden's Bonnier Group and other international media.