THE INTERPLAY OF
CITIES, PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY
IN DRIVING NEW ECONOMIC VALUE
SPEAKERS
Experts to rock our world
Greg Clark
International cities expert
Advisor to several global cities, including London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, New York, and Hong Kong.
Professor GREG CLARK is an international cities expert and advisor and mentor to several global cities, including London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, New York, and Hong Kong.
Among his many roles, Greg is Senior Fellow at the Urban Land Institute, Chief Advisor and Chairman of the OECD's Forum on Local Development and Investment, Lead Advisor on the World Bank Urbanisation Knowledge Forum, Fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington, Associate of LSE Cities, and a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School.
http://www.gregclark.com
Ian Angell
Futurologist and advisor to national governments
Emeritus Professor of Information Systems, London School of Economics. Author of The New Barbarian Manifesto, predicting a world dominated by "hot spots" of prosperity and talent.
IAN ANGELL is no stranger to the ASPIRE Annual Conference - this will be his third appearance.
Emeritus Profess of Information Systems at the London School of Economics, Ian’s radical views on the global implications of information technology have earned him a high-profile reputation as a "futurologist."
In his 2001 book, The New Barbarian Manifesto, he lays out his advice on how to win in an increasingly brutal and brutish world dominated by "hot spots" of prosperity and talent.
His other publications include The Flight of the Golden Geese, his warning and advice guide to High Net-worth Individuals on future trends in taxation, and Science’s First Mistake, exploring delusions in the pursuit of theory.
Ian is a Freeman of the City of London and his current work explores the impacts of block chain and other new technologies on the future of money.
http://www.ianangell.com
John Straw
Technomist and entrepreneur
Advisor to global companies on digital transformation, including McKinsey and IBM. Author of iDisrupted, a best seller exploring the impacts of disruptive technology.
JOHN STRAW has 32 years in IT. He is regarded as an expert in technomics and digital transformation.
John has been involved in four Internet startups as co-founder or executive with three exits (including one to Microsoft). Most recently he was Chairman of Thomas Cook Digital and author of iDisrupted, a book and e-magazine on the disruptive impacts of technology.
John is an active early stage venture capitalist specialising in marketing and cloud technology investments.
In 2015 he was appointed Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Co. and in 2016 an advisor to IBM on the subject of the Internet of Things.
His blog is at http://www.idisrupted.com/disrupted-blog/
Ilan Oshri
International outsourcing expert
Professor of Globalisation and Technology and director of Global Sourcing and Services at Loughborough School of Business and Economics. Author of Offshoring Strategies: Evolving Captive Centre Models and The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring.
ILAN OSHRI is professor of Globalisation and Technology and director of Global Sourcing and Services at Loughborough School of Business and Economics.
He is an advisor to global companies and regions on outsourcing practice and author of Offshoring Strategies: Evolving Captive Centre Models; co-author of The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring and the editor of the book series Outsourcing and Offshoring: Critical Perspectives.
Ilan’s current research interest focusses on the area of learning, knowledge processes and innovation in global contexts.
http://www.ilanoshri.com
Charles Landry
International authority on the use of creativity in urban change.
Author of the concept of the Creative City, now a global movement exploring how cities can best harness their capabilities and resources to compete globally. Advisor to the City of Kraków.
CHARLES LANDRY is an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change.
He is the author of the concept of the Creative City, now a global movement exploring how cities can best harness their capabilities and resources to compete globally.
Charles facilitates complex urban change and visioning processes and undertakes tailored research. These include the ‘creative city index’ in collaboration with Bilbao, the concept of ‘civic urbanity’ and the ‘creative bureaucracy’ jointly with the South Australian government.
‘The Creative City Index’ is a strategic tool that measures, evaluates and assesses the innovative eco-system of a city and its capacity to adapt to radical global shifts and adjustments. So far 20 cities have taken part, with Kraków the latest city to join the initiative.
Charles’ books include: The Creative City: A toolkit for Urban Innovators; The Art of City Making, and The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage.
http://www.charleslandry.com
Kathy Pain
Expert on international advanced business services and global city development.
Professor of Real Estate Development at the Henley Business School; member of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Smart Cities and the US-China Centre for City Competitiveness.
KATHY PAIN is an expert on international advanced business services and global city development.
Professor of Real Estate Development and Director of Research in the Henley Business School, UK, Kathy specialises in research into international advanced business services and global city development.
She is a Corporate Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Young Foundation.
Kathy is a member of UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Smart Cities and the US-China Centre for City Competitiveness. She has served on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ‘Vision for Cities’ Task Group, and she leads research on global city planning as Associate Director of the Globalization & World Cities Research Network.
Her engagement as an expert includes government bodies in the UK, Europe, China, Korea, the Pan Yellow Sea Region, United Arab Emirates, Australia, USA and Canada.
Ewa Ewart
Award-winning documentary film-maker
BBC film-maker; films include the Emmy-nominated, The Children of Beslan.
Ewa Ewart is an award-winning documentary film-maker, working for the BBC. Her films include the Emmy-nominated The Children of Beslan and The Children of Beslan - Five years on about the Beslan school hostage crisis.
Other notable documentaries include Murder, Poison and Putin - Anna's Last Words about murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, as well as After Saddam, Russia - Poison City and Japan: Retired Husband Syndrome.
Dawid Podsiadło
Best-selling singer/songwriter
One of Poland’s most exciting young musical talents; winner of the 2012 Polish edition of X-Factor.
Dawid Podsiadło is one of Poland’s most exciting young musical talents; winner of the 2012 Polish edition of X-Factor.
His first album, Comfort and Happiness debuted at No. 1 on the charts and was the best-selling album of 2013 in Poland. His second solo album, Annoyance and Disappointment, was released in November 2015, also debuting at No. 1.
Born in Dąbrowa Gornicza, Dawid’s journey to stardom began at the Centre for Creative Development in his home town, a corporate social responsibility initiative supported by ArcelorMittal.
Ewa Don-Siemion
Expert in Labour Law
Attorney-at-law admitted to the New York Bar; Partner and a co-head of employment law, CDZ.
Ewa Don-Siemion heads CDZ’s SSC/BPO practice. She specialises in international transactions focused on the Shared Services Centre, Business Process Outsourcing, financial services and TMT sectors.
Ewa has advised Goldman Sachs, Architech Solutions Consulting Services Inc. and Alexander Mann Solutions Poland on opening shared services centres in Poland. She has also advised Schibsted, AON Hewitt, Ocado, Hays Poland, Luxoft, among others, on employment regulations including moving employees between cities, structuring employment agreements, drafting internal regulations on the workforce and transferring employees between Poland and European and Non-European countries.
Ewa worked for Shearman & Sterling in New York where she represented Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs on media, telecoms, mining and energy transactions. While at Shearman & Sterling, she also dealt with financial regulatory matters for non-US banks and brokerage houses operating in the US.
Ewa is highly recommended by The Legal 500 EMEA 2016 in the field of labour law: ”CDZ Legal Advisors’ employment ‘impressive’ team are ‘pragmatic, creative and a pleasure to work with’. The ‘terrific’ Ewa Don-Siemion and the ‘extremely knowledgeable’ Piotr Kryczek ‘clearly lead the team efficiently’.
Matt Farrar
Design guru
VP Service Design at EPAM. Co-founder of Great Fridays, the UK’s leading product and service design agency.
Matt Farrar has been 20 years in design, focusing on understanding and promoting its fundamental importance to business.
He is the co-founder and European CEO of the UK’s leading product and service design agency, Great Fridays. Notable clients include: Adobe, Gucci, Citrix, Microsoft, PayPal, Experian, Thomson Reuters, Vodafone and Pearson.
Great Fridays was acquired in 2014 by EPAM Systems, where Matt now fulfils the role of Vice President of Service Design.
Paul Clarke
Director of Technology, Ocado
Responsible for technology strategy at online grocer Ocado, the world's largest online-only grocery retailer, where IT is used in every aspect of the business.
Paul Clarke is director of technology at Ocado, the world's largest online-only grocery retailer.
After joining Ocado in 2006, Paul initially worked on warehouse control systems and then joined the team designing Ocado's next highly automated fulfilment centre. After establishing new teams for simulation and mobile development, he then co-wrote the first of Ocado's award winning mobile apps which remain the only apps from a major retailer supporting full offline shopping.
In his current role, Clarke heads up Ocado Techology, whose 350+ software engineers and other IT specialists are responsible for building all the software and IT infrastructure that powers Ocado.
After graduating in Physics from Oxford in 1980, Paul joined the computer consultancy Scicon. Since then he has spent most of his career working either as a freelance consultant or in technology start-up ventures.
Tim Jackson
Venture capitalist, entrepreneur and commentator
Runs a London-based fund focused on Internet and mobile seed and series A investments.
Tim Jackson is an entrepreneur, investor and tech commentator.
He is general partner at Lean Investments, and has been an active early-stage investor since 2000 and an advisor and non-executive director to a number of private companies.
Tim served as managing director of a $700m European technology venture fund formed by the Carlyle Group, a US private equity firm.
Formerly he was founder and chief executive of QXL, which went to IPO on the Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange and was sold in 2007 for $1.9 billion.
Tim wrote a weekly technology column for the Financial Times for seven years, was previously on the staff of The Economist, and served as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief in Tokyo and Brussels.
Barry Childe
FinTech pioneer and evangelist
Distinguished Engineer and Intrapreneur, HSBC Bank Plc; pioneer in Investment Banking computing technology, leader of HSBC’s iLABS R&D programme.
Dr. Barry Childe, a protégé of Professor Anthony Holder, has over 35 years’ experience, working across all core Banking disciplines, but specialises in specialist Investment Banking computing technology.
Barry leads HSBC’s iLABS R&D programme, producing specialist technical solutions for HSBC. He is the lead engineer on HSBC’s work on Distributed Ledgers technology and a contributing member to the R3-CEV community.
He is most recognised for his work in evangelising Grid and Cloud Computing solutions throughout the financial services community with particular emphasis on large-scale High Performance Computing (HPC) and Big Compute solutions.
Barry holds a PhD in Computer Science and a collection of senior IT industry qualifications. His IT career started within Computer Operations, he won the UK IBM Cup programming competition in 1977, and then entered the world of Investment Banking technology. Since then he has worked at a number of Investment Banks in both Infrastructure and Software roles.
Barry has been involved in the creation of some notable start-up entities, including Computacentre (1981), TD Waterhouse (1999) and MarkIT Partners (2003). He has also been involved in a number of notable mergers and acquisitions: merging five Banks to create Nordea (1997), the integration of Lehman Brothers by Barclays Capital (2008), VMWare acquiring Gemstone, Springsource and RabbitMQ (2009), and the creation of Symphony Investment Banking communications (2014).
Barry is also noted for his work in the Innovation and Start-up sector, through HSBC's iLABS R&D programme. This involves technically supporting Strategic Innovation & Investments function and collaborating closely with Academia, Vendor Research Labs, Technology councils and vendor led start-up and accelerator programmes. Barry represents HSBC on a number of IT industry boards & vendor councils and has authored/contributed to a number of industry papers and books.
Barry joined HSBC in 2010, as Head of Strategic Components for GBM. His former roles included, CTO PaaS Division at VMware; Head of Information Technology, Westpac Institutional Bank; Head of HPC / Application Infrastructure Engineering at Barclays Capital; Head of HPC at The Royal Bank of Scotland; Head of Information Technology at TD Securities; Chief Technology Officer at Nordea Bank and Head of Information Technology at Christiania Bank.
Barry lives in Seaford, England with his wife Cherry Ann and his favourite pastimes are Golf and anything to do with classic cars.
Jeremy Tipper
Talent acquisition entrepreneur and innovator
Director of Consulting at Alexander Mann Solutions; founder Capital Consulting and The Talent Collective.
Jeremy Tipper is part of the Alexander Mann Solutions leadership team and has accountability for the Consulting and Marketing teams across the organisations expanding global footprint.
Jeremy is putting value adding consulting services at the heart of how Alexander Mann Solutions go to market and deliver Talent Solutions to clients in 85 countries. He is also board sponsor for Alexander Mann Solutions in APAC and Emerging markets.
Jeremy has a Banking and Finance Degree from Loughborough University and has built a career as an entrepreneur and innovator in the industry.
Prior to joining Alexander Mann Solutions, Jeremy founded and built Capital Consulting, a pioneer in the outsourcing industry, and The Talent Collective, a management consultancy specialising in talent acquisition. Both of these companies were acquired by Alexander Mann Solutions, in 2008 and 2014 respectively. His early career was spent running Graduate recruitment at NatWest, as a Director at Robert Walters and as the Head of Resourcing at Vodafone.
Corey Scobie
API and Open Platform pioneer
20 years experience in Internet technologies; Vice President, Open Platform & Product Experience, Akamai
Corey Scobie is Vice President, Open Platform & Product Experience at Akamai Technologies, where he leads strategy and delivery of Akamai’s command and control console (Luna Control Center), as well as the portfolio of customer and developer facing applications and APIs. Corey leads The Open Platform Initiative, which is an Akamai wide effort to simplify and expand access to Akamai’s core technologies, products and services using a developer driven and self-service approach.
Corey joined the Akamai team in December 2012, after having been exposed to the company as a partner & customer while serving as Chief Strategist for Appliances and Application Optimisation at IBM. Corey has also held senior positions with Akana (previously SOA Software), DataPower Technologies and Orsus Solutions.
Corey has over 20 years of experience in Internet Technologies and has been involved in the API and Open Platform revolution amongst the world’s top web players and Fortune 500 companies for much of the past decade.
Krzysztof Görlich
Businessman and politician
Deputy Mayor of Kraków, 1990-1998; encouraged the first multinationals to locate in Kraków.
Krzysztof Görlich is CEO of Aspen, Poland’s leading facilities management company, part of the Atalian Group, and Chairman of nh2 - the project to regenerate the Nowa Huta Steelworks.
From 1994 to 1998, Krzysztof was Deputy Mayor of Kraków, responsible for the urban and economic development of the city, strategic planning, multi-year budgeting and debt-financing.
Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Geology in the Polish Academy of Sciences, where his research focussed on climate.
Jeff Patton
Innovator in People efficiency and effectiveness
Senior PwC UK Partner; MCA & AMCF award-winning consultant; 24 years with GE, Celerant, Capgemini and PwC.
Jeff Patton is Senior Partner at PwC UK, leading and growing a leading practice Operations improvement team. Previously developed leading offers - Perform, Accelerate, BeLean and BLMS and built high value business teams for Hitachi (Celerant), Capgemini and now PwC Internationally.
During his successful roles in Industry and Consulting , Jeff has been able to develop and practice various capabilities in Engineering, Production and Commercial operations, Procurement and Logistics, Product Management, Quality/BPR and Innovation.
Over 24 years with General Electric, Celerant, Capgemini and now PwC, Jeff has been able to attend and study many of the leading educational courses on Leadership, Digital strategy, Business strategy and Operations.
Sean Tuffy
Expert in cross-border funds
Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Intelligence at Brown Brothers Harriman. 15 years in the cross-border fund industry.
Sean M. Tuffy joined BBH in 2006, prior to which he worked at State Street Corporation in Boston and Dublin.
Sean participates actively in industry groups, including the Irish Funds Industry Association, International Securities Lending Association and the Association of Global Custodians.
His insights on global financial regulations are sought after, and he frequently presents them at conferences and in publications.
Sean has a BS degree in business administration from Mary Washington College. He is based in Dublin.
Wojtek Burkot
Technology Pioneer
Former Nuclear physicist and CERN scientist. Built Google’s local engineering site in Kraków and also served as CTO at Allegro. ASPIRE Chairman.
Wojtek Burkot is one of the most recognisable names in the Polish technology sector. His past roles include eight years building Google’s local engineering site and prior to that seven years as Engineering/Programs Manager at Motorola. After Google, he joined Allegro as CTO New Marketplaces.
Wojtek holds a PhD in Particle Physics from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. As a researcher he worked at CERN and DESY and was also an Assistant Professor at Krakow’s Jagielonian University, INF and AGH University of Science and Technology. He is a member of New England Complex Systems Institute.
Wojtek is Chairman of the ASPIRE Management Board.
David Poole
Outsourcing visionary
Co-Founder and CEO of Symphony, a market leader in robotics process automation; over 20 years as a corporate executive, running multi-billion dollar outsourcing and services firms.
David Poole is an industry visionary He has grown global businesses, built industry leading sales and operations teams, and spearheaded innovation across the industry in areas including platform-based BPO, supply chain BPO, cloud-based services, and user experience.
David’s priorities at Symphony are to develop a world-class team and to work closely with client leadership to help them leverage automation and other inspired delivery models to compete in a digital world. Co-Founder and CEO of Symphony.
Romek Lubaczewski
CEE Shared services guru
Has helped clients to open 31 centres in the last 10 years; runs the largest shared services and BPO Consulting team in CEE.
Romek Lubaczewski is a Partner at PwC where he has worked for over 10 years, in Assurance, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Advisory departments. Previous roles include Managing Partner of PwC Consulting practice in Poland and he is currently leader of the Financial Function Effectiveness team in Poland and the Shared Services Centres (SSC) Advisory Group for the CEE region. He is also a member of PwC’s SSC and BPO Global Experts Group.
He is a subject matter expert on a wide range of Shared Services Centre and BPO activities from initial analysis, financial modelling and due diligence through design, set-up, hiring, process transition and go-live. His SSC/BPO experience also covers operational management and process re-design at subsequent stages of centre operations.
Romek is a member of the ASPIRE management board.
Agni Zygner
CEE Centre Manager of the Year
General Manager, Capita Poland; over 20 years experience working in countries such as the USA, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Poland and Russia.
Agni Zygner is General Manager of Capita Poland; responsible for managing two sites in Kraków and Łódź as well as leading the Company growth in Poland and in Europe.
Agni previously managed her own Consulting business based in Milan, providing strategic and commercial support for organisations expanding into international markets. She has over 20 years of experience includes working in countries such as USA, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Poland, Russia and among others, international corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM and American Express.
Agni is a member of the ASPIRE management board and was awarded Centre Manager of the Year at the 2015 CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Awards.
Jola Gantkowska
Expert in Human Resources and Recruitment
Head of Operations, Global Client Service Centres, Mainland Europe for leading RPO company, Alexander Mann Solutions; Wine aficionado.
Jola Gantkowska has extensive experience in Human Resources and Recruitment Operations Management. Her main area of focus is managing multiple headcount teams delivering recruitment and administration services to AMS clients globally, with particular focus and expertise in the EMEA region. She is currently managing AMS’s largest centre in Kraków and a second site in Gdańsk. She is also responsible for Global Recruitment Administration processes within AMS.
Jola graduated from the Kraków University of Economics, majoring in International Management, completed postgraduate studies in European Studies and Human Resources Management and also graduated from Erickson International College of Coaching. She is a member of the management board of ASPIRE and head of the Krakow Chapter of ABSL - the association of business services leaders.
Eoin McCoy
Expert in building offshore centres
Poland Head of IG Group, the leading online trading company; previously set up GE Healthcare, Aon and Sabre Holdings, all in Kraków.
Eoin McCoy has lived and worked in Kraków for over 15 years and during that time has set up several leading technology and business services centres. Currently, Poland Head go online trading company IG Group, Eoin was previously Solutions Delivery Leader and Site Leader, Kraków for GE Healthcare – Life Sciences. He has a long track record of success in the Kraków market. Before joining GE, he setup and served as General Manager of the operations for both Aon and Sabre Holdings.
Eoin has a depth of experience in software applications development & delivery, research & development, project and programme management and shared service operations, and his background also includes work at ICL/Fujistu and Huawei Technologies.
Eoin is a founding member of ASPIRE and a member of the Management Board.
Mike McDonald
Managing Director, Brown Brothers Harriman (Poland)
Set up and leads 1,000+ BBH centre in Kraków; oversees the company’s service delivery in Europe; 24 years in the funds industry.
Michael J. McDonald is Managing Director of Brown Brothers Harriman (Poland).
In addition to his responsibilities leading the Poland office, Mike is responsible for Service Delivery in Europe, overseeing Client Service for Investments Funds and Banks in the region.
Before Poland, Mike was Country Head of the firm's business in Ireland and Managing Director of Brown Brothers Harriman Trustee Services (Ireland) Limited from 2008 - 2012 and previously Head of Americas, Global Custody in the Firm's Boston office. He also spent several years in BBH's Boston and New York offices as a Senior Relationship Manager.
Mike began his career at BBH in 1992 after graduating from Boston College with a B.S. in Finance. He is an ASPIRE Board member.
Geert Desmedt
CEO, Euroclear Bank, Poland
Head up the Poland branch of the world’s leading International Central Securities Depositary
Geert Desmedt came to Krakow in August 2012 to set up the Poland branch of Euroclear Bank, the world’s leading International Central Securities Depositary.
Geert heads up the office, which acts as the dual center of Euroclear’s Operation Division based in the Belgian headquarters.
Prior to moving to his role in Krakow, Geert served as COO in the Hong Kong branch where he set up Operations in 2008. He has held a number of senior positions with Euroclear in Operations and Sales.
Geert is an ASPIRE Board Member.
Scott Newman
Managing Director, State Street Bank Poland
Set up and leads State Street offices in Kraków and Gdańsk, employing over 2,000 people.
Scott Newman is Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Board member of State Street Bank GmbH Poland branch. He is responsible for leading the local management team, business development and governance of the organization.
The State Street GmbH Poland branch was established in November 2007 and has since grown to more than 2,000 employees providing Fund Accounting, Derivatives, Securities Pricing, Hedge Fund Administration and Performance & Analytics on behalf of 10 State Street offices to more than 180 clients.
Prior to transferring to Poland, Scott was based in Munich where he led the research and set-up of the new office in Krakow as well Relationship and project management roles.
Scott joined State Street in 2003 through the acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s Global Custody business at which time he was based in Frankfurt, Germany and worked extensively on the DB acquisition and integration.
At Deutsche Bank, Scott held roles in custody client service, Product Development and PMO. He holds a BA in Business Administration and is a German speaker.
Scott is an ASPIRE Founding Member and Board Member.
Filip Walkowicz
Site Leader & Customer Care Director, Akamai
Runs Akamai’s largest office in EMEA, safeguarding the speed of the Internet.
Filip Walkowicz is the Site Leader of Akamai Krakow Centre of Excellence, the largest Akamai office in the EMEA region, supporting over 20 business functions (from core engineering and platform monitoring to sales, finance and HR).
He has over 10 years experience in the Information Technology and Customer Service Support area in Poland. He gained his experience as People Manager at IBM responsible for delivering 1st, 2nd and 3rd level server support services to the French market.
Filip is a member of the ASPIRE management board.
Wojtek Karpiński
Centre Director, Amway Business Centre Europe
10 years leadership experience in shared services and outsourcing.
Wojtek Karpiński has 10 years leadership experience in shared services and outsourcing. Since 2015 he has led Amway’s multifunctional regional centre in Kraków.
Prior to joining Amway, Wojtek was with Infosys BPO in Łódź, where he managed F&A and procurement services for European sites, and later became Global Operations Head, responsible for finance and procurement services across 6 locations for a manufacturing client.
Wojtek’s first role in the business services sector was with Philips Electronics’ Shared Services Center, who he joined in 2007. Prior to this he worked for 7 years in the insurance industry.
Greg Apostolakis
Experienced Centre Head
Centre Director and GBM Site Head, HSBC in Poland; previously held similar position in Bangalore.
Gregory Apostolakis has been with HSBC for 22 years and has been the Centre Director for the Group’s shared service centre in Krakow, Poland since 2014.
Prior to this, he led HSBC’s Group Service Centre in Bangalore, India and has held a number of senior business operations roles in the United States.
Greg is an ASPIRE Board Member.
Alan Colquhoun
Chair, Cushman & Wakefield Poland
30 years’ sales and management experience in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Canada; member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Alan Colquhoun has over 30 years’ sales and management experience in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Canada. He has been a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) since 2006.
Before the merger of Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ, Alan spent 20 years with DTZ, latterly as Head of Central & Eastern Europe, being responsible for DTZ’s operations in Poland and overseeing DTZ’s other CEE business units in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and affiliate relationships in Romania, Ukraine and Croatia.
Alan has acted for several corporate clients including McKinsey & Co, HSBC, Allen & Overy, PTT Netherlands, Hewlett Packard and most recently, Intel and has also been involved in a number of investment transactions.
Beata Osiecka
Managing Director and CEO, Kinnarps Poland
16 years heading up Poland’s leading office furniture company.
Beata Osiecka is Managing Director and CEO of Kinnarps Polska. She has been associated with the Kinnarps brand for over 20 years, since the setting up of the business in the Polish market.
In 1991, Beata co-founded the Scandinavian Center company; in 1994 she established a department of the Design Center at Office Depot, and since 2000 she has had the role of Managing Director and CEO of Kinnarps Polska.
Beata is a member of many advisory groups, including the Woman Business Leaders Foundation and the charitable Foundation "Jedni Drugim."
Jorgen Broothaers
Partner, PwC Belgium
17 years experience in assisting and advising a large number of subsidiaries and branches of international corporations in Belgium.
Jorgen Broothaers is Partner in the PwC Tax Management and Accounting Services practice in Belgium with more than 17 years experience in assisting and advising a large number of subsidiaries and branches of international corporations in Belgium with respect to bookkeeping, management accounting, statutory financial statements and tax compliance (direct and indirect taxes).
Jorgen specialises in managing and coordinating multi-territory Global Compliance Services (GCS) assignments, including implementing standardised processes for statutory financial statements and corporate income tax compliance.
He also specialises in the typical technology platforms and process flows impacting the accounting function and has assisted multiple organisations in setting-up their ERP platforms in compliance with the local requirements.
Anna Zaroda-Dąbrowska
Diversity management expert
Entrepreneur and advisor; "Businesswoman of the Year" finalist.
Anna Zaroda-Dąbrowska is an experienced manager and leader, running her own training and consulting business for over 10 years.
She specialises in diversity and diversity management. She is the Founder of Diversity Hub and Chair of the Committee of Experts, and author of international project "Tuned up! Tools Under the Need of Enhancing Diversity".
Anna is also an Expert of the European Social Fund, established by the Polish Ministry of Regional Development. Since 2003 she has led several projects aimed at implementation of solutions improving efficiency and quality of personnel management in business and the public sector. She is co-author of research methods and systems for on-line surveys: SQA_adminTM (customer satisfaction) and AOC_bizTM (organizational culture).
In 2013 Anna was a finalist in the contest for "Businesswoman of the Year."
See Diversity Hub website: http://www.diversityhub.pl/
Piotr Rówiński
Director, Risk Assurance, PwC Poland
15 years experience in Poland and the UK as an external auditor.
Piotr Rowinski is a Director in Risk Assurance group in PwC with 15 years of professional experience in Poland and the UK as an external auditor performing financial statements audits, internal auditor and a consultant for clients in various industries. Piotr has extensive experience with SSCs and BPOs, having participated in and led a number of advisory and audit engagements.
Piotr leads the Internal Audit and Internal Controls Services group at PwC in Warsaw. He currently focuses on Corporate Governance, Internal Audit, Risk Management and business process optimisation.
Artur Biały
Entrepreneur, project management trainer, technologist
VP of Technology at Hypersquare. Helps clients around the world to re-invent their solutions to lead the technology race.
Artur Bialy is an experienced project manager, programme manager and technical manager/leader, with 15 years experience managing delivery of IT projects for large corporations.
He has managed the implementation of complex internet applications, data warehouse and real-time systems in Poland, Ireland, France, Spain and the US.
He is an expert in IT project management, travel applications, real-time systems, business intelligence and data warehousing.
Artur holds a Masters Degree in Applied Computer Science from the Kraków University of Technology and Science, where he was conducting research into Intelligent Agent Systems and Artificial Intelligence.
He also holds the Project Management Professional (PMP ®) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is an active member of PMI; he was a founding member of the PMI Poland Chapter.
Artur’s project management blog can be found at http://www.bialy.eu.
Elliot Hentov
Head of Policy and Research, State Street Bank
Vice President and Head of Policy and Research at State Street; responsible for the development of research, thought leadership and strategic insights.
Elliot Hentov is a Vice President and Head of Policy and Research in the Official Institutions Group at State Street Bank. In this capacity, he is responsible for the development of research and thought leadership as well as providing strategic insights for the group's client base.
He joined State Street from Standard & Poor’s sovereign ratings group where he was a Director and lead analyst for sovereigns and government-related entities in Central, Eastern and Mediterranean Europe. Before that, Elliot served as a political affairs officer at the United Nations headquarters in New York, advising senior officials on political and economic issues in the Middle East and Europe.
Elliot holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University as well as a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Georgetown University and has authored publications in the New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy and Washington Quarterly.
Joe Simpson
Author, Film Maker, mountaineer and world famous keynote speaker
Author of the best seller "Touching the Void", later made into an award-winning documentary film; a remarkable story of survival with powerful insights into teamwork, leadership, goal setting, personal development, risk, management style and training.
Joe Simpson has drawn from his experience of being left for dead in the Andes to become a leading author. "Touching the Void", the story of his amazing survival, having been left for dead in a crevasse high in the Andes, has sold over two million copies and the film won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film of the Year, becoming the most successful documentary in British cinema history.
Joe brings this powerful story to corporate audiences in an amazingly inspirational presentation that includes insights to a variety of topics including Teamwork, Leadership, Personal Development, Risk, Management Style, and Training. It is about agony and terror, courage and weakness, triumph of the human spirit, the immense instinct to survive and the innate strength we have within us to succeed. It tells of trust and friendship tested to the very limits of human endurance.
You need no special knowledge of mountaineering to understand the many inspirational messages to be found in the telling of this powerful human drama.
Joe Simpson’s latest project is a two part documentary for the BBC. "Burma’s Secret Jungle War", broadcast on BBC2 on 8th and 15th May 2016.
Herve Hachet
Director, Amer Sports Financial Shared Service Centre
30 years experience managing financial teams.
Herve Hachet is the Director of Amer Sports Financial Shared Service Centre (AFSS) in Kraków, catering to Amer Sports diverse portfolio of sports brands, including Salomon, Atomic, Wilson, Precor, Suunto, Arcteryx and Mavic.
Herve has 30 years of experience managing financial teams, as a Chief Accountant for French supermarket companies, setting up several accounting teams from scratch to maturity, then Head of the Accounting Department in Salomon HQ and finally setting up and leading the Amer Sports service Centre in Kraków.
Herve is aiming to lead the Krakow team to the Center of Excellence level, focusing on increasing internal capabilities, change management, and process efficiency.
Herve holds a Business Administration degree and is an ASPIRE Board member.
Balazs Fejes
Co-Head Global Business, EPAM
Runs EPAM's business services in Europe and APAC; oversees global strategy for Banking and Financial Services.
Balazs Fejes serves as the Co-Head of Global Business with a focus on Europe and APAC operations. In this role, he has responsibility for EPAM’s entire book of business in those regions. Mr. Fejes also oversees the strategy of EPAM's Banking and Financial Services Industry Business Unit, helping to drive evolution of key service lines across the unit’s entire global portfolio.
Prior to August 2012, Balazs served as EPAM's CTO and was responsible for ensuring that all of EPAM Systems global offshore and nearshore software development centres were at the leading edge of industry standards for efficiency and quality.
Balazs joined EPAM in 2004 as part of the acquisition of Fathom Technology, a Hungarian software engineering firm which he cofounded and where he served as CTO.
Prior to co-founding Fathom Technology he was a chief software architect/line manager with Microsoft Great Plains (Microsoft Business Solutions). He also served as chief software architect of Scala Business Solutions. He is the recipient of numerous awards for programming excellence and has worked extensively in the US and Russia.
Michał Sajdak
IT security expert
10 years experience in assessing security of IT systems; IT security consultant, Securitum.pl and Founder of the security portal, sekurak.pl
Michał Sajdak has 10 years experience in assessing security of IT systems. He is IT security consultant for Securitum.pl and Founder of the security portal, Sekurak.pl
Grzegorz Cempla
General Manager, Ocado Technology Poland
20 years experience in software engineering; runs R&D centres in Kraków and Wrocław.
Grzegorz Cempla is General Manager of Ocado Technology Poland which has it’s R&D centres in Kraków and Wrocław, and employs over 180+ employees mainly within the software engineering function.
Greg joined Ocado Technology in 2013 and since the beginning of 2014 he heads Ocado’s Polish offices, the first overseas locations of Ocado Technology.
He has over 20 years of experience in software engineering, working previously both in the public and the private sector, delivering solutions and services to healthcare, banks, telecommunication companies, and web advertising.
Greg is an ASPIRE Board member.
Karolina Manikowska
Workplace Research & Consulting Department Director
She has been working for the Nowy Styl Group, the third largest manufacturer of office furniture in Europe for 5 years.
Initially responsible for building a training strategy for sales departments, supporting the sales process and management, as well as initiating and implementing change in the Organization.
In 2015, she was entrusted with the mission to build a new Workplace Consulting area within the company. She leads a team responsible for workplace research, consulting customers on office space trends and change management in the process of office removal.
Besides, Karolina is a certified business coach and management consultant and has been involved in conducting management training and consulting for many companies for over 6 years. She has served as Expert for the Programme Board of "Human Resource Management" studies at the Tischner European University. She is a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Kozminski University.
Łukasz Cioch
Master of Ceremonies
Communications and CSR expert; Head of Public Affairs at ASPIRE.
Łukasz Cioch is Communications and Public Affairs Director at ASPIRE. He is also a public-speaking coach, copywriter and adviser in the fields of CSR, PR and media relations.
Between 2004-2010, Łukasz worked for ArcelorMittal, rising to Director of Corporate Responsibility & Communications. Between 2011-2015 he worked as a project manager and university lecturer, specialising in management, communications and language studies. He has organised and coordinated multiple conferences and events, run a newly-established university faculty as well as designed and set up an energy think-tank.
Łukasz is an experienced interpreter and translator of business books.
Andrew Hallam
Chief cook and bottle washer
Founding member and General Secretary of ASPIRE; catering daily to 150 members.
Andrew Hallam is General Secretary and a founding member of ASPIRE. He has lived and worked in Poland for 20 years.
Before ASPIRE, Andrew was Director of Regional Development and South Poland Director for the British Polish Chamber of Commerce and later established South Poland Business Link, a company supporting links between the international business community and local stakeholders, and the South Poland Presidents Club, an informal network of the leading foreign investors in the region.
Before coming to Poland, Andrew worked in broadcasting and public affairs, for organisations such as the BBC, Channel 4, BSkyB, London Weekend Television, the British Labour Party and the Inner London Education Authority.
He is a graduate of the University of Oxford and alumnus of the Cambridge University Business and Environment Programme. He also attended the Central and East European University in Prague.
PATRONS
Józef Pilch
Voivode of Małopolska
Jacek Krupa
Marshall of Małopolska
Prof. Jacek Majchrowski
Mayor of Kraków
CONTACT
Rynek Główny 17, 31-008, Kraków
