AmCham American Investor Winter 2017

American

Winter 2017

Vol. XXVII, No. 1 • ISSN 1506-3240

Investor amcham.pl

Let’s work together!

Stakeholders need to be included in the government process INSIDE: PICTURES FROM AMCHAM EVENTS FROM NOVEMBER TO JANUARY

In this issue WINTER 2017 Vol. XXVII No. 1 Monthly Meeting November A swing of the pendulum With Donald Trump’s ascent to the US presidency a new era of uncertainty begins for Europe, p. 12 December Beyond business AmCham Honorary Chairman—US Ambassador to Poland Paul W. Jones—recognizes the chamber’s role in forging US-Poland ties, p. 14

COVER STORY:

Let’s work together!

Stakeholders need to be included in the government process, p. 9

Taking the pulse of change Ronald B. Given, partner and head of the Warsaw office of Wolf Theiss, a law firm with a regional presence, talks about the evolution of the market for legal services and how the firm is adapting to it, p. 24 Bespoke and personal Jason Watters, vice president for Europe at Reilly Financial Advisors, talks about what it can do for US citizens living abroad when it comes to managing their personal finances, p. 32 Flexibility unlimited Artur Winnicki, partner at Reesco, a company specializing in the provision of fit-out services for commercial real estate, talks about how the young organization is moving forward, p. 33

January All you need is cash!

The Polish Trade and Investment Agency will have a lot to offer to foreign investors, p. 16

Expert

Focus

It’s personal!

The new EU regulations governing personal data protection are something to reckon with, and for good reasons, p. 34

A fork in the road Too many questions and too few facts when it comes to judging upon what the Trump presidency may bring to free trade, p. 17 Achieving greater goals AmCham relies on the generosity of its members to support a range of charitable causes all year long throughout the country, p. 18 Knowledge transfer More young leaders go through the AmCham mentoring program, p. 19 Give change a chance!

The ever-changing world offers opportunities for agile organizations, p. 20 AmCham Membership Directory Alphabetical list of AmCham corporate members, as of December 31, 2016, p. 27

A new norm?

Don’t be surprised if the culture of fake news will turn out to be impossible to eradicate, p. 35 Company Profile Mission possible Ronald Farkas, president of Poland-US Operations, a provider of consulting and management services to the defense sector, talks about the company’s prospects for growth, p.

21 Safe as houses Tomasz Feret, branch director for Poland at M+W Central Europe, a project design and management company, talks about how it grows to move forward, p. 22

The gangs of the Internet The European Commission means business in combating online piracy, p. 36 Getting up to speed The amendment of the Construction Law gives opportunities for investors to save time, p. 37 Being fair Independent food suppliers of big retail chains get new protection, p. 38 A long and winding road Creating your financial road map, p. 39

Departments: Letter from the Chairman, p. 3, Newsline, p. 4, Agenda, p. 6, AmCham Committee Guide, p. 7, Photo Coverage of AmCham Events, pp. 40-56.

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Your American

YOUR AMCHAM

On-line resources to AmCham

BoArd oF dirEctors Tony HousH – APCO Worldwide Chairman

Joanna Bensz – CH2M Polska Vice Chair

RoBeRT BednaRski – Facebook Vice Chair

JoHn LyncH – Lynka Treasurer

Rick Lada – Individual Member Secretary

MEMBERS Magdalena BurnatMikosz Deloitte

Jolanta Jaworska IBM Poland & Baltics

Roman Rewald

Sławomir Sikora Citi Handlowy

Marek Szydłowski TVN S.A.

Joseph Wancer BGŻ BNP Paribas

Weil Gotshal & Manges

Magdalena PavlakChiaradia ERM Polska

Advisory council

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 13 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-

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.

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.

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

AmchAm Auditor

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2017. All rights reserved.

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AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

Investor Letter from the Chairman

Dear Members and Friends of AmCham!

O

n behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire AmCham team, I want to wish you all a happy and prosperous 2017. We plan another great year of engagement and advocacy on behalf of our member companies and the investment community, for a strong US-Polish relationship.

It is a great pleasure to welcome our newly elected Board members: Robert Bednarski—Facebook, Marek Szydłowski—TVN Group, and Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia—ERM Polska. Congratulations and we look forward to their experience and expertise on the Board.

I also want to thank Judith Gliniecki and Paul Fogo for their years of service on behalf of AmCham. Their support, involvement and counsel over the years contributed greatly to the development of AmCham. We look forward to their participation in the future on the Advisory Council.

The New Year brings a new Board of Directors at AmCham and also a new administration in Washington. President Trump’s administration is setting a different tone on a number of issues— from trade to security to geopolitical alignments. It promises to be an interesting time and we look forward to our first meetings with members of the administration in Warsaw and Washington to discuss a range of themes.

We will work with the Polish and US governments to ensure that Tony Housh AMCHAM CHAIRMAN there is the widest possible understanding of the importance of strong ties between our countries in economic and security spheres. The deployment of US and NATO forces in Poland comes as investments

by American companies continue, further anchoring Poland in the heart of a democratic and prosperous Europe.

To further this aim, AmCham, working with the International Group of Chambers of Commerce and Polityka Insight, is preparing a report on the impact of foreign investment in Poland over the last twenty five years. The report counts not only facts and figures, but will focus also on the transformative effect of this investment and the creation of entirely new sectors in Poland.

Among other topics in this edition, we take a look at the important role that consultations play in the development of effective, transparent laws and regulations. An open consultation process is critical to an agile, responsive business environment and AmCham will continue to advocate on these critical issues.

Wishing you all a great New Year.

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Newsline YOUR AMCHAM AMCHAM STAFF

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

Dorota Serafin

Project Manager dorota.serafin@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

News from AmCham and its members 3M Poland

Technology company 3M Poland received the Wektor 2016 award for its cooperation with local businesses and communities in Poland.

The citation for the award said that with nearly 3,000 people working in Poland, the company's involvement in supporting R&D, mentoring new talent and its ethical conduct with all stakeholders, 3M Polska has made a major contribution to the economic development of the country and creating a business friendly environment.

3M Poland, part of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, established its presence in Poland over 25 years ago.

Air Products

Supplier of industrial gases Air Products, and Grupa Azoty Zakłady Azotowe Kędzierzyn, part of Grupa Azoty, the second largest producer of mineral fertilizers in the EU, have signed a long-term contract for the delivery of oxygen and nitrogen. The agreement extends the cooperation between the two companies to 2035. Their first contract for the provision of oxygen and nitrogen dates back to 1997.

Air Products, established 75 years ago, specializes in the provision of industrial gases and related equipment to a wide range of production sectors. The company employs over 17,000 employees in 50 countries.

AmCham Poland

sen Poland for their joint-venture project dubbed XEOS. The aircraft engine service centre, a project estimated at EUR 250 million, will be built in the Legnica Special Economic Zone in Środa Śląska, in the Lower Silesia province. XEOS will create approximately 500 new engineering jobs.

GE entered Poland in 1992 and employs over 6,500 people in the industrial sector.

The announcement of the investment proj-

Members on the move Dentons Tomasz Dąbrowski has been re-elected as CEO of Dentons Europe, for the 2016-2019 term.

Dąbrowski is a Corporate, M&A and Private Equity partner. He has worked for Dentons (then Salans) since 1992.

He served at Dentons in a number of senior leadership roles. During Dąbrowski’s first term as CEO, Dentons saw rapid expansion across continental Europe. The firm has opened several new offices and increased partner headcount in Europe by 55% since the beginning of 2014.

New members Companies recently joining AmCham: Marketing research firm AC Nielsen. Contact: Szymon Mordasiewicz; managing director.

Healthcare company American Heart of Poland.

Contact: Paweł Buszman, chairman of the board.

EDITOR

Tom Ćwiok tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl

Tax advisory Andersen Tax. Contact: Matthew O’Shaughnessy, partner.

Strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. Contact: Jacek Poświatam, managing director.

Printing

Q Invest Ltd +48 22 424 6600 To contact AmCham please write or call: Spektrum Tower, 16th Floor ul. Twarda 18 00-105 Warsaw tel: +48 22 520 5999 fax: +48 22 520 5998 e-mail: office@amcham.pl www.amcham.pl

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2017.

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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all articles written by Tom Ćwiok.

Letters to the editor should be e-mailed to tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl Photo on the cover by Krzysztof Białoskórski

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AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

During the AmCham Annual General Meeting in December, the chamber held its board elections for the term 2017-2018. The elected members are (in picture) Roman Rewald (Weil, Gotshal & Manges), Joanna Bensz (CH2M Polska), John Lynch (Lynka), Marek Szydłowski (TVN S.A.), Magdalena BurnatMikosz (Deloitte), Sławomir Sikora (Citi Handlowy), Jolanta Jaworska (IBM), Dorota Dabrowski, (AmCham Managing Director); Richard Lada (individual member), Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia (ERM Polska), Tony Housh (APCO Worldwide), and (not in picture) Robert Bednarski (Facebook), and Joseph Wancer (BGŻ BNP Paribas). On its first meeting, in January, the board elected as its chairman Tony Housh; vice chairs Joanna Bensz and Robert Bednarski; secretary Rick Lada, and treasurer John Lynch. The Honorary Chairman of the Board is Paul W. Jones, US Ambassador to Poland.

GE

GE Aviation and Lufthansa Technik have cho-

Real estate company Globe Trade Center. Contact: Thomas Kurzmann, CEO, and Erez Boniel, member of the board of directors.

Risk and security management specialist IBBC Group (part of Pinkerton). Contact: Bartosz Pastuszka, managing director.

System integrator Integral Solutions. Contact: Paweł Borkowski, managing director.

Customer support and business process offshoring specialist IQOR Global Services Poland. Contact: Bogdan Kardas, senior site director.

Private equity management company Mazovia Capital. Contact: James Simmons, partner.

Insurance company Pramerica Życie TUiR S.A. Contact: Aneta Podyma, president of the board.

Producer of gas and steam turbines Rockfin. Contact: Marek Krzykowski, business development manager.

IT specialist SAP Polska. Contact: Kinga Piecuch, chairman of the board.

IT specialist Wincor Nixdorf. Contact: Mirosław Janik, president of the board.

ect was made at a press conference attended by (pictured) Beata Stelmach, GE CEO for Poland and Baltics; Bill Millhaem, senior executive GE Aviation; Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Development and Finance; Bernhard Krüger–Sprengel, SVP engines services Lufthansa Technik AG; Stefan Schmuck, XEOS plant manager and chief operating officer XEOS Środa Śląska; Thomas Böttger, XEOS CEO.

Aleksandra Minkowicz-Flanek (pictured) has extensive experience in individual and collective employment law, employment restructuring, group layoffs, banking sector payroll systems and employment aspects of corporate transactions.

The medal acknowledges individuals for their outstanding contribution to the dynamic growth and security of the Polish banking system.

Brown Forman Polska

Flex

Distributor of Jack Daniel's and Finlandia Vodka, Brown Forman Polska, received the award Best Employers 2016 from the HR organization Aon Hewitt. The award was bestowed upon Brown Forman as a result of the company's participation in Aon Best Employers, a global study program measuring employee engagement across a range of factors.

In Poland, the program has covered, so far, 370,000 employees in over 1,000 companies.

Dentons

Provider of intelligent industrial systems and system integrator Flex has been awarded the Polish Quality Award for 2016 by the Polish National Chamber of Commerce (KIG). Flex won the award in the category of "Large Manufacturing and Service Organization" The Polish Quality Award recognizes and promotes modern management methods.

This year, the honorary patron of the initiative was Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Development and Finance, Mateusz Morawiecki.

Flex, (formerly Flextronics) built a production facility in Tczew, northern Poland, in 2000,

where it currently employs 4,000 people. In picture: Andrzej Arendarski, KIG chairman; Andrzej Połojko, general manager of Flex in Tczew, at the award ceremony.

Squire Patton Boggs

Law firm Squire Patton Boggs has launched a blog—Central and Eastern Europe Legal News and Views—through a join effort of all offices in the region of the CEE. The firm intends to position the blog as a trusted source of information on legal trends and developments in the CEE. The blog is available at ceelegalblog.com.

Prologis

Logistics and industrial space developer Prologis has begun an extension of Prologis Park Wrocław V. The extension comprises a facility which totals 11,400m2. It is scheduled for completion in the Q2, 2017, and is already 100percent pre-leased.

At present, Prologis Park Wrocław V comprises six facilities totalling 136,000m2.

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Law firm Dentons opened a shared services center in Warsaw. Dentons Business Services EMEA (DBSE) is a joint initiative between Dentons’ offices in the UK, Middle East and Africa and Europe. It leverages the regions' combined scale and resources more effectively by co-locating in one center certain tasks that are currently performed across numerous offices.

The DBSE, led by director Piotr Macieja, employs more than 70 people working across the areas of finance, business development and marketing, human resources and IT. In picture, the official opening of the DBSE: Piotr Macieja; Brandon Ransley, managing partner, Dentons UK. In other news, The Polish Bank Association awarded the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal to Aleksandra Minkowicz-Flanek, partner in charge of the employment law practice at Dentons’ Warsaw office. The medal was bestowed upon her in recognition of her commitment and contribution to the banking self-regulatory organization.

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Agenda Intelligence from AmCham Committees Defense & Security

Continuing our discussion on Poland’s security challenges, in December, AmCham Defense & Security Committee held a meeting with Tomasz Szatkowski, deputy minister at the Ministry of National Defense. The discussion focused on the results of the NATO Summit held in Warsaw in Summer 2016, US and allied force deployments to Poland and the region, the status of the Strategic Defense Review and the Review of the Defense Modernization Plan and priority issues of concern for the Ministry of National Defense.

Tax & Financial Services

Marcin Sidelnik, tax director at PwC, met with the AmCham Tax & Financial Services Committee in October to talk about the new regulations governing financial reporting for large companies (employing over 250 people and annual turnover in excess of EUR 50 million). The regulations require that such companies transmit data to the tax authorities in an unified format, the so-called Standard Audit File, and that the specific SAF-T file for VAT registers has to be filed monthly. The requirement, introduced in July 2016, offers tax authorities an easy access to the accounting and tax data of taxpayers but requires taxpayers to adapt their accounting systems and IT environment to the new tax regulations.

Sidelnik said that the new regulations aligns with a tax authorities policy to gain fast access to numeric data to analyze it. Before, tax authorities would accept electronic data in different forms, such as PDF, but this is no longer the case as the authorities strive to enhance their control over VAT and other taxes.

Sidelnik went on with his presentation to analyze how the system works, what types of data it requires and what errors can be generated by using it, and also what the implications for tax payers may be.

In turn, in December, the Tax and Financial Services Committee met with Monika Laskowska, Tax Partner at PwC, who talked about the new requirements regarding transfer pricing documents. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session on the latest trends in tax audits concerning transfer pricing especially in business restructuring and the attribution of profits to permanent establishments.

Employee & Labor Relations

Aneta Fita, director of the management board of SHL Poland, a part of Corporate Executive Board, met with the AmCham Employee and Labor Committee in November, to talk about entrepreneurial leadership and how it may yield profits for companies.

Fita said that entrepreneurial leadership is about creating an atmosphere where employees feel empowered and, while they take up more and more responsibilities, they feel like they are running their own business.

Fita outlined how the best candidates entrepreneurial leaders may be identified, developed, and how they change and impact business results of the company. She presented a method developed by CEB—the network leadership, which focuses on managing teams of people in such a way that the success of one member can

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AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

not take place without other members succeeding as well.

EU Affairs

In December, the AmCham EU Affairs Committee hosted Krzysztof Senger, Executive Vice President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), and Iwona ChojnowskaHaponik, department director at PAIiIZ, who talked about the “Investment support ecosystems” that the agency will offer in 2017.

Senger, who took to the floor first, talked about the reforms of PAIiIZ that aim to help Polish companies expand their business with other markets beyond the European Union.

In turn, Chojnowska-Haponik gave an overview of the incentives available to foreign investors in Poland and explained new, simplified procedures for applying for state aid, which aim to cut the time the authorities need to grant permits to investors.

She said that the authorities will give priority to investors which are technology companies as well as those in the BPO sector, shared service centers, and similar sectors.

Marketing & Communication

Patrick Ney, Executive Director at Questia, blogger, vlogger and business commentator, met with the AmCham Marketing & Communications Committee in November to share his experience in creating “killer content”. Nay talked about the the biggest mistakes that firms make when creating content, and the pros and cons of different types of content, from videos to podcasts.

Nay said that valuable content is such which attracts, engages and retains customers throughout the life cycle of the product or service it helps to sell.

Ney said that in the BtoB sector, according to a LinkedIn study, 75% of sales people go on social media to find out what others think about products or services that they want to buy from the other company.

It is so because it is easy to find somebody who is cheaper and more likable. The way a company may differentiate is, therefore, not in price, but in the quality of the organization.

Ney talked about a US law firm that discovered that 25-30% of their website traffic went to the Who We Are section. It was so because the only way the company differentiated from other companies in the marketplace was the quality of the people in the organization. The company decided to change the website and made it “all around the people in the company.” Ney said that in terms of BtoB, one of the greatest things a company can do is win the trust of its clients.

He then described how analytics may help discover how customers consume content and how the content may be repositioned so customers take steps that are desired by the marketer.

His presentation ended with a Q&A session which was an opportunity for the participants to talk about other areas of on-line marketing, such as politics and web-based political campaigning.

Simply Business

Marc Nicolaisen, brand communications director at Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer,

and Joanna Gajewska-Sokołowska, project director at the Center of Excellence at Jones Lang LaSalle, were the speakers at a breakfast held as part of Simply Business series, entitled “How workplace environment impacts employee engagement.”

Nicolaisen talked about how office design influences the way workers behave and affects their engagement in the company. He said that the office is the body language of the organization as it gives away whether an organization is conservative and traditional or open minded and liberal.

It is an important correlation because open minded and liberal organizations are best for workers' engagement. Their workers would go the extra mile and do things in new and creative ways to succeed in the organization, as opposed to workers in conservative organizations who may work hard, as they are told to, but are willing to do nothing beyond that.

Nicolaisen noted that while many workers keep photographs of their family and home at the office, nobody actually keeps pictures of their office at home. This signifies that people do not feel engaged with their organizations. Disengaged people are not a big asset and often they can be risk.

But there are ways to change that. Just like Christmas decorations in the city center have an impact on how people feel and behave there, companies can have the same positive impact on their people by providing spaces that influence behavior and create a culture of engagement.

Such spaces have to meet certain requirements. One of them is that they give workers the ability to concentrate. This is one of the most critical aspects, Nicolaisen said, because research shows that highly engaged people have to have that ability to concentrate, while highly disengaged people can hardly concentrate where they work.

He also noted that while there are many digital devices in the workplace not everything has to be digital as “analogue” collaboration is also essential, including post-it notes, white boards, pin notes and others ways which “make ideas visible.”

Nicolaisen also said that the need for privacy must not be confused with “a need of four walls and a door.” There are different types of privacy needs, such as territorial, visual, acoustic, and privacy for confidentiality, and nearly all of them can be provided in a well-arranged open space.

He said that a need for a totally private office space is a myth, especially that research shows that managers who have “private offices” spend there roughly 16% of work time.

Following on the Nicolaisen presentation, Joanna Gajewska-Sokołowska, shared her experience with arranging office space for different companies, including finance and accounting, and talked outlined the Jones Lang LaSalle services and how the company can render them to meet the expectations of different clients.

“Simply Business” is an AmCham series of business meetings for people on the run, organized by companies with a topic, product or service they would like to present to AmCham members.

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For the most recent information about the AmCham Committees and upcoming events visit amcham.pl 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. Co-Chairs: Piotr Bonisławski, Eli Lilly Polska; Andrzej Pawelczak, Animex.

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. Co-Chairs: 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: Stan Prusiński, Boeing Europe; Marta Frąckowiak, DLA Piper.

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.

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: Michał Koczalski, CEC Government Relations; Mariusz Mielczarek, GE Central and Eastern Europe.

European Union Affairs

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.

Health & Pharma

Sustainable Real Estate

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. Co-Chairs: Halina Więckowska, K&L Gates; Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM Polska.

Tax & Financial Services

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. Co-Chairs: Ernest Bartosik, Unipharm; Aldona Zygmunt, Pfizer.

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: Adam Soska, GE International; Marcin Matyka, Norton Rose Fulbright.

Human Resources Management

Travel & Tourism

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.

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. Chair: Tim Hyland, FCM Travel Solutions.

Manufacturing

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 Polska; Przemysław Paździorek, 3M Poland.

Marketing & Communications

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. Co-Chairs: Anya Ogorkiewicz;

THOUGHT LEADERS

Individuals who are point people and experts for specific areas of interest for AmCham that do not require a formal committee structure or activity level.

SME & Entrepreneurship Alain Bobet

Innovation Bogusława Skowroński

Łukasz Kowalski, MSLGroup.

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

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Cover story

Photo: Krzysztof Białoskórski. sejm.gov.pl

Advocacy

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AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

Let’s work together!

Stakeholders need to be included in the government process

D

ialogue is a central premise of Western democracy and there is no place where it is more obvious than in the House of Commons—the lower house of the British Parliament.

First off, the adversarial layout of the benches—facing each other—is optimal for debates between the two opposing sides: the government and the opposition.

Second, the role of the Speaker of the House is predominantly focused on facilitating debate: the Speaker keeps order during debates and calls MPs to speak and give their opinion on an issue. MPs may express their wish to speak in writing submitted to the Speaker prior to the session or they may signal that they want to speak during sessions by standing up—a custom known as catching the Speaker's eye. The latter way, obviously, is in use when MPs intend to respond to an MP who spoke earlier for they are not allowed to disturb a speaking MP by speaking themselves.

Third, those MPs who disagree with a speaking MP may boo him or her, which merely results in the speaking MPs raising the voice and going on uninterrupted. Those MPs who wish to express their support for the speaking MP may “yeah” during the parts of the speech they particularly like.

This will result, at best, in the speaking MP stopping for a dramatic effect, after which he or she will continue the speech uninterrupted. Those vocal emoticons add some dramatic effect to debates and signify the sacrosanct function of debate in the British Parliament.

Dialogue is thus an "institution" that is designed to serve as an instrument, with which both sides of the political equilibrium in the Commons play their roles: that of the government and of the opposition. It is through dialogue with the opposition that the government tests its policies, argues its

points and knows that is being watched. It is through dialog with the government that the opposition exercises its constitutional duty to challenge the government and hold it accountable. silence is golden Polish democracy does not have such a sacrosanct approach when it comes to bipartisan dialogue in parliament. The importance of dialogue has been recently undermined in the Polish Lower Chamber (Sejm), when the governing party, Law and Justice, basically ignored the opinions of the opposition. Those MPs who did not agree with the policies of the government might have well as packed their bags and gone home. In late December and early January, driven by despair, the opposition tried to stall the business of the Sejm by staging a sit-in in the Lower Chamber. The resulting mess led the Speaker of the House to delay the next session of the chamber to Jan 25.

Before that, however, the Sejm passed, or was about to pass, some laws which had, and could have, monumental effects on the stakeholders. One of the laws, passed in December 2015, came into effect starting February 2016. It was the anticipated Banking Tax, which put a tax of 0.44% on the assets of banks in Poland. Many experts argued that the time allocated by the act for the banks to adjust—barely two months—was too short for banks to factor in the new tax in any other way that to put the financial burden on their clients. Had the banking community been offered an opportunity to debate the new law with the lawmakers, it could have, arguably, persuaded them to allocate a longer vacatio legis. Had the banks had it they could have come up with some new modeling of their finances which would not have effected their clients so directly.

The lack of debating new regulations pro-

duced by the Sejm led to a situation in December 2016 when a bill on the taxation of closed investment funds, which stipulated taxing them along the same rules as other commercial entities, almost was voted into law. At the last moment, a business daily noticed that the act would mean double taxation on closed investment funds (they are taxed on the dividend), which would, in turn, mean that Poland would be "no country for entrepreneurial investors". It would have been a major blow to the entrepreneurial element in the Polish economy, and ironically, the newly formed Polish Development Fund—one of the flagship institutions created by the government and charged with safeguarding the sustainable development of the Polish economy—could have been among the act's victims. no trade on sunday In September 2016, the trade union Solidarność tabled a motion in the Sejm for an act prohibiting trade on Sundays. The authors of the draft did not discuss the act with the business community in Poland.

Somehow it is understood—religious doctrines are not negotiable and a huge part of the justification for the act was an apostolic letter that Pope John Paul 2 wrote to Polish bishops, in which he elaborated on the unique character of Sundays.

Religious doctrines aside, the act, if it becomes law in its original form, will have an enormous impact on the economy, as it will limit business hours on Sunday for not only big retail chains but also companies which support retail, such as logistic centers, distribution hubs, cargo terminals, and shipping companies. If they are banned from business on Sunday, the impact of the regulations will go far beyond the country. Logistic centers in Poland supply retail firms not only in the country but abroad as well, and it

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Cover story Advocacy is crucial for them to be able to work on Sundays so the goods are delivered on Monday morning to destinations in Germany and other countries. no need for expertise None of the above mentioned bills would have been submitted to parliament in the form they were actually submitted had their authors sat down with the representatives of the business community for discussions.

But there are no rules in Poland governing the participation of stakeholders in the lawmaking process. The authors may consult with whoever they choose, and so it happens that as a rule they do not discuss them on bipartisan basis.

There are no rules in Sejm itself on how proposed legislation is processed. In some cases a draft of a bill may be fast-tracked through the chamber with no discussion with stakeholders whatsoever, and no consultations with lawyers over the bill's standing within the existing legal framework. In other cases, the Sejm speaker may send a draft of a bill to a parliamentary committee for debate. Here, however, the choice of the committee is arbitrary. The bill banning trade on Sundays has been sent to the Parliamentary Committee for Social Policy and Family, but not the Parliamentary Committee for Economy and Development. And there is no regulation governing how much time should be allowed to pass before a bill comes into effect following its publication.

It is true that the sponsors of bills in Sejm may allocate some time to the so-called “public consultations” and invite the stakeholders to share their opinions with them.

The problem here is this: having a new act debated at the Sejm level requires that a draft of the act is written and circulated.

This creates a psychological problem for the authors, who took pains to write it, sometimes overnight, and are obviously disinclined to make changes to the draft, not to mention rewriting it from the scratch. And that is exactly what some drafts require. epistolography According to Marta Pawlak, legal counsel at AmCham, the lack of regulations governing the role of stakeholders in lawmaking is a major problem in Poland. With the lack of initiative on the part of the legislators to consult with the stakeholders, all the business community can do is write letters to government ministers explaining their positions, informing them about the facts and figures, and the anticipated effects of the legislation in question. AmCham has done this many times. Most recently, the chamber was one of the signatories of a letter written by the International Chambers of Commerce in Poland (a group of 13 foreign chambers of commerce active in the coun-

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try) addressed to Mateusz Morawiecki, deputy prime minister and minister of development; and to Beata Mazurek, head of the Parliamentary Committee for Social Policy and Family, in which they argued against the Sunday Trade Ban in the form it was drafted by Solidarność.

But letters can be read or ignored. They are not a valid substitute for live debates, in which legal practitioners, business people, lawmakers and the sponsors of new legislation, can engage in factual discussions.

Pawlak said that if the lawmakers could put their partisan hats away and resort to the knowledge and expertise of the business sector, they could produce better legislation, not only in the legal sense but also as far as their own goals are concerned. The Sunday trade ban bill is a case in point. If it becomes law it will be counterproductive to the people it aims to protect. Individuals who depend on jobs in retail and retail-related sectors will be deprived of an opportunity to make extra money by working on Sundays.

And even with more quality time on their hands, many of them will just have to spend that time in the confines of their homes in order save money. When they have time for family and friends, people tend to go out and have fun. But going out costs money. Those wage earners with low-paying jobs, undoubtedly, will find themselves ill-served by the Sunday trade ban. Such was the case in Hungary, where, following the introduction of ban on trade on Sundays, many families found themselves making less money. The ban was eventually dropped. Poland does not need to repeat this mistake, Pawlak said.

The business community in Poland is open for dialogue and there are ways which may lead to a compromise that takes into account the interest of the sector, the working people, and the sponsors of the ban. double whammy Investors often say that one of the things that discourages them from investing in a country is an unstable law. There are two ways in which law may be unstable. First, when regulations are so divorced from the reality they are supposed to regulate that it is clear, that sooner or later, the regulations will have to be amended or repealed and replaced. Such was the case with the closed funds taxation act, which luckily enough, did not pass the Sejm—a narrow escape. It seems that in this case the sponsors of the bill thought they knew all there was to know and so were confident about the act and its effects on the economy. This poses serious questions about future legislation in, for instance, IT, e-commerce, and other areas of economy which require an in-depth understanding of technology.

There is some hope in this department, however. When the government announced

that it would create a cybersecurity policy, it did not shy away from asking IT companies and trade organizations for feedback. For some reason, Anna Strzeżyńska, minister of digital affairs, apparently felt that she needed to reach out to the private sector to source their expertise. The question remains, however, if the plan to write a cybersecurity policy is moved to the Ministry of Defense, whether Minister Antoni Macierewicz will follow the Strzeżyńska example, or come to the conclusion that he and his people know all that needs to be known to create a good, comprehensive cybersecurity policy.

Another way of how a law can be viewed as unstable by foreign investors is when they are taken by surprise. Such was the case with the tax on banking assets. Although the regulation had been announced by Law and Justice before the 2015 parliamentary elections, it was not the law itself that took banks by surprise but the extremely short vacatio legis.

The Sunday trade ban may also be viewed as something unexpected. First off, it delivers a blow to the economy at a time when the government is talking about safeguarding sustainable economic development. The implications of the ban, experts argue, go much further than just affecting lower income families that depend on retail jobs. It may negatively impact a generation of young people, who enter the labor market, and in many cases combine work with studying, and for whom Sundays are perfect days to work.

But it is no secret that the Solidarność trade union is no big fan of big retail chains, logistics companies and the operators of logistics hubs. They all employ huge numbers of people and comprise a natural habitat for trade unions. So Solidarność may eventually get its way in the Sejm, especially given that the parliamentary majority shares its political roots with the trade union. With no direct involvement in the lawmaking process on the part of some stakeholders, whose views on the proposed regulation differ from the sponsors of the bill, it is nearly certain that the ban will become reality sooner or later. some ideas There are no perfect regulations governing how stakeholders should be engaged in lawmaking, but there are some good examples in the US. One law that offers the public and private sectors participation in the way federal agencies execute laws is the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The FACA provides the means for ordinary citizens and representatives from industry and business sectors, NGOs and other stakeholders, to serve on advisory committees.

Federal agencies utilize advisory committees to solicit input and recommendations

Photo: Rafał Zambrzycki. sejm.gov.pl

When she met with AmCham at the Economic Forum in Krynica in 2016, prime minister Beata Szydło said she was all for business. on ways in which the agencies can better implement their programs or policies. A key element of the system is that advisory committees do not make decisions on behalf of federal agencies. They only provide consensus advice and recommendations to government agencies. In carrying out their work, advisory committee members are free to discuss the issues before them and deliberate and develop advice and recommendations on how they believe a government program should be implemented. They can create subcommittees to focus on certain issues more in depth. Agencies take those recommendations and can act on them, but are not obliged to do so. Often the advice and recommendations of an advisory committee are put into the final report that is given to the government agencies.

The FACA also provides a means for the public who do not serve on the advisory committees to be part of the advisory committee process, from formulation through the entire operation of the committee. Advisory committee meetings must be open to the public, unless an exception exists allowing for a closed meeting. The public may also submit comments to advisory commit-

tees on their proceedings and deliberations, and the public can have access to advisory committee records.

Federal agencies must have legal authority to create an advisory committee. They obtain such authority through one of three ways. The first is through legislation that is passed by Congress and signed into law by the President that specifically requires a department to create an advisory committee on a certain subject. The second way they would get the authority to create an advisory committee is to obtain an executive directive from the President which specifically requires the department to create an advisory committee. The last way is through discretionary authority given to department heads.

The decision to create an advisory committee must be made public. The public must be notified in advance of the interest in creating a committee. For advisory committees created by department heads, this is usually done by public notification through the Federal Register—a daily publication that the government puts out on the Internet and through paper documentation which notifies the public of day-to-day activities and operations, including each of the govern-

ment departments.

Any US citizen may be appointed to serve on an advisory committee. However, under the Obama administration, lobbyists—individuals who are paid to influence government actions—were not allowed to serve on them.

A key component in devising the committee membership is the requirement that the membership must be balanced. It has to reflect the diversity of views and a balance of perspectives on the objectives of the committee in question.

The use of advisory committees is a relatively easy and cost-effective way to provide effective means for a government to obtain the views of the public and private sectors before going down the path of implementing a program. They can help the government avoid implementing a program or making a decision that the public may not want or that will have a negative impact on the public and private sectors. So, relying on private individuals’ expertise helps makes the US government more efficient and gives US citizens a sense of ownership and inclusion in the government process.

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Monthly Meeting November

The success of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections met with mixed emotions at the AmCham Monthly Meeting in October

A swing of the pendulum

With Donald Trump’s ascent to the US presidency a new era of uncertainty begins for Europe

F

ollowing election night in the US and the surprising win of the Republican candidate Donald J. Trump, a group of experts in international politics met with AmCham members and friends to discuss how the new US president may impact US-Poland relations and the political equilibrium in Central and Eastern Europe.

The speakers were Michał Kobosko, director of Atlantic Council Poland and Wrocław Global Forum; Janusz Reiter, former Polish Ambassador to US and Germany, and founder of the Centre of International Relations Foundation; and Marcin Zaborowski, executive vice president of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a US-based think-tank. The meeting was moderated by AmCham Chairman Tony Housh. surprise, surprise...

All the panelists agreed that the presidency of Donald J. Trump is likely to mark a major diversion from the politics of the Barack Obama administration in many areas including domestic issues, economy, global trade and foreign relations. From the European perspective it is a clear swing of the political pendulum.

Referring to the Iron Curtain which divided Europe for over 45 years, Janusz Reiter said that following its fall in 1989 there was a lot of enthusiasm in Europe as most people thought that “The unthinkable became possible”. It was a time when the vision of a unified Western world was so attractive that most people

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thought that everybody would support it. However, in 2016 we saw a different world emerge with voters in the United Kingdom casting their ballots in favor of leaving the European Union, and the success of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections.

According to Reiter, Donald Trump as US president rises questions about “the future of the Western World; abut the leadership of the Western World; and about who is committed to

If America is no longer supporting free trade, who will? the concept of the Western world as we know it.” Reiter said that it seemed that the political forces which triggered Donald Trump’s ascent to power signify that the US political elites may have lost confidence in the Western world.

“Who can take the responsibility for the Western world if the US is no longer willing?” Reiter asked.

But he also said, that the model of international relations developed in the West after World War 2 has been a historical exception, because it was based on political integration, uncontrolled economic competition and shared responsibility and solidarity. At the same time, the world outside of the West was torn apart by uncontrolled policies stemming

from national egoism. “If we end up in a world where countries are driven by their national egoism Poland will not be a winner—it will be a loser,” Reiter said.

Global trade The perspective of the American business community in Poland on the political situation in the US focuses mainly on two areas— transatlantic trade and investment, and security. When it comes to international trade, according to Marcin Zaborowski, “If we were to judge by what has been said during the election campaign, of course that would be very bad news for the relations.” Zaborowski noted that Donald Trump, despite his impressive business record at the helm of the Trump Corporation, revealed himself to be a critic of free trade and free-trade agreements that the US partakes in, such as NAFTA, or has negotiated, such as the Transpacific Trade Partnership.

Michał Kobosko agreed by saying that under Donald Trump the US is unlikely to enter into new free-trade agreements, and the one that the US and the EU had been negotiating—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—is already dead.

However, as Reiter noted, it was the EU, not the US, that announced that TTIP was dead, which shows that free trade has less support on this side of the Atlantic. With this, Tony Housh said that there is a huge question of who will be the next global proponent of

free trade if the next US administration fails to take that role upon itself: “If America is no longer supporting free trade, who will?”

House asked.

He also noted that political turmoil in the US may lead to a weaker US dollar vis-a-vis other major currencies such as the euro, which will negatively impact US investors who eye the EU for business opportunities. This may have a bad effect on the FDI that Poland may generate from the US, especially that following the Donald Trump ascent to power many experts talk about higher risks for business in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

The fear index Poland’s defense sensitivities center around Russia and the role the country intends to play in the region. With the Russian annexation of Crimea and the country's involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine, Poland has taken steps to rely more on NATO to protect its eastern border. The initiative is led by the US. The country decided to boost its military presence in Poland by deploying on a rotational basis parts of infantry divisions, which will be allocated to a range of military assets in different locations in eastern and northern Poland and the Baltic States. The presence of US Army in these locations is aimed at deterring any Russian attempts to destabilize the situation along the so-called Suwałki Gap, a line along the Poland-Lithuania border that spans two strategically sensitive points—the Poland-Belarus border in the east and Russia's heavily militarized enclave, the Kaliningrad Region, in north-east. Military planers believe that if Russia wanted to take control over the Baltic States, it would first have to safeguard

a troubled eu?

A more isolationist and protectionist America may have a negative impact not only on the stability of the CEE countries, but the stability

of the European Union. Janusz Reiter noted that the European integration resulting in the creation of the EU, and its 2004 enlargement by 10 new member states which formerly were part of the Soviet Bloc, was a process in which the US backed. Without the backing “the EU project would not have not materialized,” Reiter said. “Now, a declining US engagement in Europe may mean also a declining US engagement in global security and transatlantic relations.”

For Reiter, this means that the EU will either intensify its integration efforts to become a stronger and more flexible organization to face the changing world, or centripetal forces may take over to derail the integration process. “Some political parties are more than happy to take up this opportunity and steer the EU politics in that direction,” Reiter said. He noted that the National Front in France, the nationalistic UKiP in the UK, and many more right wing parties active in other EU countries will not miss the opportunity to take the EU back into the pieces of national states, if they get encouraging signals from the Trump administration.

Reiter noted that while it is clear that the EU countries have to take steps to reinforce their joint security, historically, US support for the EU has been a source of confidence for the EU security and the EU project. Reiter cautioned that “Security is not a question of defense capabilities—it is a question of trust,” and if EU member states lose their trust in American support, they will find it difficult to to take the integration process to a higher level. This process may have already started: “Nationalistic instincts are now encouraged by the outcome of the USA elections,” Reiter said.

Janusz Reiter is a Polish diplomat and director of the Center for International Relations, Poland. He was a member of the anti-commnunist Solidarity movement.

From 1990 to 1995, he was Poland's ambassador to Germany and from 2005-2008 Poland’s ambassador to the US. He is on the advisory board of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, an independent research and advisory group.

Marcin Zaborowski is the executive vice-president and head of the Warsaw Office of the CEPA. In 2010— 2015, he was director of the PISM, a government political think tank. Before that he directed the Transatlantic Programme at the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris. A member of a policy group under the NATO secretary general that formulated a report on NATO’s challenges for the 2014 Wales summit.

its control over the Suwałki Gap to cut the Baltic States off from Poland and the rest of the EU. The US move to build up the presence of its troops in Poland was criticized by the Kremlin. Although Donald Trump's intentions toward Russia remain unclear it is possible that the US engagement may be limited in the future. Michał Kobosko said that “Geopolitically, there is a lot of more unpredictability in the region today than there was yesterday.”

In his view, the warmth towards Vladimir Putin together with the appreciation for the Russian leader expressed many a time by Donald Trump during his election campaign sends warning signals to countries such as Poland and the Baltic States. It is not clear how far the new US president will see eye to eye with President Putin and what it will mean

Security is not a question of defense capabilities—it is a question of trust. to the region. What is certain, Kobosko said, is that when the US and Russia sit down to talk neither Poland nor any other country from Central and Eastern Europe will be able to influence those talks. “So, we don’t know what to expect. But we have to be ready to adopt to a new situation,” Kobosko said.

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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Michał Kobosko, director of the Wrocław Global Forum of the Atlantic Council, is an award-winning journalist who has headed the editorial departments of many influential Polish newspapers and magazines, including Puls Biznesu, Gazeta Prawna, Wprost, and the Polish editions of Forbes and Newsweek. He was instrumental in launching Bloomberg Businessweek Polska.

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Annual General Meeting AmCham 2016

Before voting on the 2016 Annual Report, AmCham members watch a movie highlighting the main programs the chamber carried out in 2016

Beyond business

AmCham Honorary Chairman—US Ambassador to Poland Paul W. Jones—recognizes the chamber’s role in forging US-Poland ties

O

ver 150 participants attended the AmCham Annual General Meeting last year, which took place at the Sheraton Hotel Warsaw, followed by a Christmas reception.

Before the keynote speaker, US ambassador to Poland Paul W. Jones, took to the podium, deputy minister at the Office of the Prime Minister Paweł Szrot read out a letter from the Prime Minister Beata Szydło to the chamber. In the letter, she referred to her meeting with AmCham representatives at the AmCham Diner during the Economic Forum in Krynica 2016, and expressed her regret that

she could not be with AmCham in December.

She prized the involvement of US business in Poland’s economic development, and underlined that American investors were among the first foreign companies to come to Poland following the country’s 1989 political and economic transition. Today, the prime minister said, Poland and the US have strong relations in politics, economy, security, and the propagation of democracy and free market economics.

She said that such excellent economic relations between Poland and the US would not have been possible had it not been for Am-

Cham Poland.

She also said that Poland will continue to be a friendly country to foreign investors, and American investors are particularly welcome in the country as along with capital, they bring their business acumen, know-how, high technologies and R&D.

Ambassador Jones has a wide-ranging background in Europe. As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013-15, he was responsible for all aspects of US policy and operations in Europe, particularly Russia and Ukraine. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Vienna, Austria (2004-05) and also at the US Embassy in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia (1996-99).

Jones served at the OSCE Mission in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995, implementing the Dayton Peace Accords, as well as at the US Embassy in Moscow, Russia (1992-94). In Washington, he was Director of the Office for South Central Europe and, previously, Desk Officer for the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. He served twice on the staff of the Secretary of State, as Director of the Secretariat Staff and in the 24-hour Operations Center.

dor to Malaysia, 2010-13, he led significant growth in the US-Malaysian relationship, becoming the first US Ambassador to be conferred the honorary title of Dato’.

When President Obama appointed the late Richard Holbrooke as US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Holbrooke named Jones as his Principal Deputy, serving concurrently as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs.

Jones was Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Manila, the Philippines (2005-09). Early in his career, he served in Bogota, Colombia.

Great cooperation Ambassador Jones echoed the prime minister’s recognition of AmCham as a pivotal agent in facilitating US-Poland economic relations. He said that the US Embassy in Warsaw had “a terrific time cooperating with Am-

MEET THE SPEAKER

Paul W. Jones was confirmed by the United States Senate as US Ambassador to the Republic of Poland in August 2015 and sworn in by Secretary Kerry in September 2015.

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Ambassador Jones’ service in Asia and South Asia has complemented his European focus. As US Ambassa-

Ambassador Jones is a career member of the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service. His awards include the Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for peace building, and several Superior Honor Awards. He speaks Spanish, Russian, and some Polish. He graduated from Cornell University and received master’s degrees from the University of Virginia and the Naval War College.

Cham Poland in 2016” and highlighted some of the projects which the two institutions collaborated on including the first Poland-US Health Summit in April 2016, which focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and cooperation opportunities for Polish and American companies in the healthcare sector.

Ambassador Jones also praised initiatives promoting the US defense industry in Poland, American smart cities and green building technology. He said that the partnership between the US Embassy and AmCham on promoting Polish investment in the US including through the Select US Program, “is getting more and more traction in Poland”.

He said that AmCham is also an important element in promoting broader ties between the US and Poland, such as exchanges and professional opportunities and corporate social responsibility. He added that he prized a program that AmCham is a part of, along with the Embassy and the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, which sends Polish interns to the US. Ambassador Jones also noted the broad geographic coverage of AmCham operations, saying that the embassy was engaged in collaboration with AmCham in Warsaw but also the organization’s regional offices in Wrocław,

“We need to demonstrate very clearly to our public and our politicians in the US how US investment abroad contribute to jobs in the US.” Gdańsk, Kraków, “promoting trade and investment and demonstrating that AmCham really has a countrywide outreach in Poland.”

Thinking ahead Beyond business and economic relationship Ambassador Jones said that Poland hosted a great NATO summit in the summer 2016, which was “really significant to security and confidence in Poland and this part of Europe.”

Following the summit, the US will send 4,500 US soldiers to Poland in early 2017, with 250 tanks and armored personnel carriers and

other equipment. The ambassador said that Poland-US cooperation in security and defense is part of a good relationship “which encompasses economic, business, but also cultural ties and political ties.”

With the political transition going on in the US, he said he and his team at the US embassy will do their best to forge ties between the Polish government and the incoming administration. “We want to talk about a range of our relationships and probably mostly about the security aspect of those relationships.

Poland, as a country that is spending 2% of its GDP on its NATO commitment through its dynamic modernization of its armed forces and is a country that is paying close attention to cyber security, and with this is positioned to be a part of that discussion with the new administration.”

Ambassador Jones said that the US embassy will continue to work with AmCham, as US business in Poland and Polish investment in the US contribute to growth and jobs in the both countries. “We need to demonstrate very clearly to our public and our politicians in the US how US investments abroad contribute to jobs in the US, and we want to be a partner in developing that,” he concluded.

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Monthly Meeting January

All you need is cash!

The Polish Trade and Investment Agency will have a lot to offer to foreign investors

T

omasz Pisula, the new Chairman of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), a government organization charged with helping foreign investors in Poland, met with AmCham in January to talk about government plans to reform the agency.

PAIiIZ is an organization with which the international business community, including many AmCham member companies, have worked with for many years on a range of different projects. During this time foreign investors saw it evolve from a inefficient and bureaucratic organization unable to meet the expectations of the investors back in the late 20th Century, into a modern, well-organized and efficient one-stop-shop which provides investors with up-to-date information and value-added services. The change for the better took place at the turn of the century, and the agency continuously grew its value for investors, especially so under the leadership of Sławomir Majman, the head of PAIiIZ from 2009 to 2016.

MEET THE SPEAKER

The fund But the days of the PAIiIZ are numbered as the agency is in transition to become a part of a broader network of government agencies and organizations—the Polish Development Fund (PDF)—where it will be known as Polish Trade and Investment Agency. The PDF is a newly formed group of financial and advisory institutions which are charged with helping business as well as local and regional governments build a sustainable economy. It includes other agencies such as The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, PARP. “The idea was to bring all the state agencies into one organizational framework so they don’t compete with one another and their responsibilities do not overlap,” Pisula said.

He added that in future “we might consider more meetings including the heads of the State Development Bank of the Polish Development Fund, who might have things to say” to the American business community in Poland. experience in business The Polish Trade and Investment Agency (PTIA) will continue to be the one-stop-shop for foreign direct investment, Pisula said, not-

Investors should look for opportunities in locations other than just the most popular ones because some of those have a shortage of manpower.

Tomasz Pisula, president of PAIiIZ, on behalf of Ministry of Development supervised a number of ministry-affiliated entities whose total assets exceeded PLN 300 billion. He was pivotal in establishing the Polish Development Fund.

Prior to the work for the ministry Pisula worked for Bank Zachodni WBK. In 2006-2014 he was president of the Freedom and Democracy Foundation, an NGO promoting human rights and democracy in Cuba, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Egypt. In 1998-2003, Pisula was advisor to Senator Zbigniew Romaszewski in the Foundation for Human Rights, where he was responsible for the Senator's foreign contacts. In 2000 Pisula won an internship from the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate. Pisula earned a PhD in philosophy and sociology from the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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ing that the now the agency will be directly supervised by the Ministry of Development. The difference is significant, according to Pisula, because the ministry is now ran by individuals “who have business backgrounds” including the head of the ministry, deputy prime minister and the minister of development Mateusz Morawiecki. And Minister Morawiecki is not the only one at the ministry who understands business: “A significant portion of directors who are responsible for the economy have worked in the financial sector before or have run successful companies in the past,” Pisula noted. “In a natural way there is a lot of under-

standing for business across the board in the ministry and that includes foreign business too. They are an institutional partner for you.”

In January PAIiIZ was assisting 64 US companies which represented an aggregated investment of EUR 1.1 billion. When all the projects materialize they will create 16,000 new jobs in Poland.

Pisula added that PAIiIZ represents the interest of investors vis-a-vis the administration and acts as a voice for them voice for them if they encounter problems across issues that they face. He encouraged members to come and talk to PAIiIZ because “we (at PAIiIZ) know whom to address.”

Beyond PTia The PTIA will continue to do what its predecessor did—assisting foreign investors in finding the most suitable location, negotiating with local governments for tax incentives and exemptions on behalf of foreign investors, and even assist foreign investors in helping them with selling their investment ideas in Poland to the decision makers in their coroprations. The PTIA will also act as a matchmaker between investors and the Polish Development Fund.

“If you have a project and look for a partner this is a place to be,” Pisula said, adding that “Not only does the fund bring money to the project but also stability.” investor havens Pisula said that Poland continues to be an attractive country for foreign investors and citied different investment attractiveness rankings which showed Poland among the best countries in the world for FDI. He said that today, iInvestors should look for opportunities in locations other than just the most popular ones because some of those have a shortage of manpower.

He also said that the tax havens, the Special Economic Zones, are places where investors should go, because the agency “works with local governments and the Special Economic Zones to unleash their potential for foreign investors and there are really exciting opportunities for business there.”

He hinted on the Ministry of Development plans to reform some of the not-so-well performing zones by applying to them the best practices developed by the successful zones.

The ministry will also cluster some of the zones so they do not compete against each other but are “areas of business which create jobs, as we will put them together as local hubs.”

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Focus US presidency

At Palace on the Water in the Warsaw’s Lazienki Park: Prof. Roman Kuźniar; Janusz Reiter, Jozef Wancer, Prof. Bohdan Szklarski; Tony Housh

A fork in the road

Too many questions and too few facts when it comes to judging upon what the Trump presidency may bring to free trade

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ollowing the conclusion of the US presidential elections, a number of debates were led in Warsaw in which distinguished speakers analyzed the potential effect of the Trump presidency on a number of issues including the future of international trade and Polish national security. Arguably, one of the most interesting debates was organized by the Centre for International Relations, a political think tank, which brought under one roof former international affairs advisor to President Komorowski Prof. Roman Kuźniar; former Polish ambassador to the US and Germany Janusz Reiter, AmCham Board Member (BGŻ BNP Paribas), and a renown international banker in Poland Jozef Wancer; Prof. Bohdan Szklarski of American Studies Center at University of Warsaw; and AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide) Tony Housh.

every time a new US president picks Washington politicians for his cabinet it is viewed as a sign showing that the new president has a mature and realistic approach to the business of government. The president's advisors and top members of the administration can exercise quite a huge influence over their boss, as was the case with President George W. Bush, whose presidency “was in the shadow of his cabinet members and advisors,” Prof. Szklarski said.

For Jospeh Wancer, people who will have the president Trump’s ear will have a paramount role in influencing his politics for President Trump himself will not be able to embrace all aspects of his policies. He has shown that he is impulsive and can backtrack on his declared intentions. At his age, 70, he is too old to change his personality, Wancer noted.

The man and his people The debate took place shortly after President Elect Donald Trump announced his picks for his chief strategist and the White House chief of staff—Stephen Bannon and Reince Prebus, respectively. This gave Prof. Szklarski plenty of room to speculate on how Donald Trump intends to balance his administration by manning it with individuals with an anti-establishment agenda, such as Bannon, and individuals with huge experience in Washington politics, such as Prebus. “This choice means that Donald Trump understands that he needs to have people who are part of the political establishment,” Prof. Szklarski said. He noted that

The end of free trade?

Questions concerning how much the new US president will move away from the policies of the Obama administration led to the issue of free trade and how many of the ideas to curb it, which Donald Trump produced during the election campaign, may come true when his is in office.

Tony Housh noted that if the new administration gets engaged in a trade war with China or Mexico, other countries will take advantage of it.

This notion we echoed by Wancer who said that the Obama administration introduced a ban on the import of car tires from China,

which resulted in the US market being flooded by tires made in Korea and other Asian countries.

Another Trump campaign promise, that of bringing back jobs to the US, will also be hard to execute, all the speakers agreed. Wancer noted that the manufacturing companies which left the US decades ago are not going to bring back the same methods of production.

In other words, a company which 20 years ago relocated 1000 jobs to Mexico or Asia, will need some 100 jobs today to generate the same economic output.

The question of how to make US companies come back to the US is not new, Wancer noted. It was the Clinton administration which first addressed the problem with Invest in the USA—a program to attract foreign investors with incentives from local governments the country over. “It will be difficult for Donald Trump to deliver on those promises,” Wancer said.

Keeping in mind some of the ideas to curb free trade that Donald Trump declared during his election campaign, the international business community is bracing for impact. But as Tony Housh noted, some of those declarations may be overrated. He said that Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, Mike Pence, has been a strong proponent of free trade, and made it clear on numerous occasions when he served as Governor of Indiana. “So, it is hard to say now, what the Trump policies will be regarding free trade. There is not yet enough evidence.”

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17

Focus AmCham charity

The Oratorium Daycare Center for children from economically disadvantages families, ran by the St. Clemens Parish in Warsaw’s Wola district, was among the institutions covered by the AmCham Charity Drive in 2016

Achieving greater goals

AmCham relies on the generosity of its members to support a range of charitable causes all year long throughout the country

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or the 21st consecutive year, AmCham held its Christmas Charity Drive, an orchestrated effort by corporate and individual members to render financial and inkind aid to the children of eight orphanages across the country and a single mother's shelter in Słomczyn. Member companies donated products and provided Christmas presents for children in need, while individual members donated food, clothing, toys, and cosmetics.

This year, the most generous member company was Procter & Gamble, donating large amounts (over 1 metric ton!) of laundry detergent, toothpaste, and other personal care items, all of which were urgently needed by the institutions that AmCham supports.

Thanks to its generosity, P&G also donated cleaning products for one of the families that AmCham helps through the Szlachetna Paczka (Generous Parcel) charity project.

Among other large donors that AmCham is grateful to for their generous support is the Mattel company. It delivered large amounts of toys and gadgets. Thanks to Mattel over 100 toys (Barbie, Fisher Price and other favorite

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brands with children) were used by AmCham to prepare individual gift sets for all the children in the orphanage in Rzeszów and the single mother’s shelter in Słomczyn, as well as for the members of Oratorium Daycare Center ran by the St. Clemens Parish in Warsaw’s Wola district.

Another generous donor to the AmCham Charity Drive 2016 was the Kraków-based Pegasystems Software.

Throughout 2016, the AmCham Foundation also donated the proceeds from the AmCham 4th of July raffle, held at the 4th of July Picnic last year, to the Ronald McDonald Foundation to cover the financial needs of the Ronald McDonald House in Kraków and to the Project Management Kids Camp, a charity program from the Warsaw Office of PMI Poland Chapter, which sends the children of selected orphanages and low-income families to a summer camp.

The AmCham Foundation also financed a summer camp for children from an orphanage in Bochnia. The foundation also provided financial support for orphanages engaged in educational, sports and health projects as

well as local initiatives promoting young talent. Among others, with the help of member companies Avis and Universal Express, AmCham could provide a mountain bike to one of the children of the Bochnia Orphanage so he could practice biking before taking part in a regional mountain bike race.

The diversified aid that AmCham provided would not have materialized had it not been for the help of X-Press Couriers and Sky Net Worldwide. Both of them distributed the items collected for the AmCham Charity drive all over Poland. Another generous sponsor, Universal Express, donated cardboard boxes. The Charity Drive 2016 alone required nearly 100 boxes!

The AmCham staff, who work directly with the organizations in need, often in the past heard that the cleaning products are the most needed items by the orphanages and that the items donated by AmCham help them cover their annual demand for toiletries, which is extremely important as they literally struggle for financial aid in difficult times.

• Anita Kowalska

AmCham mentoring

Knowledge transfer

More young leaders go through the AmCham mentoring program

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n December, AmCham its second 30 Under 30 mentoring program for 30 selected professionals below the age 30 from AmCham member companies.

The program, named after Forbes magazine’s famous ratings of young entrepreneurs, 30 Under 30 aims to help young professionals in Poland develop the soft skills they need to build interpersonal relations, to enhance their professional careers and become the business leaders of the future.

The 30 Under 30 committee selected the 30 best out of many applications received for the program, all of which came with distinctive cover letters and promising recommendations. According to program leader Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia, managing director and partner at ERM Polska, the 30 people who were selected as a group speak 11 languages, with some individuals speaking three languages.

There is a CEO, a sailor, musicians, lawyers and managers. While most participants come from Warsaw, some are from Kraków, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. Their education spans many disciplines: IT, law, engineering, property management, marketing and finance. And they earned their degrees from universities all over the world, not just in Poland or the US. The contributors A huge part of the mentoring was provided US Trade and Investment division of the US Embassy in Poland was also involved. AmCham Chairman Tony Housh (APCO Worldwide) and AmCham Managing Director Dorota Dabrowski spoke about AmCham and and the role it plays between business and government. AmCham Board Member Roman Rewald (Weil, Gotshal, Manges) delivered a lecture on the importance of mediation as a means of resolving disputes, while Adam Brożek, from the Polish Ministry of Development spoke about investing in personal development, and the importance of being entrepreneurial and ready to take up new challenges in life. In turn, Peter Strupp (United Business Development), talked about how to become an extraordinary leader, while Beata Pawłowska (Oriflame) talked about time management. In turn, John Lynch (Lynka) gave an insight on how a crisis tests true leadership, and Peter Novak (Charter Oak Insurance and Financial Services Co) shared his thoughts on leadership.

Thanks to Marcin Petrykowski from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the participants attended a course on understanding capital markets while the White Star Foundation helped them understand social entrepreneurship. McDonalds and Express Couriers

contributed to the program by sharing their different perspectives on corporate social responsibility.

Other lectures in the program were selected by the participants themselves through voting. They chose time management, stress management, leadership, emotional intelligence and habits, and high performance.

The takeaway 30 Under 30 received strong support from the US Embassy in Warsaw. According to John Law, deputy chief of mission, the program is “an extraordinary initiative to get creative and dynamic young people who want to change the world we are working in, bring them together and, learn from other people, mentors and companies like Google that are doing extraordinary things.”

According to program participant Karolina Wężyk from S&P Global Ratings, “This was a very good experience. We had an opportunity to meet representatives of different fields and practices who were passionate about what they do and willing to share their success stories.” She added that “the program helped forge relationships with professionals,” while the discussions held during the program “challenged some of our core assumptions and beliefs.”

Another participant, Michał Potyrała, from EY, also underlined the relationship building aspect of the program by saying that, “People

“The program was a valuable tool for personal development, and the personal connections forged during the program will transform into long-term relationships.” are the center of the program. The program is a great opportunity to meet outstanding individuals, both within the group of 30 participants and among the speakers, and AmCham members.”

According to Małgorzata Polanowska, from JLL, the main benefit of the program was the opportunity to learn from outstanding professionals who gave lectures, and also from other

program participants who represented diverse professional fields, views and opinions. “Many sessions resulted in discussions that lasted between the participants long after the session was over,” she said. “The program was a valuable tool for personal development, and the personal connections forged during the program, I hope, will transform into longterm relationships.”

Tomasz Paciorek from MoneyGram Payment Systems Poland, also underlined the importance of forging personal relationships but not only with professionals but with people in need too. “The part of the program on charity, held under the auspices of the White Star Foundation, let me get involved in the Family for Family foundation. I met extraordinary people in it and could see other people in need. It was a great lesson in modesty which I recommend to everybody all the time.”

Ground rules The 30 Under 30 program is designed to meet the expectations of ambitious young managers, and therefore the curriculum is not exactly a cake-walk. The attendance at all nine sessions is mandatory and participants have to do community service with a selected foundation of the White Star Foundation Group, an NGO which is an AmCham member and partner to the 30 Under 30 program.

When it comes to the attitudes expected of the participants, they need to be proactive, which includes sharing and exchanging ideas and contributing something to the whole.

This can be challenging when the participants differ in education, experience, gender and other aspects.

In addition, the participants are expected to offer their own opinions during discussions, because their unique perspectives add value to the program and the participants are part of the process. In other words, what they get out of the program depends on what they contribute to it.

The program was conducted for the first time in 2015. Now AmCham has opened up selection for the third edition which is scheduled to kick off in March. “When we look at the applications we look at the individual and this is why there are sometimes two people per company,” said Dorota Dabrowski. “We look at the individual qualifications above all— it is the individual that stands out for us in the applications.”

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Focus Management

Give change a chance!

The ever-changing world offers opportunities for agile organizations

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n October, AmCham held an exclusive meeting with management guru Mark Dorsett, president of Global Business and Strategies Partnerships, who talked about how to introduce change to the behavior of top managers so organizations can change the way they function in order to profit from the constantly changing business environment.

Dorsett said that today's market place and business environment are prone to major changes which deeply and profoundly effect the ways in which business is done. Those changes are triggered by technological advancements primarily, but also by globalization. “The types of changes that we see today are bigger than ever,” Dorsett said. “Today, the change is constant, and those who are in the service industry know it the best—customer resource management software and so on. So the change comes faster and is much more complex than before.”

Resistance factor But “the constant change” also means that there are new business opportunities and the winners “are those who can quickly adjust accordingly and grab it.” How quickly and efficiently an organization reacts to change, so it can utilize the opportunity, reflects the agility of the organizations management. The more agile an organization is, larger is the benefit it can generate from adjusting to the external change. But it is easier said than done. “Many organizations talk about the need to be more agile but they do not do it. It is about taking advantage of a change in the market situation,” Dorsett said.

It is so because people in organizations are mentally attached to doing things the way they have been always doing them. This is how they understand what their role in the company is, their place in the corporate mechanism and how they are reimbursed for the value they deliver to the company. If suddenly they are told to change the way they work they get confused. This is why most “organizations lack a regular capability to make changes throughout their org structures,” Dorsett said.

Employees have a conservative approach to change, which, Dorsett explained, stems from their lack of information as to why they need to change their ways. The ability to transform information into insight on how the market changes is called agility. The organizations which are the most agile are in the position to profit the most from a constantly changing business environment.

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managing change Dorsett argued that to be agile organizations, companies need to integrate they way they manage change into their standard working practices. The key factor in determining whether they are successful at hitting their business goals is the sponsor of change. The sponsor needs to be active and visible throughout a project from beginning to end. Also, the sponsors need to build coalitions because “almost all our initiatives are interdisciplinary and very rarely impact just one person within the organization.”

The key role of the sponsor is to pass on to the people concerned as much information about about the change process as possible. “One of the top reasons why employees demonstrate resistance to whatever that is being implemented is that they don’t get enough information from their direct supervisors. They manager is not helping them to do the transition, is not telling them why they are supposed to do their job differently—but they should get some training.

We need to have people understand why there are changes and what they should expect.”

But companies should not force their peo-

One of the top reasons why employees demonstrate resistance to whatever is being implemented is that they don’t get enough information from their direct supervisors. ple to change because when they do the resistance from the workers is higher and the chance that the whole change project is accomplished successfully diminishes. “You don’t make people use certain solutions but you can influence them to chose certain solutions,” Dorsett said. “With this you have much higher chances to achieve your business objectives.”

Dorsett backed up this by citing a survey which showed that companies which did not take care to properly inform people about

changes were successful only 15% of the time. In turn, those that did a very effective job of preparing people achieved their objective 94% of times.

Sponsors have to be effective. “When a project goes badly it has to do with the sponsor. But the sponsor blames the project team; the project team blame the sponsor...

But a good sponsor has to be a problem solver and make decisions, and has to be active and visible throughout the whole process instead of only in the beginning.”

Sponsors and managers of the change process need to be experts in any technology that may be involved. Dorsett said that almost 70% of change initiatives involve technology. “This requires understanding how people are going to receive that. When it is a big company which has to manage change across hundred thousands employees, managers and people supervising the program have to go through training programs themselves to use the technology tools that will help them achieve the goal.”

Dorsett concluded this part of his presentation by saying that employees “have to know what is expected of them—not only the technical solution but they need to see how what they do fits with the rest of the company. The change acceptance has to be in the DNA of your organization so it is truly agile.” next-generation management The discipline of change management is not unique to any industry or any culture or marketplace. It applies the same in Poland and Australia as it does in the US or the UK. It adheres to the same principles regardless of the type of organization it is implemented in. “It may be a government agency, pharmaceuticals company or construction company—it applies equally,” Dorsett said.

A company may want to change the way how its people interact with customers so they are more responsive to what customers want rather than to what has to be done for customers. “It is about changing the mindset of their people when they deal with customers.” But a government agency may want to significantly change how their people interact with citizens, if “they want their people to be much more friendly and responsive to clients.”

Dorsett finished his presentation by saying that the practice of change management “is a next generation of management.”

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Company profile Poland-US Operations

Mission possible defense procurement process. This also often requires facilitating joint projects with local Polish industry. Our second focus is assisting local Polish companies with participation in NATO and US government projects in Poland and Central Europe. Poland is the new “Eastern Front,” and there are many NATO and US government tenders associated with the increased US presence in the region. This includes the European Reassurance Initiative, the American Aviation Detachment, NATO rotational forces, and the Redzikowo Air and Missile Defense Facility. Some examples of projects we’ve executed are sub-contractor base maintenance support and transport of military equipment for Redzikowo, as well as transport and logistics services for the Anakonda ’16 NATO exercise held in Poland in June 2016. Returning to the topic of supporting industry in Polish projects, we see a great deal of opportunity in the Polish defense modernization plan and the creation of the Polish Territorial Defense forces. We’ve already facilitated several projects including aircraft maintenance services, supporting mobile shooting ranges, and developing command and control operations. It is worth noting that in all cases, these are joint projects between American and Polish companies working together! We certainly consider ourselves “bridge builders.”

American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Ronald Farkas, president of Poland-US Operations (PLUS Ops), a provider of consulting and management services to the defense sector, about the company’s prospects for growth

Photo courtesy of Ronald Farkas

what’s the story of your company in Poland?

I arrived in Poland assigned to the Office of Defense Cooperation in the US Embassy as the Air Force Programs Officer, responsible for Foreign Military Sales programs between the US and Poland. During this time, I gained an understanding of the challenges which defense companies and military organizations face in regards to procurement, training, and logistics programs. It became clear that there was a strong demand for assistance in navigating the Polish defense procurement process as well as with NATO and US Government projects. Upon separating from the military in 2015, I founded PLUS Ops as a means for industry to more efficiently and effectively interact with Polish, US, and NATO procurement processes.

was it difficult to obtain all the licensing in Poland?

It was challenging to obtain the appropriate licenses and certifications as an American living in Poland with a Polish registered company. As an American, I am subject to Department of State arms brokerage regulations regardless of where my company is registered. Additionally, we are required to maintain a local Polish arms brokerage license, which was also difficult to obtain as an American citizen without permanent residence in the European Union. what’s the scope of services that PLus ops provides?

There are two main elements to what we do: The first is supporting the US defense industry in Poland to include tracking, preparing, and participating in the Polish

Defense procurement activity demands a longterm perspective, and there are always budgetary and political risks which must be analyzed and mitigated.

what are your plans for 2017 and beyond?

In 2016 we had the opportunity to determine where support is most necessary, and next year we hope to consolidate our existing programs and refine our services. We plan to institutionalize our dual service structure by creating separate branches for supporting Polish projects and separately US and NATO activity in the region. Defense procurement activity demands a long-term perspective, and there are always budgetary and political risks which must be analyzed and mitigated. Social welfare spending is rising alongside increased security challenges, and there will be more fierce debates over “guns versus butter” and the appropriate allocation of public funds. For this reason, we make sure to branch out beyond just the defense sector, and support other services such as dual-use civil-military technology, the IT sector and transportation.

We’d also love to do more to support local Polish industry in accessing the US commercial and defense markets.

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Company profile M+W Central Europe

Safe as houses American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Tomasz Feret, branch director for Poland at M+W Central Europe, a project design and management company, about its values, culture and plans to expand

How does designing and building projects make you special?

Designing and building facilities based on the documentation we produce makes us solely responsible for the entire project.

Our designers go to the building site and see how the plans they have drawn work with the construction people. If there is an error made in the design process, the same people who made it correct it. This is why our clients trust us because we take full responsibility for the entire construction process and they know that their 22

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Photo courtesy of C+W Central Europe

what are the essential things to know about your company?

M+W Central Europe is a part of M+W Group, which is a global company that designs and builds highly specialized industrial facilities. We employ over 6,000 engineers globally, with one third of them working in the US, one third in Europe and one third in Asia. In Poland, we employ over 100 engineers in three offices, in Wrocław, Gdańsk, and Warsaw. We design and build advanced technology facilities for a number of high-tech industries including manufacturers of semiconductors, photovoltaics, displays and batteries, pharmaceutical companies, chemical companies, food producers and health and nutrition companies. We also design and build conventional power plants, nuclear systems, waste-to-energy power plants, and solar power plants. Our projects for the high-tech sector include science and research facilities, data centers and clean rooms. We also deliver projects for the space and security sectors.

We also build the facilities that we design. In other words, we are the designer and the general contractor. This is a good solution for time-sensitive investment projects because the investors do not need to look for a construction company and this cuts investment projects by 2-3 months on average.

and each must be built to very high technological standards.

Then all those systems are integrated into one project, and the last thing to do is the architectural design of the building, which is determined by the sum total of all the systems that need to be in place.

We also deal with obtaining all the permits and licensing for our clients before construction starts. With such an approach our clients know that when they sign the contract with us they will have their facility delivered on time.

project will be delivered on time. Working with us is safe as houses.

Such an approach is especially critical with complex construction projects. The more complex a project is the better our system of designing and building works.

But we work like that because we want to engage in long-term cooperation with our clients who know that they can count on us in the future when technologies are even more complex, sophisticated and more difficult to design for. Our clients know that because of this approach our designers and engineers will successfully cope with new challenges going forward.

How do you do it?

We start each project by understanding the production process of the facility we design and we will build. Our designers and engineers first draw each system that needs to be installed. It is a complex process because there is a multitude of processes in a modern production facility

what can you tell me about your corporate values?

Our core values focus on creating value for our stakeholders—our customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders. People come first and, because we are a construction company, we are committed to safety at work so at the end of the day everybody goes home safe. But respect for people means to us also respect for the natural environment and we do our utmost no to affect it in any way.

Another people-oriented value is our customer orientation. We commit ourselves to a long-term partnership with our clients by delivering value for them over a long period of time. Our partners, when planning their next investment projects, always turn to us. We deliver high quality to them and this is why they want us for their new projects. When it comes to this quality factor, you have to bear in mind, that as a designer of very specific industrial facilities, we have our own high standards. And we share them with our clients.

Sometimes when working with a client we notice they do not have the same high standards as us but we still stick to our high standards anyway. This is connected with our next value, which is trust. We believe that the courage to remain truthful to deliver what we say ensures fairness in all our relationships. For instance, if there are problems or things that can not be done, and we see them right there in the design phase, we communicate them to our client.

Credibility is our value as well. It means

that we deliver to our clients what was agreed. We do both project design and then manage the construction, which means that we run the risk of something going wrong in the construction process because of errors made in the design phase.

We are also a company which cultivates cultural diversity. We are present in the US, Europe and Asia. Our cultural diversity is a strong contributing factor to our culture of global spirit which promotes mutual respect and the sharing of different cultural experiences. This is why we are very proud of our people for they are the core of our business and ensure the future of it. We reach out to that future every day by nurturing their entrepreneurial spirit by rewarding creativity and professional courage. so what are your leadership principles?

Besides professional skills and expertise, the willingness and effort to apply these principles are the main criteria for progress within our organization. This is why one of our leadership principles is described as Link, which is about encouraging active, open and honest communication across the company. Sharing knowledge and ideas with others, and teamwork is essential for success. We also act by example when it comes to loyalty to the company and its clients, and are consistent. We encourage our people to think positively and progress in what they do.

Accountability is our another leadership principle. It is about executing plans and delivering business goals by setting clear priorities and delivering them on time. Of course, the list of our leadership principles would not be full without “Drive” and “Expertise”. The former is about personal commitment to work—here we encourage curiosity, an open-mind and the drive to constantly learn and improve professionally. In turn, “Expertise” is about acting with entrepreneurial spirit with in-depth expert knowledge and a determination to get to the heart of the problem. We believe that the determination of our people to be the best experts possible is something that motivates them, develops and integrates them as a team. can you give me a practical example of how those leadership principles work for the benefit of the company?

Of course! Our leadership principles, such as open minds, sharing knowledge and team-work, deliver benefits for us.

For instance, our team in Warsaw was supporting a M+W Group team in Germany in the design of a biotech project.

Because of that collaboration we acquired

some very specific knowledge in designing for biotech. Now, here in Poland, we design biotech facilities for clients in Asia. You may ask why it is us in Poland and not our colleagues in Germany who get that job... Well, it is still cheaper to do the design in Poland than in Germany. So, because of the knowledge transfer from Germany, which would not have happened without our leadership principles, we can design in Poland to the highest standards in the industry and send our people to supervise constructions on the ground for our clients in South Korea, Indonesia and Russia.

From what you are saying i understand that there are many young, talented engineers available in Poland...

Yes, indeed! There are young, talented engineers in Poland and many of them are eager to work. However, in recent years we have seen a drop in the education quality of the new generation of engineers. It is well prepared to work with different technologies and different computer software but what it lacks is the pure engineering knowledge. We noticed that a few years ago. It is because technology universities have new curricula and allocate less time for studying theory. So, it is up to the private sector to educate the graduates so they become fullyfledged engineers. The graduates whom we hire first work as assistants to designers, project managers and our engineers on the construction site. This phase takes 1-2 years, depending on how individual people perform. Those who learn fast become project engineers after a year, and work in our design offices or at our construction sites. It is important to let them have such practical experience at the drawing board and the building site because it helps them see the practical results of what they do, especially when it comes to any errors they made in the design phase. With this, it is easier for them to see what went wrong and how they need to improve when they draw the plans and documentation for the builders. It is important that they improve their skills this way and learn how to make a technically superior documentation for the people on the building site. All this comes with experience.

So, to sum up, young talent is available in Poland but experienced engineers are hard to come by these days.

How about your contractors in Poland—is it difficult to find companies which have the type of standards you require?

They are different construction companies representing different levels of technological advancement and professional-

ism. We have selected a group of companies which we contract for our building projects. Those companies are excellent, and the fact that they dliver world-class quality can be attributed to our influence—we have worked with companies, which, even if they did not have the right standards, had a potential to improve. So we worked with them and transferred our standards and know-how to them. They are very specialized firms now, which deliver top-quality work and understand our priorities.

Having said that, I must add that we also learn from others. The international corporations for whom we deliver our services to are an irreplaceable source of know-how for us. They have advanced internal procedures and we can verify our internal procedures based on what we learn from them and as a result adjust our internal standards to meet their high standards. Those are procedures governing such areas as safety at work, minimizing risk, doing things in a more economic way and so on. would you say that the construction sector in Poland is difficult because of the red tape associated with all the administrative decisions and permits that investors have to obtain?

We have been in Poland for 15 years so we understand the reality of the market and know how to navigate through it successfully. We are happy to see that in recent years the time it takes for the authorities to issue building permits has shortened significantly, which is obviously good for investors. investors. But we think the time it takes to obtain an environmental impact certificate, which is now up to six months, could have been made shorter for the benefit of investors and the whole market of high-tech production. In fact it would benefit the entire economy, because our clients are innovative companies and they create new jobs in the innovative economy. what are your plans for 2017 and beyond?

This year we plan to focus more on the energy sector. We plan to collaborate with our colleagues in the UK more on it especially when it comes to projects utilizing cogeneration and triple-generation technologies. Poland will have to upgrade its energy sector sooner or later and this is where we see opportunities for us. We also look at such markets as Lithuania and the Baltic States where there are interesting projects in biotechnology.

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Company profile Wolf Theiss

Taking the pulse of change American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok speaks with Ronald B. Given, partner and head of the Warsaw office of Wolf Theiss, a law firm with a regional presence, about the evolution of the market for legal services and how the firm is adapting to it Ron, how would you characterize wolf Theiss and yourself in a sentence or two?

Wolf Theiss is a law firm that started in Vienna and now has 340 lawyers and 13 offices across Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. The Warsaw office was part of a German law firm until 2013 when it joined Wolf Theiss. The primary reason I’m here is to help the Warsaw office continue to integrate into the Wolf Theiss network and grow. The integration process, as we know, is always a challenging one in any international organization.

Prior to coming to the Warsaw office a little more than a year and a half ago, I lived and managed Wolf Theiss’s offices in Zagreb, Prague and Kyiv. Prior to joining Wolf Theiss in 2008, I spent about 30 years at a large, Chicago-based international law firm and several years as the general counsel of a listed, international insurance holding company. I expect that I will stay in Warsaw for about three years. Chicago is still my home and I will return there someday. with offices ranging from Vienna through serbia, Hungary, and down to albania, wolf Theiss looks like it covers the former austro-Hungarian empire. is this part of a plan?

We are often teased that we are recreating that empire. If you look at the map you might say to yourself that you remember this from the history books. But it is mostly by coincidence and really results from the way Eastern Europe opened up again.

But given its unique geographic footprint, I must say that Wolf Theiss is a very attractive referral partner for big and small US law firms, as well as UK-based and Western European firms, because we will never be in places like New York, 24

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London or Frankfurt. Those places are just not our turf. So, a law firm in, say, New York City can easily send work to us knowing that we will do a very good job for its client and, additionally, we will never compete against that law firm because we will never be in their locations. what is the wolf Theiss business model?

The Wolf Theiss business model is that of a full-service business law firm. The corporate practice remains very important to us, including inbound M&A, and we are deep into real estate, IT/IP and anti-trust practices, as well. Dispute resolution is a very big part of what we do firm-wide, and particularly here in the Warsaw office, where many of the lawyers include some litigation and arbitration in their practice.

Although we have an existing disputes practice which is very solid, we’d still like to grow it more because for us litigation is such a key driver. We recently added a partner to head that practice and expect to add several more lawyers this year. when it comes to the growth in the number of your lawyers, what is the target for wolf Theiss in warsaw?

There are about 30 lawyers in the Warsaw office now and we would like to grow that number to about 50 lawyers. Whether or not I can get that kind of growth in three years remains to be seen. I certainly am going to try. The fact is that many law firms in Warsaw are bigger than that. But our view is that with around 50 lawyers we can give opportunities for our lawyers to be specialized enough that they can compete effectively and deal with the realities of today’s legal market.

Although the office in Warsaw is the newest in our network, being on board only since 2013, it is really critical to the completion of our ideal geographic footprint.

So, we are absolutely committed to the Warsaw office's growth and success. what is driving business forward for you in the Polish market?

The most important aspect of the market we see in Poland is simply continuing growth. Whether it is 3% or 3.5 % or whatever is less important than the fact that there is real growth here and that there are plenty of indicators that strong investor interest continues. Also, the experience of our firm is that this is one jurisdiction where a very strong American interest remains on the part of investors. AmCham knows that even better than me. These are all positives.

But it has also become in recent years a very competitive and dynamic market for law firms. Many of the big US and UKbranded international firms are present here, which makes all the other players— including Wolf Theiss—really compete.

This high level of competition forces lawyers to not just sit back and watch the world go by thinking they will somehow magically get their share. We used to be able to do that. Now you really have to go out and make things happen. And why not?

There is no reason for lawyers to have it any easier than anyone else.

M&A, including inbound M&A, has remained active for us. You can always say, however, that there should be even more M&A. I do believe one impediment has been what I call a valuation disconnect between buyers and sellers. Poland had a run of very good years and many owners of businesses have based their impressions of what their businesses are worth on the experience of those good years. This has not always been realistic. Reduced valuations on the Warsaw Stock Exchange have helped many sellers to come to a more realistic view on what their businesses are actually worth in the here and now. I have seen similar things in other Eastern European jurisdictions. The owners who founded companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s are not passing the torch as quickly as one might think they would.

Some of this is about valuation issues and some of it, maybe, results from things like management buyouts and others financial structuring not being as common in the local markets as elsewhere. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania all have similar things to deal with. From my observations, though, Poland always seems to get to where it needs to be before its neighbors in this part of the world. I am sure this will continue to be the case.

How do you manage to deal with your own competition?

In our business people are the most important asset we have and it is in this area, in particular, that I think we have a great advantage. In the Warsaw market, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many lawyers jumped into the game. As the markets first opened, if you spoke English and were willing to hustle a bit chances were good that you would do very well—and many lawyers did. A lot of those lawyers are still at it, sitting at the top of many US- and UKbranded local law firms, as well as purely Polish firms, with the understandable intention of staying there for the foreseeable future. This situation blocks the career paths of younger lawyers and it is one of the reasons you see so many boutique firms forming today. Many of those boutique firms are run by young and talented

lawyers who came in after the boom and did not get a share of the glory days. Many have concluded that the only way they can rise to the top, to write their own story if you will, is by forming their own firms.

Many are ambitious people who are willing to take risks and they are exactly the sort we are looking for at Wolf Theiss. There is no legacy ceiling on a lawyer's growth potential at Wolf Theiss. The sky's the limit, actually. It’s a good story and people want to be a part of it. so, it is a business and generational phenomenon. what other implications are there for law firms?

Many traditional aspects of the practice seem to linger longer in Poland than elsewhere, including the casting of the roles of partners and associates. It seems to me that there is still a tendency here that it is the partner who has the client contact, the partner who does the business development and the partner who is the face of the firm. Meanwhile, everyone else in the firm is somewhat tied to the role of a back office person in many ways. The problem is that one day those back office people should become partners and do all the things that partners are responsible for even though they are not being permitted to do them today by the current partners. is wolf Theiss different in this respect?

Yes, absolutely. We do not think that other business works this way anymore and we do not think that we can do it like that either. Our approach to our people is that legal excellence is, of course, always at the beginning and is the foundation of everything we do. We expect every one of our lawyers, down to the most junior, to participate with us in finding the best solutions for clients, to be a good team member as well as a leader of teams, to help us run our office, to engage in business development, and to help make ourselves better known in the community. And we put our money where our mouth is with the extensive training we provide. Every one of our lawyers spends a couple of weeks every year in Vienna for training purposes—we pick Vienna as the venue only because it is the easiest location to which you can get a direct flight from each of our offices. We bring together all our associates from all of our offices and train them not only on the basics of their legal specialties but also on such topics as the business of the law, presentation skills and business development. We start investing in people the minute they walk in the door. And we invest a lot. The skills we give them help the firm, naturally, but they are also invaluable for the individual lawyers, while they remain at Wolf Theiss as well as at any other place they might eventually end up in.

Other law firms do training, I know, but I really don't think that you will find the degree of commitment to it that you find at Wolf Theiss.

How about csR and pro bono work?

From my perspective as an American lawyer who actually practiced in the States for over 30 years, pro bono work is absolutely part of the deal and everyone is expected to do it. When I started in Croatia for Wolf Theiss I was very surprised to learn there were no law firms in the whole country other than Wolf Theiss doing pro bono work outside of bar association mandated cases. The first pro bono client we had in Zagreb was an organization called Red Noses. They go to hospitals and entertain sick kids. It is a wonderful group.

When I first encountered them they were very well established in Vienna and elsewhere but had no presence in Croatia. We did all their legal work setting up their offices and operations. For a while they did not even have an office so we let them use one of our conference rooms. Some days I would come to work and there would actually be clowns in the office. From time to time in my law practice over the years it seemed like I was surrounded by clowns.

Helping Red Noses actually made the observation true in a very literal sense!

Even before I came to our Warsaw office in 2015 we already had done some significant amount of pro bono work. When we do our annual review of lawyers we expect each of them to have done some community-related activity. Red Noses is already in Poland and we also help them here whenever they need it. Another example of what we do is that several of our lawyers are active with the Helsinki Foundation.

We are engaged in litigation for that organization in very prominent discrimination cases where restaurants have not allowed blind patrons to bring in aid dogs.

Pro bono it is always a two-way street because our own lawyers also learn a lot from the experience. It’s a classic "win-win", actually. as the head of the warsaw office, what is your personal ambition to achieve here?

My goal is that, whenever a business person or general counsel is considering a law firm for a legal matter of significance in Poland, Wolf Theiss will be on that person's list of the top-ten shops to consider for the engagement. You never win them all, of course, in the law business or in any other business. There is simply too much competition. But if our lawyers earn a spot on that short list in Warsaw, as they have is so many other of our locations, I will be happy.

•

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

25

AmCham Membership Directory Alphabetical list of AmCham corporate members, as of December 31, 2016.

No

Company Name

1. 3M POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Person in charge

Position

Arana Sebastian

Managing Director

www.3m.pl

General Director General Manager Managing Director Chairman of the Board CEO Managing Director Country Manager General Manager Poland Managing Director Associate Sales Manager Managing Partner Managing Director Managing Director Branch Manager Managing Director General Director Member of the Board Business Development Manager Managing Director Public Policy Manager CEE President & CEO Country Manager Chairman of the Board Director Director General Manager Director General Director Poland Partner PR Director Senior Counselor Vice President CEO Regional Sales Director Group Leader Country Manager General Manager Vice President

abbott.pl abbvie.pl abtrex.com accenture.pl achieveglobal.pl nielsen.com/pl adecco.pl adm.com adoriavineyards.com adp.pl adventinternational.pl aecom.com agriplus.pl agsmovers.com aig.com.pl airfrance.pl airproducts.com.pl alphasolutions.eu alvarezandmarsal.com n/a amecfw.com americanexpress.pl klinikiserca.pl aifs.com asw.waw.pl amgen.com amway.com amway.pl andersentax.pl animex.pl apcoworldwide.com apollorida.com.pl arcadis.pl arris.com arup.com asystems.as astrazeneca.pl avis.pl

A 2. ABBOTT LABORATORIES POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Kurysz Marek Mazurkiewicz Jacek 3. ABBVIE POLSKA Lewis Glenn 4. ABTREX INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o.

Kroc Jarosław 5. ACCENTURE Sp. z o.o.

Strupp Peter 6. ACHIEVE GLOBAL Mordasiewicz Szymon 7. AC NIELSEN POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Wicha Anna 8. ADECCO POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Stasiuk Radosław 9. ADM DIRECT POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

10. ADORIA VINEYARDS-WHITNEY ADAMS Sp. z o .o. Whitney Mike Ponaczewny Michał 11. ADP POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

12. ADVENT INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o.

Huep Ralf de Boom Jan 13. AECOM Sp. z o.o.

Ejchart Monika 14. AGRI PLUS S.A. GROUP 15. AGS WARSAW Tavernier Cedric 16. AIG EUROPE LIMITED Sp. z o.o.

Mahieu Patrick 17. AIR FRANCE KLM DELTA Siling Frantisek Wieczorek Piotr 18. AIR PRODUCTS Sp z o.o.

19. ALPHA SOLUTIONS Sp. z o.o.

Bailey Donal Kolaja Thomas 20. ALVAREZ & MARSAL POLAND Sp. z o.o.

21. AMAZON Celiński Andrzej 22. AMEC FOSTER WHEELER ENERGIA POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Mlonka Jarosław 23. AMERICAN EXPRESS Filipowicz Zbigniew 24. AMERICAN HEART OF POLAND Buszman Paweł 25. AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR FOREIGN STUDY (POLAND) Pągowski Michał Zurfluh Jon Paul 26. AMERICAN SCHOOL OF WARSAW Kingdom Samantha 27. AMGEN Sp. z o.o.

Karpiński Wojciech 28. AMWAY BUSINESS CENTRE-EUROPE Sp. z o.o.

Pietrzak Anna 29. AMWAY POLSKA O'Shaughnessy Matthew 30. ANDERSEN TAX Sp. z o.o.

Pawelczak Andrzej 31. ANIMEX FOODS Sp. z o.o. sp.k.

32. APCO WORLDWIDE Sp. z o.o.

Housh Tony 33. APOLLO-RIDA POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Nowicki Rafał 34. ARCADIS Klammer Marcin 35. ARRIS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Zawada Arek 36. ARUP Skuse Matthew 37. ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Giryn Magdalena 38. ASTRAZENECA PHARMA POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Oleszczuk Jarek 39. AVIS POLSKA Lesiak Radosław B 40. BAE SYSTEMS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o.

LaCrosse Martha 41. BAIN & COMPANY POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Poświata Jacek 42. BAMA EUROPA Sp. z o.o.

Siewruk Marlena 43. BANK BPH S.A. Gaskin Richard 44. BANK HANDLOWY W WARSZAWIE S.A. Sikora Sławomir 45. BANK POLSKA KASA OPIEKI S.A. Kaczmarek Andrzej 46. BAXTER POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Cytrowska Magdalena 47. BECTON DICKINSON POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Korybalski Łukasz 48. BGP PRODUCTS Sp. z o.o.

Buczek Tomasz 49. BGŻ BNP PARIBAS Wancer Joseph 50. BIOGEN POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Dębski Piotr 51. BOEING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION S.A. Poland Prusinski Stanley Joseph 52. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Knap Mariusz 53. BOYDEN Płaza Zbigniew 54. BP POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Pyrich Piotr 55. BRISTOL HOTEL Henning Andrew 56. BRISTOL–MYERS SQUIBB POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Marciniak Piotr 57. BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO POLSKA TRADING Bekefi Antal 58. BROWAR NAMYSŁÓW Sp. z o.o.

Szczepaniak Czesław 59. BROWN BROTHERS HARRIMAN (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. McDonald Michael 60. BROWN-FORMAN POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Janota Andrzej C 61. C.H. ROBINSON POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Glinka Arkadiusz 62. CA TECHNOLOGIES Sp. z o.o.

MacAra Euan 63. CAN PACK S.A. Impink Philip 64. CAPITA (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o.

Zygner Agnieszka 65. CARGILL POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Byczyńska Joanna 66. CASINOS POLAND LTD. Strohriegel Nikolaus 67. CATERPILLAR FINANCIAL SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Myszkowski Jarosław 68. CBRE Sp. z o.o.

Bienias Daniel 69. CDM SMITH Kamiński Krzysztof 70. CEB SHL Polska Sp. z o.o.

Fita Aneta 71. CEC GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Sp. z o.o.

Matraszek Marek 72. CEE CONSULTING GROUP Sp. z o. o.

Makatrewicz de Roy Andrzej 73. CENTURYLINK POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Oldenburg Tim 74. CH2M Chmurzyńska Katarzyna 75. CHWMEG INC. Mott Randy 76. CIMA (CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANTS) Bejnarowicz Jakub 77. CISCO SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Fabiszewski Dariusz

Company website

Director baesystems.com Managing Director bain.com/warsaw Finance Manager bama.com President bph.pl CEO citihandlowy.pl Director Int'l Clients Office pekao.com.pl General Manager CEE baxter.com Country General Manager CEE BD.com/pl General Manager mylan.com President of the Management Board bgzbnpparibas.pl Country Director biogen-poland.pl Director, Boeing Defense - Poland & Eastern Europe boeing.com Trade Director Eastern Europe and Central Asia bsci.com Managing Director boyden.com CEO bp.pl Managing Director luxurycollection.com/bristolwarsaw Country Manager b-ms.pl General Manager bat.com.pl CEO browarnamyslow.com.pl Country Manager bbh.com Managing Director brown-forman.com/ European Director Country Manager Poland & Baltics President General Manager Board Member Company Director Country Manager Managing Director Country Manager Chairman of the Board Director and Founding Partner Managing Partner Operations Director Poland European Corporate Affairs Manager Director for Europe, Middle East & Africa Country Manager General Manager

chrobinson.com ca.com canpack.eu capita-europe.com cargill.com.pl cnty.com cat.com cbre.pl cdmsmith.com shl.com.pl cecgr.com ceecg.com centurylinktechnology.com ch2m.com chwmeg.org cimaglobal.com cisco.pl

WINTER 2017 AMERICAN INVESTOR

27

AmCham Membership No 78.

79.

80.

81.

82.

83.

84.

85.

86.

87.

88.

Company Name Person in charge Position Company website CMC POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Kozicz Jerzy Chairman of the Management Board cmc.com CMS Dulewicz Katarzyna Partner cmslegal.com COCA-COLA POLAND SERVICES Sp. z o.o.

Popovic Lana TCCC Operations Director for Poland and Baltics cocacola.com.pl COIMPEX Sp. z o.o.

Brodersen David COO coimpex.pl COLGATE-PALMOLIVE POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Król Wojciech General Manager colgate.pl CORNING OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Bielawski Mariusz Plant Manager/Member of the Board corning.com COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT WARSAW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HOTEL Stępkowska Aneta General Manager courtyard.com/wawcy CROSSOVER Tornberg Markus Country General Manager of Poland crossover.com CROWLEY INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT GROUP Sp. z o.o. Roszkowski Jarosław Chairman of the Board cidg.pl CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Taylor Charles Managing Partner cushmanwakefield.pl CVC CAPITAL PARTNERS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o.

Krawczyk Krzysztof Partner cvc.com D Thorpe Cameron Chief Executive Officer dctgdansk.com 89. DCT GDAŃSK SA DeBenedetti David Partner dms.net.pl 90. DEBENEDETTI MAJEWSKI SZCZESNIAK Metrycki Marek Managing Partner deloitte.com/pl 91. DELOITTE Miśniakiewicz Tomasz CFO delphi.com 92. DELPHI POLAND S.A. 93. DENTONS Ostrowski Igor Partner dentons.com Wagner Frank Country Manager Poland www.lh.com 94. DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA S.A. Oddział w Polsce Pressello Angelo Managing Director dir.com.pl 95. DIRECT COMMUNICATION Sp. z o.o.

96. DLA PIPER WIATER Sp.k.

Wiater Krzysztof Managing Partner dlapiper.com 97. DOUBLETREE BY HILTON WROCŁAW Herd Matthias General Manager wroclaw.doubletree.com 98. DOW POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Stankiewicz Robert Country Manager dow.com 99. DUPONT POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Pałka Andrzej Country Leader dupont.com.pl E 100. ECONOCOM POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Chouin Gildas Country Manager Poland & CEE Sales Director econocom.com Combal Herve Managing Director edenred.pl 101. EDENRED POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

102. EGON ZEHNDER INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o.

Bachowski Jarosław Managing Partner egonzehnder.com 103. ELI LILLY POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Świniarski Maksymilian Country Manager lilly.pl 104. EMC COMPUTER SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Wojtkowski Adam Country Manager emc.com Kosik Tomasz General Manager emersonprocess.pl 105. EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT Sp. z o.o.

106. EMITEL Sp. z o.o.

Kurczewski Przemysław Chairman of the Board emitel.pl Siwicki Jacek Chairman of the Board of Directors and President ei.com.pl 107. ENTERPRISE INVESTORS 108. EPSTEIN Sp. z o.o.

Lichocki Janusz President epstein.com.pl 109. ERM POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Pavlak-Chiaradia Magdalena Managing Director, Partner erm.com 110. ESTEE LAUDER POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Zboch Joanna General Manager esteelauder.com 111. EURONET POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Szafirski Marek President euronetworldwide.com 112. EXPRESS MAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Przeorek Janusz President e-map.pl 113. EY POLSKA Kędzior Jacek Managing Partner www.ey.com F 114. F5 NETWORKS POLAND Wiśniewski Ireneusz Country Leader F5.com 115. FACEBOOK POLAND Bednarski Robert Country Director CEE facebook.com 116. FCM TRAVEL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o.

Hyland Tim Managing Director travelexpress.pl 117. FEDERAL EXPRESS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Mik Mariusz Managing Director fedex.com/pl 118. FIRESTONE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Gajda Paweł Plant Manager firestoneip.com 119. FISERV POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Gren Aleksandra General Director fiserv.com 120. FLEX Polojko Andrzej General Director flextronics.com 121. FOCUS RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL Żabiński Richard President & CEO focusmr.com 122. FOREVER LIVING PRODUCTS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Kandefer Jacek Managing Director foreverliving.com 123. FRITO-LAY POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Guille Christophe General Manager fritolay.pl G 124. GE INTERNATIONAL S.A. POLSKA Stelmach Beata CEO Poland & Baltics ge.com 125. GENERAL MOTORS POLAND Mieczkowski Wojciech Managing Director opel.pl 126. GILEAD SCIENCES POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Kaźmierski Michał General Manager, Member of the Board gilead.com 127. GLOBE TRADE CENTRE SA Kurzmann Thomas CEO gtc.com.pl 128. GOLUB GETHOUSE Sp. z o.o.

Jarząbek Czarek President golubgethouse.pl 129. GOOGLE POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Waliszewski Artur Country Manager google.com 130. GP STRATEGIES CORPORATION Sp. z o. o.

Kolendowicz Łukasz Member of the Board gpstrategies.com 131. GREENBERG TRAURIG Grzesiak Jarosław Managing Partner gtlaw.com 132. GREMI Sp. z o.o.

Hajdarowicz Grzegorz Owner gremi.pl 133. GROUPON Sp. z o.o.

Ostrowski Łukasz Managing Director groupon.com 134. GTR HOLDING Sp. z o.o. SEGWAY Plewińska Ewa Managing Director segway.com.pl 135. GUARDIAN CZĘSTOCHOWA Sp. z o.o.

Kuźnik Grzegorz Plant Manager guardian.com H 136. HAYS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Młynarczyk Michał Managing Director CEE hays.pl 137. HBO POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Kozicki Michał President hbo.pl 138. HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES Szymański Robert Partner in Charge heidrick.com 139. HERMAN MILLER LIMITED Karbownik Maciej Owner K&R Design hermanmiller.co.uk 140. HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Sauter Sabine President of the Board & Managing Director hp.pl 141. HEWLETT-PACKARD GLOBAL BUSINESS CENTER Turkiewicz Katarzyna Chairman hp.com 142. HILTON WARSAW HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTRE Krygsman Robert General Manager warsaw.hilton.com 143. HINES POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Godzisz Mieczysław Managing Director hines.pl 144. HONEYWELL Krajewski Wojciech Chairman honeywell.com.pl 145. HORTON INTERNATIONAL POLAND Stachowicz Maciej Consultant hortoninternational.com 146. HP INC POLSKA Sp. z o. o. Żurowski Jacek Chairman of the Board hp.pl 147. HR SOLUTIONS POLAND Bojarska-Buchcic Joanna Managing Partner bb-hrsolutions.com 148. HSBC BANK POLSKA S.A. Mrożek Michał President hsbc.pl 149. HUDSON GLOBAL RESOURCES Samul-Kowalska Jolanta Country Manager hudson.com I 150. IBM POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Bartunek Ales General Director IBM Poland and Baltic Countries ibm.com/pl 151. IMPERIAL CINEPIX Sp. z o.o.

Shah Sunil President imperial-cinepix.com.pl 152. IN2KNO Ltd. Zalucky Paul CEO in2kno.com 153. INSTANT POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Wachowiak Piotr Board Member instant.com.pl 154. INTEGRAL SOLUTIONS Sp. z o.o.

Borkowski Paweł Managing Director integralsolutions.pl 155. INTELICLINIC Inc. Adamczyk Kamil CEO neuroon.com 156. INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL WARSZAWA Schoenrock Marten General Manager warsaw.intercontinental.com

28

AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

Directory No Company Name 157. INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES 158. INTERNATIONAL PAPER KWIDZYN Sp. z o.o.

159. INTERNATIONAL PAPER POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

160. IQOR GLOBAL SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o.

161. IQOR POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

162. IRON MOUNTAIN POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

J, K, L 163. JADIN TECH, LLC 164. JEPPESEN POLAND Sp. z o.o.

165. JF LEGAL JAKUBASZEK & FOGO Sp.k.

166. JOHN DEERE POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

167. JOHNSON & JOHNSON POLAND Sp. z o.o.

168. JONES LANG LASALLE Sp. z o.o.

169. K&L GATES 170. KAJIMA POLAND Sp. z o.o.

171. KATO LABS Sp. z o.o.

172. KELLY SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o.

173. KPMG Sp. z o.o.

174. ŁASZCZUK i WSPÓLNICY sp.k.

175. LEVI STRAUSS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

176. LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

177. LIONBRIDGE POLAND Sp. z o.o.

178. LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL EMEA Region 179. LOCKHEED MARTIN GLOBAL INC. S.A. 180. LS TECH-HOMES 181. LYNKA PROMOTIONAL SOLUTIONS M, N, O 182. M+W CENTRAL EUROPE Sp. z o. o. Oddział w Polsce 183. MANPOWERGROUP Sp. z o.o.

184. MARS POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

185. MARY KAY COSMETICS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

186. MASSIVE DESIGN Sp. z o.o.

187. MASTERCARD EUROPE 188. MATTEL POLAND Sp. z o.o.

189. MAZOVIA CAPITAL 190. MCCORMICK POLSKA SA 191. McDONALD'S POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

192. MDS 193. MEDICOVER Sp. z o.o.

194. MEDTRONIC POLAND Sp. z o.o.

195. METLIFE S.A. 196. MICROSOFT Sp. z o.o.

197. MILLER, CANFIELD, W. BABICKI, A. CHELCHOWSKI i WSPÓLNICY 198. MITSUBISHI CORPORATION 199. MOËT HENNESSY POLAND 200. MONDELEZ POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

201. MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

202. MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS 203. MSD POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

204. MSLGROUP POLAND 205. NALCO POLSKA Sp.z o.o.

206. NCR Polska Sp. z o.o.

207. NIKE POLAND Sp. z o.o.

208. NORDSON POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

209. NORTHROP GRUMMAN 210. NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT 211. NOVARTIS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

212. ODGERS BERNDTSON 213. OLIVER WYMAN Sp. z o.o.

214. OPTIMA S.A. (PART OF DOLLAR FINANCIAL GROUP) 215. ORANGE POLSKA S.A. 216. OTIS Sp. z o.o.

P 217. PEGASYSTEMS SOFTWARE LIMITED Sp. z o.o. Oddział w Polsce 218. PEPSI-COLA GENERAL BOTTLERS POLAND Sp. z o.o.

219. PFIZER POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

220. PHILIP MORRIS POLSKA DISTRIBUTION Sp. z o.o.

221. PITTSBURGH GLASS WORKS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o.

222. PKP ENERGETYKA S.A. 223. PM Group Polska Sp. z o.o.

224. POLAND-US OPERATIONS Sp. z o.o.

225. POLISH-US FULBRIGHT COMMISSION 226. PPG INDUSTRIES POLAND 227. PRAMERICA ŻYCIE TUiR S.A. 228. PRATT & WHITNEY a United Technology Company 229. PRIME CAR MANAGEMENT S.A. 230. PROCTER & GAMBLE OPERATIONS POLSKA S.A. 231. PROLOGIS 232. PwC POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

233. PZL MIELEC/ A SIKORSKY COMPANY R, S, T 234. RADZIKOWSKI, SZUBIELSKA I WSPÓLNICY sp.k.

235. RAIFFEISEN BANK POLSKA S.A. 236. RAMBOLL ENVIRON POLAND Sp. z o.o.

237. RAYTHEON INTERNATIONAL, INC

Person in charge Clayton Jim Muskała Aneta Berbeka Tomasz Kardas Bogdan Michalewicz Maciej Kisiel Tomasz Allmen Jadin Stepnowski Rafał Fogo Paul Leszczyński Mirosław Meyer Stacy Trzósło Tomasz Jamka Maciej Wróblewska Sandra Wołejko Janusz Skok Robert Kay Peter Szpara Justyna Gutkowska Dorota Najda Grzegorz Stryczyński Jacek Kaszuba Beata Orzyłowski Robert Surowiec Leszek Lynch John P.

Position Corporate Digital Sales Director, EMEA CFO President of the Board Senior Site Director Chairman of the Board CFO President Managing Director Managing Partner General Manager General Manager Poland & Baltics Managing Director Managing Partner Senior Business Development Manager President Branch Manager Partner Managing Partner General Manager Eastern Europe & President Country General Manager Country Manager Poland & Slovakia, President EMEA Region Director Country Executive Chairman Founder & CEO

Feret Tomasz Janas Iwona Ignaczak Marzena Kudlińska-Pyrz Ewa Stopa Przemysław Ciołkowski Bartosz Rozpondek Ryszard Simmons James Touzalin Oliver Pieńkowski Adam Golińska Iwona Livesey Ashley Jagoda Adam Kalinowski Łukasz Binkofski Ronald Walawender Richard Takada Masaharu Marbot Jacques Novak Zoltan Wilk Andrzej Drabik Jacek Plas Erik Hejnowski Sebastian Hajewski Piotr Śliwa Bartłomiej Runzheimer Tim Rutkowski Jarosław Wesner Donald Strawa Piotr Zhang Ingrid Kałużyński Richard Lischka Jens Wielinski Dominik Fallacher Jean François Kania Piotr

Branch Poland Director Manpower Group General Director Corporate Affairs Director General Manager President, Architect General Manager EMEA Finance Director Partner Chairman of the Board Managing Director Sales Director Eastern Europe Director General Director CEO General Manager Senior Partner General Director Corporate & Private Sales Manager General Manager President General Manager Managing Director CEO Sales Director President of the Board Country Manager General Manager Director/Europe/NATO Managing Partner CPO Head and Country President Managing Partner Global Manager President & CEO President of the Management Board Managing Director

Company website globaltimes.com ipaper.com.pl ipaper.com.pl iqor.com iqor.com emea.ironmountain.com jadintech.com jeppesen.com jflegal.pl deere.pl jnjpoland.pl www.jll.pl klgates.com kajima.pl kato.pl kellyservices.pl kpmg.pl laszczuk.pl eu.levi.com/pl lexmark.pl lionbridge.com eteamz.com/llbeurope lockheedmartin.com lstech-homes.com lynka.com.pl ce.mwgroup.net manpowergroup.pl mars.pl marykay.pl massivedesign.pl mastercard.pl mattel.com mazoviacapital.com kamis.pl mcdonalds.pl mdscem.com medicover.pl medtronic.com metlife.pl microsoft.com/poland millercanfield.pl mitsubishicorp.com lvmh.com mondelezinternational.pl moneygram.com motorolasolutions.com msd.pl mslgroup.pl nalco.pl ncr.com nike.com nordson.com northropgrumman.com nortonrosefulbright.com novartis.pl odgersberndtson.com oliverwyman.com optima.pl orange.pl otis.com.pl

Maślanka Jarosław Director, Business Operations Guille Christophe General Manager Hryniewiecka-Firlej Dorota Country Manager Katilius Edvinas Managing Director Modrzyk Andrzej Plant Manager Orzech Wojciech Chairman Hamilton John Managing Director Farkas Ronald President Janiszewska Justyna Executive Director Rusiniak Marcin Managing Director Podyma Aneta President of the Board Gradowski Zbigniew In-Country Program Manager Kizielewicz Jakub Chairman of the Management Board Huse Geraldine CEO and Chairman of the Board, P&G Central Europe Sapek Paweł Country Manager Grygier-Siddons Olga Managing Director Katzen James Vice President, Sales Director PZL Mielec

pega.com pepsi.pl pfizer.com.pl philipmorris.pl pgwglass.com pkpenergetyka.pl pmgroup-global.com plusops.com fulbright.edu.pl ppg.com pramerica.pl pratt-whitney.com masterlease.pl pg.com prologis.com www.pwc.com pzlmielec.com.pl

Radzikowski Włodzimierz Lubkiewicz Krzysztof Trybuch Magdalena Schmieder William

rslegal.pl raiffeisen.pl ramboll-environ.com raytheon.com

Managing Partner Head of International Desk Principal President

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AmCham Membership Directory Person in charge Position Company website No Company Name Winnicki Artur Member of the Board reesco.pl 238. REESCO Sp. z o.o.

Watters Jason Vice President Europe expatadvisors.com 239. REILLY FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC 240. ROCHE POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Janicki Wiktor General Manager roche.pl Krzykowski Marek Business Development Director rockfin.com.pl 241. ROCKFIN Sp. z o.o.

242. ROCKWELL AUTOMATION Sp. z o.o.

Sieczka Maciej General Manager rockwellautomation.pl Przepióra Jan Vice President rrdonnelley.eu.com 243. RR DONNELLEY EUROPE Sp. z o.o.

Czarnota Dorota Managing Partner, Poland & CEE russellreynolds.com 244. RUSSELL REYNOLDS ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o.

Molenda Paweł General Manager sabre.pl 245. SABRE POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Posmyk Bartłomiej Partner sandler.pl 246. SANDLER TRAINING POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Kruszewska Magdalena Chairman sanofi-aventis.com.pl 247. SANOFI-AVENTIS Sp. z o.o.

Piecuch Kinga Chairman of the Board sap.com 248. SAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

249. SHERATON KRAKÓW HOTEL Saliba Angela General Manager sheraton.com/krakow Duarte Silva Gonçalo General Manager sheraton.pl 250. SHERATON WARSAW HOTEL Należyty Grzegorz General Director siemens.pl 251. SIEMENS Sp. z o.o.

Rajca Marek General Manager, Plant Manager silgan.com 252. SILGAN WHITE CAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

253. SITEL POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Reznar Piotr Managing Director sitel.com Godard Philippe Vice President Operations sofitel.com 254. SOFITEL WARSAW VICTORIA 255. SONY PICTURES GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES Sp. z o.o.

Gryglewski Michał Executive Director n/a Maciejewski Andrzej Managing Director spencerstuart.com 256. SPENCER STUART POLAND Sp. z o.o.

257. SQUIRE PATTON BOGGS ŚWIĘCICKI KRZEŚNIAK SP.K. Święcicki Peter Partner squirepattonboggs.com Gołębicki Marcin Proxy sjm.com 258. ST. JUDE MEDICAL Sp. z o.o.

259. S&P GLOBAL RATINGS Petrykowski Marcin Managing Director spratings.pl Kovacs Tamas Regional Sales Manager steelcase.eu 260. STEELCASE Żuk Paweł Country Manager huttonenergy.com 261. STRZELECKI ENERGIA Sp. z o.o.

262. TAKENAKA EUROPE GmbH—Poland Branch Takao Katsutoshi General Manager, Business Promotion takenaka.eu Szwarc Michał Management Board Member fundacjatechsoup.pl 263. TECHSOUP FOUNDATION 264. THE BRITISH SCHOOL Sp. z o. o.

Latkowski Jacek Acting Principal thebritishschool.pl 265. THE NORTH HIGHLAND COMPANY POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Graeber Rayner Reid Director Business Development northhighland.com Pluciński Mikołaj Chairman of the Board tmf-group.com 266. TMF POLAND Sp. z o.o.

267. TRAVELPORT POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Fabiańska Katarzyna Country Manager travelport.com 268. TRENDA GROUP Węgrzyński Marcin Director trendagroup.com 269. TVN S.A. Szydłowski Marek Director, Member of the Management Board tvn.pl U, V, W, X 270. UBER POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Winiarczyk Kacper Operations Manager uber.com/pl/ 271. UL INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Maliszewski Bogdan Managing Director, East Europe ul.com 272. UNIPHARM, INC. Bartosik Ernest Country Manager unipharm.pl 273. UNITED BEVERAGES SA Carey William Chairman of the Board unitedbeverages.pl 274. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES Nicolle Darcy Vice President utc.com 275. UNIVERSAL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o.

Hildt Stefan Member of the Board uer.pl 276. UNIVERSAL LEAF TOBACCO POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Lik Wojciech Chairman of the Board universalleaf.com 277. UPC POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Gołos Patrycja Corporate Affairs & Public Policy Director upc.pl 278. UPS POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Adamovsky Pavel Country Manager ups.com 279. UTI POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Gorecki Krzysztof Defense Programs Manager www.go2uti.com 280. VF POLSKA DISTRIBUTION Sp. z o.o.

Hińcz Marek Managing Director vfc.com 281. VISTRA CORPORATE SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o. de Lange Alwyn Jacobus Managing Director CEE vistra.com 282. WALT DISNEY COMPANY (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o.

Westermark Katarzyna Managing Director disney.pl 283. WARDYNSKI & PARTNERS Wardyński Tomasz CBE, Founding Partner wardynski.com.pl 284. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Saniewski Waldemar Managing Director wbep.pl 285. WARSAW DESTINATION ALLIANCE, FOUNDATION Kloszewski Alex Chairman & Managing Director destinationwarsaw.com 286. WARSAW MARRIOTT HOTEL Grader Robert General Manager warsawmarriott.pl 287. WARSAW-ILLINOIS EXECUTIVE MBA Ludwicki Tomasz Managing Director mcz.edu.pl 288. WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES Rewald Roman Retired Partner weil.com 289. WHIRLPOOL POLSKA Sp z.o.o.

Tuleja Andrzej Managing Director whirlpool.pl 290. WHITE & CASE M. STUDNIAREK I WSPÓLNICY, KANCELARIA PRAWNA Studniarek Marcin Managing Partner whitecase.com 291. WHITE STAR FOUNDATION Belk Elizabeth CEO whitestarfoundations.org 292. WHITE STAR REAL ESTATE Patterson Brian Managing Partner residential.pl 293. WIERZBOWSKI EVERSHEDS Wierzbowski Krzysztof Managing Partner eversheds.pl 294. WINCOR NIXDORF Sp. z o.o.

Janik Mirosław President of the Board wincor-nixdorf.com 295. WIND SERVICE II Sp. z o.o.

Stachowiak Krystian President of the Management Board windservice.pl 296. WOLF THEISS Given Ronald B. Co-Managing Partner wolftheiss.com 297. WOODWARD POLAND Sp. z o.o.

Kania Dominik General Manager woodward.com 298. WRIGLEY POLAND Wysocki Maciej Chairman of the Board wrigley.pl 299. XEROX POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Remez Alex General Manager xerox.com.pl 300. XPO TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS POLSKA Sp. z o.o.

Bartczak Jaroslaw General Manager xpo.com

Individual members

Alphabetical list of AmCham individual members, as of December 31, 2016 Member 1. Błaszczyk Jan Alexander 2. Bobet Alain 3. Bode Brian 4. Cader Michał 5. Cano Robert 6. Chiaradia André 7. Clarey Tony 8. Dart Dennis 9. Dembinski Peter 10. Dorda Alexandra 11. Engel Richard 12. Espino Nathaniel

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Contact phone +48-790-022-606 +48-604-585-510 +48-887-500-434 +48-601-262-573 +48-668-152-452 +48-791-453-334 +48-601-951-300 +48-608-047-508 +48-602-677-600 +48-600-064-349 +48-508-047-510 +48-696-041-731

AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

Member 13. Galasso Antonello 14. Gliniecki Judith 15. Grzybowski Irene 16. Holding Kent 17. Hutchinson Chris 18. Jarosz Roland 19. Klarowicz Sylwester 20. Kolasinski Jon 21. Koman Tourel Jolanta 22. Krupa Steve 23. Lada Richard 24. Lubelski Andrew

Contact phone +1-302-352-1729 +48-501-260-263 +48-601-802-040 +48-791-111-777 +48-507-627-608 +48-797-019-384 +48-668-133-034 +48-500-206-227 +48-606-374-200 +1-847-738-0884 +48-601-207-357 +48-500-091-773

Member 25. Lynch Matthew 26. Michalski George 27. Miszerak Martin 28. Ogorkiewicz Anya Margaret 29. Paszkowski Włodzimierz 30. Skowronski Bogy 31. Szostak Tadeusz 32. Thieme Jerzy 33. Urban Stanley 34. Werner Gedeon

Contact phone +48-602-333-022 +48-606-917-000 +48-605-953-261 +48-510-419-141 +48-22-835-3000 +48-509-407-530 +48-605-404-001 +48-601-282-812 +48-502-709-190 +48-515-171-799

AmCham Advisory Council... ... accumulates the knowledge and experience of its member companies and is a point of advice to the AmCham Board of Directors. With its global business expertise the Council has helped the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland to become one of the leading advocates of business in the country.

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Company profile Reilly Financial Advisors

Bespoke and personal American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Jason Watters, vice president for Europe at Reilly Financial Advisors, about what it can do for US citizens living abroad when it comes to managing their personal finances Photo courtesy of Jason Watters

what can you tell me about the history of Reilly Financial advisors?

It started about 40 years ago when our founder, Don Reilly, traveled to Saudi Arabia to help some friends that had moved abroad to work for an oil company. They were making fair amounts of money abroad and wanted to invest it properly in the US. Since then expats have been a significant part of our business. We specialize in working with American expats, and of course we also service US citizens who live in the US and need the same type of financial assistance.

How many offices do you have worldwide?

We are headquartered in San Diego, California and this is where most of our dayto-day work is done. We have nearly 40 people working there. We also have fulltime offices in Los Angeles, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and in Saudi Arabia. Our office for all of Europe is in Prague, the Czech Republic. This office was our most recent opening. Our regional offices are important because we want to be in the time zones where our clients live so we can meet them in person and easily converse about their financial needs and goals.

We also have regional offices because we believe in education. If you have a question we are not going to charge you for an answer to the question. We do frequently offer free educational seminars and workshops, such as the one we did here in Warsaw in November, talking about the complexities of living abroad and sharing some knowledge and expertise that US expats should have.

Living in Poland how can i get in touch with you in your office in Prague?

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AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

You are doing the same job abroad as you did in the US and it is suddenly much more difficult and complex to manage your taxes, investing, and other financial needs.

Though we are headquartered in Prague, we work all over Europe. We are easily reachable by phone and email and we will respond within 24 business hours. We also meet face to face. While or regional office is in Prague we can schedule a meeting in Warsaw, no problem. It is very important to meet face to face because it allows us to exchange information and answer complex questions in a more personal environment.

How would you describe your work culture—in what way do you differ

from other financial advisory firms?

We take a comprehensive approach to finance—not just taxes or trading stocks.

We are a one-stop shop for all your financial necessities. We do retirement planning, investment management, social security analysis—especially if you are paying into the Polish system as well as the US system. We do also college financing planning for children and grandchildren, budgets, comprehensive life insurance analysis, tax strategies... We work with nearly anything that anyone would go through in their financial life. We then piece all of these aspects together as one financial plan which will help guide you to where you want to be. When life brings change, such as when you get a different job or relocate we make changes to that plan and we adjust it to keep you on track.

Let’s say someone who has worked in Poland for the last 20 years wants to retire at the age of 62 and buy a new house in the US, and they also want to pay for their grandchildren’s college and receive a specific amount of retirement savings each month. How can this be done? What is the best way to go about it? This is what we do. We are here to help you meet those goals, and plan for the unexpected. We have a broad knowledge through our long experience working with expat clients. We know the ins and outs of expat life and the financial hurdles they go through based on 40 years of experience and time spent as expats ourselves. ever since the Foreign account Tax compliance act came into effect, it seems that managing financial affairs in the us by americans living abroad has become additionally difficult...

Indeed. A lot of foreign financial firms do not want to work with US citizens because of additional reporting burdens imposed on them by FATCA and other similar regulations, so they force them to close their accounts, limit their investment options, or do not want to open new accounts for US citizens abroad. I think that US expats have been dealt a bad hand and for them living abroad is much more difficult by way of legislation than it should be. You are doing the same job abroad as you did in the US and it is suddenly much more difficult and complex to manage your taxes, investing, and other financial needs.

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Reesco

Flexibility unlimited

what is the history of your company in Poland?

I started the company in 2011, but the idea itself can be dated to 2006-2008. Back then, when taking part in complex transactions on the Polish real estate market, I realized how many problems companies face. When it came to completing office space arrangements for demanding clients, for instance, I saw room for improvement. That motivated me to create a company which could offer high quality fit-out services when the real estate market took off again. and when did that happen?

Looking back, I can say that 2014 was a groundbreaking year for Reesco. We hired key personnel and their skills and professionalism have been the core foundation of our success in recent years. Since then, we have been growing steadily. Our focus has been to make sure that our clients are satisfied. This is why we won a few challenging and exciting projects. what is the scope of your services?

Our core business is the provision of fit-out works and solutions for office space lease projects as well as for leases of entire buildings. We also act as general contractor and technical consultants in those projects.

Also, recently we have increased our service offer to embrace projects in retail and hotels. For such projects we offer renovation, refurbishment, restocking and modernization. In addition, our clients can rely on our team when it comes to building site management. We are very flexible and diverse. what is making this type of business exciting in Poland?

Whether it is Poland or any other country in the world, the answer would be the same: it is about working with clients on building bigger things that they thought possible. It

Photo courtesy of Reesco

American Investor’s Tom Ćwiok talks with Artur Winnicki, partner at Reesco, a company specializing in the provision of fit-out services for commercial real estate, about how the young organization is moving forward

We have built our team based on the belief that honesty is the best policy.

This is how we have operated from the very beginning— with transparency and loyalty to our clients. is about finding new solutions together which are both innovative and adhere to the highest quality standards in the trade, and making it all happen. wouldn’t you agree that your competitors say the same thing?

Competition had been always there and this is not going to change in the years to come. Quite to the contrary—there will be more competition as the market is growing and holds enough room for new players.

But competition is a good thing for us because is makes us strive to reach new goals and be more ambitious. In other words, the competitive pressure that we have been exposed to has made us develop our own business vision and values, and this is a fundamental thing for us. We become more professional and creative not

only as business people but also as humans.

How does this reflect in your corporate culture?

We have built our team based on the belief that honesty is the best policy. This is how we have operated from the very beginning—with transparency and loyalty to our clients. Our team of dedicated specialists has always been the most important factor in our success. We spare no cost and effort to keep developing their expertise and knowledge. We are a family-like structure with precisely assigned roles in order to handle our clients’ requests in a proper and satisfactory manner, which means that all our projects are concluded on time and with focus on details.

But we are also a group of people who share environment-friendly attitudes. Our environmental consciousness makes us segregate our garbage for recycling, and since recently, collect waste paper, used batteries and electrical devices for environmentally friendly disposal. We know that as a company we can collect only a small amount of the items that are harmful for the environment, but we believe that if everyone does their part the cumulated effect makes a big difference.

We are also a group of people who keep a healthy work-life balance so all of us have time for family and private lives. We are also health-conscious and provide fresh fruit to our people on the house and do not use sugar in our company. what are your company’s plans for 2017 and beyond?

Looking into the future I have first to say that 2015 and especially 2016 were great years for us! To our satisfaction and joy, our work and professional achievements that we had in the past five years were noticed by a number of business media outlets. In 2015 the economic and business daily Puls Biznesu bestowed upon our company one of its excellence in business awards, Gazele Biznesu. In turn, in 2016, we were awarded Diamond 2016 from Forbes Polska, and were named Rising Star 2016 by the English monthly Warsaw Business Journal. So we did well.

Now, looking into the future, we are diversifying our service offer to embrace such sectors as logistics, retail, light manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality.

We have also started expanding our presence outside of the Warsaw market. Our goal for 2017 is to reinforce our position in those new markets and hire more people to ensure the highest quality of our services there.

•

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Expert Personal data protection

It’s personal!

By Agnieszka Kocon, legal adviser, senior associate, Łaszczuk & Partners

The new EU regulations governing personal data protection are something to reckon with, and for good reasons

O

n May 4, 2016, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It will be effective across all EU member states starting May 25, 2018. Although that might seem a long time away, it is not, considering the nature of the required changes and the threatened sanctions for failing to implement them. same for all The reform of data protection regulations was necessary and long-awaited. The existing regulations from the pre-Facebook and Google era failed to keep pace with the progress of technology, resulting in frustration and fueling businesses and consumer distrust of privacy protection mechanisms. The Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) from 1995 and the 28 different legal acts implementing it across the various member states (including the Polish act from 1997) imposed huge challenges on consumer data protection particularly for businesses operating across borders.

The business community was especially distressed by the varying decisions by regulators in different member states and different security requirements in the EU for the same online services or mobile applications.

In many instances the existing legal solutions were long outdated, such as the requirements for written consent of consumers to allow companies use their sensitive personal data. So the introduction of a single upto-date regulation applying directly in all member states provides hope to businesses. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also attempts to offer adequate levels of protection to consumers by uniforming the protection of their 34

rights and freedoms throughout the EU. Their rights are guarded by the specter of harsh financial sanctions for violation of the GDPR. a market you can trust The preamble of the GDPR states that the regulation is “necessary to provide legal certainty and transparency for economic operators”, and to ensure that consumers in all member states have “the same level of legally enforceable rights and obligations and responsibilities for controllers and processors” of their data.

The GDPR is designed to build the trust required for the growth of the digital economy in the EU’s internal market.

To ensure consistent oversight and enforcement of the GDPR, data protection authorities throughout the EU (in Poland, GIODO—the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection) will be vested with the same tasks and powers, including the authority to conduct investigations, carry out corrective measures, and impose administrative fines.

The authors of GDPR assumed that effective enforcement of the regulation requires severe sanctions for violations.

But not unconditionally. If the infringement is slight or the potential fine would impose an undue hardship on an individual, the fine can be replaced by a warning. effective deterrents Under the GDPR, each national data protection authority is empowered to impose administrative fines. In light of previous regulations, the Polish GIODO did not have such power (except to impose a fine for the purpose of compelling compliance with an existing decision).

The new regulations make it possible for fines to be imposed

AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2017

on law-breaking companies along with other corrective measures or instead of them.

The other measures include warnings and decisions mandating or prohibiting certain actions, including a limitation or ban on processing or an order to halt the flow of data.

Under the GDPR guidelines designed for data protection authorities, fines must in each case be effective and a deterrent. Infringement of the GDPR may be punished by a fine of up to EUR 20 million, and for businesses, up to 4% of their worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year. That seems to be a sufficiently painful sanction for even the biggest players on the market.

Previous penalties imposed by selected national data protection authorities did not exceed

Under the GDPR guidelines designed for data protection authorities, fines must in each case be effective and a deterrent.

Infringement of the GDPR may be punished by a fine of up to EUR 20 million, and for businesses, up to 4% of their worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year.

EUR 1 million.

One of the main goals of the GDPR is to provide effective enforcement of data protection obligations. With this in mind, following 25 May 2018 the first fines can be expected to be imposed on stubborn offenders, as an example and warning to others. Companies which have had trouble complying to data protection regulations in the past, will have to adjust or get punished.

Good intentions The specter of administrative fines is not all that courts and law enforcement agencies in EU member countries will have at their disposal. Under the GDPR, a company which processes or controls personal data can be held liable for damages caused to an individual that come as a result of a GDPR violation. In turn, a company which controls and processes personal data may be exempted from liability if it proves it is not in any way responsible for the damage.

Even a single violation of data protection regulations can lead to further financial losses which, often, are hard to estimate. Typically, businesses become most aware of the value of data when the damage has been done—the security of data has been compromised. The damage done in such circumstances, including, foremost, harm to the company’s reputation, can also affect the company’s business in other ways, including the profits. This is why many companies have expressed a growing interest in data protection recently. An increased awareness of threats— not exclusively legal threats, but also security threats—and the liability involved, can help businesses avoid security incidents which may turn out to be costly if not damaging.

•

New media

A new norm?

By Andrew de Roy, managing partner, CEE Consulting Group

Don’t be surprised if the culture of fake news will turn out to be impossible to eradicate

F

ake news is very much in the spotlight having been highlighted during the US election season. However, this trend is one which has been observed developing strongly over the past few years. But what exactly is fake news, and why does it matter?

While academics debate terminology (is fake news “fake” depending on your interpretation of facts?), we may agree that fake news is anything that purposely misleads the viewer. During the election cycle, several of the more widely-read fake news stories included: Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement and Donald Trump Protester Speaks Out: "I was paid $3,500 to Protest Trump's Rally."

In the case of the latter, the fake article was published on abcnews.com.co, which looks similar to the real ABC News website, but is not affiliated with the legitimate news organization.

The mailing address provided for abcnews.com.co on its website leads to The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

The author of the piece told The Washington Post, that his articles were picked up by Trump supporters all the time, including by a Trump campaign manager, who posted the story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact.

Detecting fake news as fake is apparently becoming harder. According to an Ipsos/Buzzfeed Poll on fake news (discretion should be exercised as the poll was conducted online), 75% of American adults have been fooled by fake news. The Trump protest rally article reportedly fooled 89% of Trump voters and 62% of Clinton voters. But this only shows that we live in a society where things move at breakneck speeds and market manipulation does matter. And this has been a big problem for business

for years, when unverified information has often moved markets, and is now becoming a serious concern in the political sphere.

Real money Searching for the news, what we see on the screens of our laptops, tablets and mobiles is determined by algorithms which remain the “secret sauce” of private companies such as Facebook and Google. Moreover, these companies tailor the information to each individual user, based on what other readers considered relevant. This of course is very convenient and useful, but is very powerful when the culture of our times is “In Screens we Trust”. In the information age, it is clear that the institutions which control the flow of information have the power to influence large portions of the society.

Some of the writers and propagators of fake news during the election were Clinton supporters, who claimed to been attempting to highlight the fact that partisan voters are unwilling to fact-check anything if it supports their personal narrative and viewpoints. But, another strong reason for writing fake news is that when fake news goes viral, it can bring the author a lot of money. The author of the fake story about Trump protesters being paid $ 3,500 reportedly makes $ 10,000 a month from Google AdSense advertising that appears on his fake news websites.

The likes As all digital marketers will tell you,“likes" matter. The more “likes” a story generates the more it is copied and shared on a number of social media platforms as ”trending stories”.

All the algorithms of the major sites require traffic to sites for better positioning. Virtual armies of people and virtual robots can be used to make topics trend to

increase brand recognition, and, more sinisterly, destroy someone's reputation online, moving share prices and large scale industrial espionage. Facebook identifies its news feed feature as an important aspect of the user experience. Facebook’s 2015 annual report states, “There are a number of different ways to engage with people on Facebook, the most important of which is News Feed which displays an algorithmically-ranked series of stories and advertisements individualized for each person.”

According to Facebook, it had 1.59 billion monthly active users.

Facebook’s annual report suggests that, of those users, 5% of active monthly users were duplicate accounts (when a user has two or more accounts in his/her name) while another two percent of the monthly users were “false” accounts, which are set up under an assumed identity and used for spamming. Using Facebook’s own estimations, the number of false accounts may exceed 31 million.

who’s behind it?

Of course governments are one of the main proponents of controlling the agenda. In a technologically-mediated world, power is in the hands of the one who controls the information. A lot of the information we have on government behavior comes from the revelations of Edward Snowden, and whether you view him as a traitor or a patriot, it is clear that many governments are systematically attempting “to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse”.

One of the masters of the game is undoubtedly Russia, and many would argue that this is the main reason why the country is arguably punching above its weight geopolitically. The fractures in liberal democracy, and the sharp shift rightwards towards nationalistic populism

throughout the West are attributable at least to some extent to Russia manipulating the digital agenda. But Russia is by no means the only state actor “militarizing” the online sphere. Most developed nations are in the game. It is a matter of public record that the US has a virtual army operating in Arabic, looking to manipulate and influence online forum conversations of all kinds, to advance its own political goals.

Governments are far from the only ones playing the game. Organized criminal groups—both traditional and the new cyber variety—are seeing the huge potential that the cyber world offers for large-scale fraud. There are examples of share prices being moved, and personal data stolen.

In addition, cyber-attacks are increasingly being seen as a business norm. My company has repeatedly researched business people with terrible online reputations, which on further investigation are determined to have been caused by individuals who have commercial motivations for publishing negative comments. no cure?

Facebook and Google claim they are going to crack down on fake news sites and articles, but it’s unclear whether this will have an impact on the prevalence and success of fake news in manipulating the masses.

It seems inevitable that businesses will have to deal with the rise of fake news. As people see the success a few unhinged and baseless allegations can have when they go viral and convince people who are too busy to factcheck everything they read, business competitors may be inclined to work with fake news writers and propagators in order to gain a competitive edge.

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Expert Media

The gangs of the Internet

The European Commission means business in combating online piracy

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ast year, a new record in online piracy was set when The Grand Tour, a production by former Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Hammond and May, was downloaded more than 20 million times. All downloads were illegal. While the record signals only one aspect of online crime—making pirated material available to the masses—with the current exponential pace of technological development and increasingly cunning methods that hackers resort to, it is safe to say that the problem of online piracy is only going to grow in the years to come.

Having this in mind, in September last year, the European Commission came up with a communication entitled “Promoting a fair, efficient and competitive European copyrightbased economy in the Digital Single Market,” in which it declared that combating online piracy was one of the preconditions for a successful digital single market.

It is hard to say at this point what regulations the European Commission had in mind specifically but, if the communication is anything to go by, the Commission may want to amend regulations governing injunctive relief in international proceedings. It seems that the Commission also intends to take a closer look at the liability of content hosts. And most interestingly, the Commission believes that self-regulation is the best way to combat piracy in the Internet. a complex beast The first thing to note when discussing piracy is how many forms of piracy there are out there. Peddling counterfeited brand goods on Allegro or Ebay is not the same thing as pirating movies, TV shows, sporting events or television programming. In the latter kind of activity we must also distinguish between services offering content uploaded by users 36

in breach of copyrights (such as YouTube) and sites operating like organized-crime organizations.

Each of these three models represents an entirely different modus operandi and must therefore be combated using different methods.

Civil actions are not an effective weapon when tackling organized piracy, except in the very rare cases when the perpetrators can be identified and brought to trial.

In most cases this is exceedingly hard to achieve, since owners of pirate websites base their operations on international structures.

While a service may be provided in Polish, the domain and hosting services are usually provided by someone in another country.

Also, owners of pirate websites may be hiding behind intermediaries who will not disclose the owners’ identity citing privacy protection requirements. In addition, signal sources, links and IP addresses may be changing all the time. This means that chasing pirates is always a trans-national business requiring the involvement of multiple entities.

That is to say, if all the entities are really willing to collaborate.

The Commission is no doubt aware of these complications, which is why it is looking to create a legal environment that encourages cooperation among market players. One of the contemplated solutions is designed to cut off lawbreakers from advertising and subscription revenue and is based on the follow-themoney idea. The Commission has in mind a sort of market selfregulation mechanism to be developed and run by payment operators and advertisers. This model is patterned after the selfregulation mechanism designed to crack down on counterfeiting goods, described in the Memorandum of Understanding on the online sale of counterfeit goods (June 21 2016) signed by eBay, Amazon, Alibaba and others.

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By Karol Laskowski, counsel in Dentons Warsaw office and member of the Intellectual Property, Technology and Communications practice team

While self-regulation is definitely an interesting proposition it could easily prove ineffective or riddled with loopholes unless all the stakeholders end up seeing the benefits to be had from it. It’s a fact that some payment operators and advertisers gain as much from piracy as they do from legal forms of content distribution, if not more. all together now The development of rules of cooperation will no doubts be a key challenge, especially as the Commission will have to decide how exactly and how quickly the selfregulation scheme participants should react to notifications.

Should they just instantly end their relationship with suspect entities? Do they terminate their contracts with them or inform law enforcement agencies? All we have at this point is the set of Guiding Principles published on 21 October 2016, which contains only generally worded declarations and lacks any specific solutions. As with all initiatives, the worry is that rigidly defined obligations may put off at least some potential self-regulation players.

On the other hand, general guidelines could be ineffective. If no EU regulations are enacted to provide a framework for cooperation in combating piracy, the risk that self-regulation will fail is high.

To maximize the chances of effectively fighting organized piracy and developing a workable selfregulation mechanism (whether or not as part of the initiative described above), we should involve not only advertisers and payment operators but also those entities, such as server operators, domain registrars and IT solution vendors, who which provide technology to the mongers. Internet gangs do not act in a vacuum and often are in need of vast server resources to launch and operate their pirate services. In the end, a

top-level domain registrar may block an offending domain while an IT vendor may deny the technology they require to prosper.

Joining the dots It is clear that in its bid to combat piracy, the Commission will revamp the existing EU regulations, including those allowing injunctions to be sought against intermediaries providing services instrumental in violating laws. A solution of this kind at the EU level is already provided by Art. 8 (3) of the InfoSoc Directive, including the regulations detailing the liability of intermediaries. A return to blocking access to content and websites at the Internet service providers level may be considered, a solution discussed on many an occasion in the past.

One thing that can be clearly understood from the European Commission’s communication is that if self-regulation fails, it will be replaced with rigid regulations which will hit intermediaries first.

What is clear is that to make the effort work, first, it must be tailored specifically to dealing with organized piracy. Second, it must be supra-national since pirate services are supra-national and cannot be effectively eradicated with efforts confined to just one country. Third, it should involve as many entities as possible (follow the money, follow the technology). And last but not least, the framework for cooperation in the self-regulation effort must be explicitly defined in regulations that specify at least the objective, subject matter and scope of cooperation, that are to be then incorporated in the selfregulation bylaws to avoid excessively general specifications of the duties of various parts. Without all these conditions met, any new legislation will practically be ineffective.

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Construction law

Getting up to speed

By Marcin Jakubaszek Counsellor at law, partner, JF Legal Jakubaszek & Fogo

The amendment of the Construction Law gives opportunities for investors to save time

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n 16 December 2016, the Polish Parliament adopted an act amending several biding acts meant to improve the legal environment for entrepreneurs. The Act is a part of the governmental plan to create a new legislation designed to make the life of business people in Poland easier by removing legal obstacles and nuisance that lie in the path of many investment and business projects.

The Act amends several different acts in the Polish legal system, including the Civil Code, the Construction Law Act, the Labour Code, the Act on Accounting, the Tax Ordinance, the Act on Social Security System, the Act on Technical Supervision, the Act on Environmental Protection, the Act on Freedom of Business Activity and the Commercial Companies and Partnerships Code.

The amendments introduced by the Act in many cases are solutions that the government came up with in response to problems voiced by entrepreneurs. To some extent, however, the amendments also respond to

The new legislation makes the certification a reliable way for investors to know that their permission for additional construction work is binding.

recent adjudication. While most of the changes deserve in-depth analysis to evaluate their potential impact on improving the business environment in Poland, in this article we focus on some amendments to the Construction Law, which are meant by the legislators to make the construction process smoother and quicker.

The Act introduces changes designed to broaden the rights to develop a real estate. Some of them are very detailed. However, there are two significant changes of general character, which deserve a detailed scrutiny.

21 instead of 30 In light of the new laws, the development of some construction objects and conducting of some construction works do not require prior construction permit.

Those are listed in Art. 28 (1), (2) of the Construction Law Act (July 7, 1994). But there are exemptions. In light of Art. 29 of the Construction Law some of those works and/or objects still require prior notification of the zoning and local architect authorities. Upon such notification, before Jan 1, 2017 the competent administrative body had 30 days to object. The objection is issued as a decision. After Jan 1, 2017 the administration will have only 21 days to issue a decision. It is a difference of 9 days and it should be viewed as a step in the right direction for business. The notifications, by operation of law and due to the list included into Art. 28 (1) (2) relate to minor construction objects and works, which are not linked with high construction risk. The period of 21 days still seems to be quite long, however. But even limiting this makes a desirable difference, especially that in many cases the need to perform additional construction becomes clear only after the proper construction process has begun, and

if the investor has to wait 30 days for a license to do the additional construction, the whole construction project may get badly delayed. even shorter There is yet another positive solution in the Act. Pursuant to Art. 30 (5a), prior to the lapse of the 21 days period, the administrative body may issue a certificate on the lack of grounds for issuing an objection. If such a certificate is issued the right to subsequent objection is excluded and the administrative body is obliged to ok the plan for the works with no delay which means before the 21 days required. Yet, the question remains if the administration will use this instrument. Recent practice shows that is is more likely to do so than not. Even before Jan 1, 2017 the administration would issue such certificates although the legal nature and effects of such certificates was not defined by law and led to numerous doubts. The administrative courts adopted the line of adjudication, which stated that by issuing the certificate the administrative body were not deprived of the right to subsequently object against the notification. The new legislation removes such doubts and makes the certification a reliable way for investors to know that their permission for additional construction work is binding.

The scope of work Another important change introduced to the Construction Law governs the scope of construction works that can be done based on the construction permit.

Until Jan 1, 2017 a material deviation from the construction designs approved with the construction permit required obtaining an amending construction permit. This principle is

preserved in the Construction Law amended, however, the method of qualification of the material deviation has changed.

The Art. 36 (a) (5) has been changed and therefore a deviation shall be qualified as a material deviation only if it relates to: (1) plot development design; (2) characteristic parameters of the construction object; (3) ensuring conditions necessary for the exploitation (use) of the construction object or its part; (4) change as to the planned manner of use of the construction object or its part; (5) parameters set in the local zoning plan or outline planning decision; and/or (6) which require change of the opinion, liaison, permit, which were necessary to obtain the building permit or to make notification on construction of several objects listed in Art. 29 of the Construction Law. That said, it is worth remembering that the amendment will not remove all of the obstacles and nuisances, which impede the investment processes in Poland in the building sector.

However, the amendment is meant to solve some minor problems and, to some extent, speed up the construction process. There are still many deviations, which will require obtaining permits prior to construction.

On the other hand, however, in many cases, when minor deviations result from, for instance, demands from potential tenants and are being collected during the commercialisation process, then the amending construction permit is not required and it may help smoothing and speeding up the whole process.

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Expert Food retail

Being fair

By Ewelina Witek, associate, and Marcin Wnukowski, partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Independent food suppliers of big retail chains get new protection

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s the Act on Counteracting Abuse of Contractual Advantage in Trading Agricultural and Grocery Products has been approved by the Polish parliament, (and signed by the President on 28 December 2016; the Act will enter into force in 6 months) it provides a level playing field for independent food producers and their clients—big retail chains.

The problem that the Act addresses is that, allegedly, big retail chains can treat small suppliers of food unfairly by making them accept time-extended payment deadlines and requiring additional remuneration for exposing their produce in premium shelf-space, and terminate contracts with them without good reason. Why big retail chains resort to such practices, the government has concluded, is that they have a surplus of bargaining power—which stems from their strong economic position—over independent grocery suppliers.

Good intentions The supporting argument for the Act was that it aims to eliminate the abuse of power on the

With the new legislation the government moves the onus to provide protection of fair trade from common courts to an administrative authority, the UOKiK. 38

Polish retail market. The government further argues that small food and grocery suppliers are victims of “predatory practices” by “large distributors, who abuse their market position by imposing onerous contractual provisions”.

It is the view of the government that such practices harm suppliers as well as the goodwill of the consumers, which in turn, forces suppliers out of the market and/or encourages them to use cheap, sub-par products, thus endangering the security of the Polish food industry.

One needs to note that the problem of distributors imposing “onerous conditions” on suppliers, in most cases by requesting payments for the introduction of goods into the retail system or payments for unsolicited marketing services, is covered by the Act on Counteracting Unfair Competition (1993). Many courts have ruled that such practices amount to unfair competition. Despite that the government has found the existing protection inadequate, arguing that court proceedings take a lot of time, are cost-consuming, and that instead of what is available now the supplier should have a legal opportunity to challenge the unfair distributor without a need to confront him face-to-face in the court but rather by notifying the apropriate authorities.

Legal action The new Act is very clearly based on the provisions of the Act on Competition and Consumers Protection (2007) and the administrative law model of proceedings. It gives the president of the Office for Competition and Consumers Protection (UOKiK) wide discretionary powers to intervene when “abuse of contractual advantage” occurs. The contractual advantage is defined as a situa-

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tion in which the supplier has no sufficient and real possibility to sell its wares to other distributors and there is a significant disparity in the economic potential of the parties. If this advantage is used in a way contradictory to good custom and threatens or violates the material interests of the other party, the UOKiK has the right to intervene. The administrative proceedings of the UOKiK may involve a variety of actions. For instance, the office may request information from the parties, conduct searches, request entry into premises, and request documents on the same terms and conditions as those provided for in antitrust cases.

If the UOKiK arrives at the conclusion that abuse of contractual advantage has occurred, then it will issue a decision ordering the cessation of such a practice. However, it is not yet clear what this would mean in practice. Would the UOKiK point out which specific parts of the contract violate the Act and how, or would the office simply declare that the contract contains provisions breaching the Act? The former action seems more appropriate, but it is not excluded that the UOKiK could issue its decision without pointing out how the contract in question breaches the provisions of the Act. In such a case, it will be up to the parties to redraw the contract in such a way so it meets all the provisions of the Act. Fines When it comes to fines, the UOKIK may impose a fine of up to 3% of the on the annual turnover of the party found guilty of abusing the Act. It is worth noting that additional fines may also be imposed on the party, as well as its employees, for obstructing the UOKiK proceedings or providing mis-

leading information to the office.

Of course, there are questions how the new Act will work in practice especially when some of its provisions are not clear and, arguably, may be challenged in courts. For instance, the Act states that a threat to terminate the agreement may be considered an abuse. In addition, the new law applies unclear and imprecise terms, such as, “sufficient and real possibility of sale of (…) products” and “significant disproportion in economic potential”. It is true that such language is typical in regulations governing competition. However, it will have to take some time (and perhaps some court rulings) to develop a common understanding of the new terms. side effects The purpose of this new piece of legislation is to give additional power to the UOKiK to protect food suppliers against the “predatory practices” of distributors. With this the government moves the onus to provide such protection from common courts to the administrative authority. And the Act introduces preferential treatment for a specified category of suppliers—food suppliers—while the suppliers of other goods are excluded and forced to seek protection in common courts.

The Act will have consequences for the market and one of them may be that big retail chains will start looking for grocery and food suppliers outside of Poland to avoid the hassle of dealing with the new legislation.

As a result, the regulation which was designed to protect small farmers and suppliers of groceries, may have negative consequences for the domestic food production sector.

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Personal finance

A long and winding road

By Jason Watters, vice president for Europe, Reilly Financial Advisors

Creating your financial road map

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ften, people don’t set out on a trip or vacation without some idea of where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. Furthermore, once you reach that trip destination, you need to choose what it is you want to see and do there. Whether it be a map or a GPS, you must have some form of guidance if you want to arrive safely at your destination. So, why should your financial future be any different? You must ask yourself: Where am I now?

Where do I want to be?

How am I going to get there? A successful financial future begins with creating a roadmap, and requires you to set your destination, knowing your starting point, mapping out a path with potential rerouting or side tripping, and keeping your long-term destination in mind. setting a destination Building realistic and attainable goals is arguably the most fundamental part of the process.

Regardless of whether you are just starting out or close to retirement, it is essential to have an idea of where you want to be and the kind of lifestyle you want to live. At what age do I want to retire? At what age can I retire? Can I pay for my children’s education? How much can I afford to travel? Which country would I like to retire in?

Setting goals that are realistic and achievable is a crucial first step to creating your roadmap. You don’t get in a car or on an airplane without having some sort of destination in mind, why should your financial situation be any different?

Think of it! The best way of doing it is when you write down and discuss goals with your spouse or significant other, prioritize, and create small milestones along the way.

The starting point Before setting off on the open highway with the wind in your hair, it’s important to take some time to see what you have for your trip; do you have everything packed that you'll need?

What do you plan on getting along the way? Assessing your financial position involves writing down all of your assets and liabilities in one place. To map out your destination, you need to know where you are starting from; taking inventory of all your current investment and bank accounts, foreign and domestic taxes, insurance, various government pension credits, and liabilities can give you a picture of your starting point and help guide you to where you want to be. Keep in mind that your net worth is the sum of all your assets and liabilities. So gathering all your financial data and keeping current records is a key first step to building your roadmap.

Follow the path Once you have determined your goals, what your destination is, and where you are situated financially, it is now time to map out a path to help you reach that destination. Much like how putting an address into a GPS provides a step-by-step highlighted route, so too does your financial map provide a step by step path that will lead you to your destination. Your path helps answer questions like what type of retirement accounts you should utilize, what are your foreign risk determinations, your monthly budget, how you should best contribute to your retirement funds, how you can best allocate savings for your children’s education, are you prepared for a possible relocation, and what are various tax implications of all these things? Having a welldefined path and plan helps you

stay on course toward your end goal, particularly when that path is made much more complicated by living and working abroad. In order to utilize that part effectively try creating a spending plan that fits your lifestyle by distinguishing between your essential and discretionary expenses. A successful plan is only as good as what you put into it, both in data gathering and a determination to follow the plan to completion.

Rerouting While cruising on life's highway, it is important to be mindful that we will not always be able to take the fastest route to our destination. Often, your first intended destination is not always the easiest to reach; many times there are detours and side trips that disrupt your route and must be accounted for. Things happen in life—job loss, sudden hospitalization, relocation, or death of a loved one are some examples of “detours” that can change your intended retirement or savings plans.

Having a comprehensive plan allows you to navigate these detours and get back on course. But not all rerouting has to be negative or unplanned; many times, side trips are made such as choosing to pay off credit card debt before maxing out your savings. In this case, even though you are hitting a savings detour by paying off debt, it is a financially smart choice. So remember that you can not plan for every event, but you can mitigate your personal risk exposure as you keep your final destination in mind.

Always remember to keep your plan current by updating it when you have family and lifestyle changes; this will help mitigate some of these “detours.”

Focus on the destination The ride isn’t always a smooth one. Maintaining a consistent strategy for the long-term will help you ride out the waves of volatility. The minute we get into traffic or hit construction zones does not mean we must reroute ourselves immediately and change our route. Staying consistent and keeping your destination set is the surest way to reach your financial goals. In practice it means that you regularly assess and maximize your savings strategy by reviewing and rebalancing investments.

Review your financial goals on an annual basis at a minimum, or as life circumstances change. consistency is the key Understanding the basics is a good first step to formulating a successful financial strategy. A financial plan is not a one-time project; it is a living document that is available to help you answer tough questions, to give you alternatives and to help guide you to that final destination. Take some time and talk about the goals you want to have in 5, 10, even 20 years. Gather your financial information such as past taxes and account statements to help determine where it is you’re starting from. Much of this can seem daunting as you balance the responsibilities of living as an expat, but what is even more daunting is heading for a destination without any idea on how you’re going to get there.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

In the spooky mood

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hampi- 1 ons Sports Bar of Marrtiott Warsaw Hotel was the venue of the Halloween Business Mixer, which featured amazingly scary scenography and delicious 3 Halloweenthemed food and drinks. The guests competed for best costume prizes although sometimes it was hard to tell who was who.

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1. The party in full swing. 2. Robert Grader, General Manager of Marriott Warsaw Hotel; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director.

3. Robert Kruszyna, AmCham. 4. At the Barefoot wine stand. 5. The Marriott Warsaw Hotel team: Karolina Redzik, Katarzyna Krasuska, Malgorzata Rusin, Robert Grader, Elżbieta Wiśniewska, Mariusz Paszkiel, Agnieszka Skibińska. 6. Alison Dilworth, US Embassy; John Dilworth; Robert Grader; Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide). 7. Macej Nuckowski, Xerox; Tony Clarey. 8. Anna Markovska, Amway; Michał Potyrała, EY; Marcin Płonka, Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Dorota Serafin, AmCham; Sara Riley, DLA Piper; Małgorzata Polanowska, JLL; Malwina Bonder-Wójcik, DLA Piper; Tomasz Paciorek, MoneyGram; Agnieszka Rogowiec, Ramboll Environ. 9. Judith Gliniecki, AmCHam Vice Chair; Alison Dilworth. 10. Kenneth Duckworth, US Embassy. 11. Tony Housh; Tomasz Paciorek; Dorota Dabrowski. 12. The spooky Halloween deserts.

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AmCham in Wrocław

Where do we go from here?

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n October AmCham Wrocław held a lunch for its members in the region of Lower Silesia to summarize what had been achieved in 2016 and to draw up plans for 2017. The venue was the Monopol Hotel in Wrocław.

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1. The meeting is about to begin. 2. Dorota Dabrowski, managing director, AmCham. 3. Rafał Szafraniec, KPMG; Antonello Galasso. 4. Sławomir Kiedos, Mphasis; Dorota Dabrowski. 5. Monika Słomka, PM Group; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz, AmCham Wroclaw Director (PM Group); Sławomir Kiedos. 6. Radosław Szafrański, Sebastian Szurek, Michael Page; Monika CiesielskaMróz. 7. Sebastian Ickiewicz, EY; Monika Słomka; Sławomir Kiedos. 8. Paweł Jarosz, Patrycja Zwińska, C. H. Robinson. 9. Patrycja Zwińska, Paweł Jarosz; Bartosz Hawro, Spring Poland. 10. Monika Ciesielska-Mróz; Dorota Dabrowski. 11. Jakub Węgrzyn, Spring Poland; Bartosz Hawro.

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Events AmCham in Kraków & Katowice

Keeping hackers at bay

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n November AmCham Kraków & Katowice held a meeting on cybersecurity with presentations from FBI Cyber Division and Cisco Sytems. The venue was Kraków's Sheraton Hotel.

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1. Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chairman (CH2M Polska). 2. Kenneth Keller, FBI. 3. Gaweł Mikołajczyk, Cisco. 4. Tomasz Wilczyński EY; Brian Russell, State Street; Aleksander Ludynia, EY. 5. The meeting in progress. 6. Joanna Bensz; Walter Braunohler, Consul General, US Consulate in Kraków. 7. Kenneth Keller; Rafał Sękowski CBRE, Jarosław Maślanka Pegasystems. 8. Michael Long, Rolls Royce, Robert Wróbel, Jacek Kołodziejczyk IBM; Anthony D Campagna OSAC. 9. Michael Long, Andrzej Ujda, Rolls Royce; Anthony D Campagna. 10. Anthony D Campagna; Jacek Drabik, Motorola Solutions. 11. Jacek Kołodziejczyk; Gaweł Mikołajczyk.

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The post-election breakfast

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n November, crowds packed the residence of the US Consul General in Kraków to attend the post US presidential election breakfast held jointly by the US Consul General in Kraków and AmCham Kraków and Katowice.

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1. Tom Zia US Department of State; Walter Braunohler, US Consul General; Wojciech Karpiński, Amway. 2. The meeting in progress. 3. Robert Gałązka Nexteer; Andrzej Ujada, Rolls-Royce. 4. Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice President (CH2M Polska); Jacek Drabik, Motorola Solutions; Walter Braunohler. 5. In the foreground: Joanna Bensz; Iwona Sadecka, US Consulate General in Krakow; Jarosław Maślanka, Pegasystems; Żaneta Cielecka, CH2M Polska. 6. Przemysław Roth, Rolls-Royce; Joanna Bensz; Robert Gałązka, Nexteer. 7. Walter Braunohler; Paweł Laidler, Jagiellonian University; Joanna Bensz; Eric Shaikewitz, Breen & Shaikewitz Xmas Ornaments; Iwona Sadecka. 8. Walter Braunohler; Joanna Bensz, Eric Shaikewitz; Szymon Duda GD&K Consulting; Jarosław Maślanka. 9. Andrzej Ujda, Rolls-Royce; William Brandt. 10. Robert Gałązka Nexteer, Anna Szymańska-Klich; the Institute for Strategic Studies; William Brandt; Andrzej Ujda Rolls-Royce.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

Election night in Warsaw

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n November Amcham members met to discuss the US presidential race and the results of the election and their potential impact on US-Poland relations, with guest speakers Michał Kobosko, director of the Atlantic Council Poland and Wrocław Global Forum; Marcin Zaborowski, executive vice president of the Center for European Policy Analysis; and Janusz Reiter, former Polish ambassador to US and Germany and the founder of the Centre of International Relations Foundation.

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1. The meeting is about to begin. 2. Tony Housh; AmCham Chairman APCO Worldwide); Michał Kobosko, Atlantic Council Poland, Wrocław Global Forum; Janusz Reiter, the Centre of International Relations Foundation; Marcin Zaborowski, Center for European Policy Analysis. 3. Tony Housh comments for the TVN television station. 4. Joseph Wancer; AmCham Board Member (BGŻ BNP Paribas); Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director. 5. Seated at the front table: John Lynch, AmCham Board Member (Lynka); Joseph Wancer; Sonnet Frisbee, US Embassy. 6. Marzena Drela; AmCham; Jakub Karnowski, Luma Group; Jacek Michałowski. 7. Thom Barnhardt, BiznesPolska.pl; Marten Schoenrock; InterContinental Warsaw.

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Agility in action

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anagement guru Mark Dorsett, vice president of US-based Global Business and Strategic Partnerships PROSCI, met AmCham members to talk about how the management of change in companies can help exceed business objectives. The meeting took place courtesy of BPI Group Poland.

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1. Mark Dorsett, Prosci. 2. Dorota Serafin, AmCham; Paweł Dudek, BPI Poland. 3. Krzysztof Ogonowski, BPI Poland; Mark Dorsett; Maciej Kulesza, McCormick Polska; Paweł Dudek. 4. Krzysztof Ogonowski; Agnieszka Broniecka, Steelcase. 5. Mark Dorsett. 6. Jeffrey Lapointe, TechSoup Foundation ; Paweł Dudek. 7. Krzysztof Ogonowski. 8. Jolanta Krupowicz, Travelport; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

Observing an old tradition

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mCham and the Hilton Warsaw Hotel & Convention Center joined forces to hold a Thanksgiving Business Mixer, which, among many attractions, included a raffle, delicious food and great Thanksgiving specials.

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1. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Robert Krygsman, general manager Hilton Warsaw Hotel and Convention Center.

2. Gedeon Werner; Anita Kowalska, AmCham; Marek Nitka, Ambassador of Dark Horse and Apothic wine brands. 3. Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide); Marzena Drela, AmCham deputy director; Dominik Tarczyński, MP; Andrew Lubelski. 4. Roman Rewald, AmCham Board Member (Weil, Gotshal & Manges); Jolanta Jaworska, AmCham Board Member (IBM); Tony Housh. 5. Iwona Małek, KPMG; Jacek Stryczyński, Lionbridge; Elzbieta Raczkowska, Vital Voices. 6. Tanya Podgoretska; Peter Dembinsky. 7. Elżbieta Raczkowska; Dorota Serafin, AmCham; Zofia Schnitzer; Ministry of Development; Anita Kowalska. 8. Tony Housh; Dariusz Bąk, Rzeczpospolita. 9. Tony Housh; Magda Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM; Frank de Paris, US Embassy in Warsaw. 10. Radosław Łajc, Sandra Wróblewska, Kajima; Monika Słomka, PM Group. 11. Tony Housh; Michael Bradshaw, Jadin. 12. Christopher Smith a lucky raffle winner (a round trip to Paris for two on Air-France); Anita Kowalska; Joanna Godziszewska, Air-France, KLM. 46

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AmCham in Kraków & katowice

Heading for the holiday season

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he Sheraton Hotel in Kraków was the venue of the Christmas Business Mixer, which this year was generously sponsored by Pegasystems Software Limited and Uber.

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1. Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chairman (CH2M Polska). 2. Dean Webster, Pegasystems Limited. 3. Walter Braunohler, Consul General, US Consulate in Kraków. 4. Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director; Tomasz Miśniakiewicz, Delphi. 5. Marta Pawlak, AmCham Legal Counsel; Joanna Bensz; Jolanta H. Lapkiewicz, Raytheon. 6. Jan Małolepszy, Pegastystems; Zaneta Cielecka, CH2M; Jarosław Maślanka, Pegasystems; Marzena Drela. 7. Paweł Gapski, Uber; Ewa Barańska, General Motors; Joanna Bensz; Oleksiy Lomeyko, Philip Morris. 8. Angela Saliba, Sheraton Hotel Kraków, Joanna Bensz. 9. Jerzy Kozicz, CMC Poland; Marzena Drela; Adam Szepczyński, Super Segway; Joanna Bensz; Krzysztof Put, Coca-Cola HBC Polska. 10. Walter Braunohler; Jarosław Maślanka.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

Molding young talent

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mCham concluded the first edition of 30 Under 30, a mentoring program for 30 young professionals (aged below 30) from member companies. The Google office in Warsaw was the venue for the program’s last session and the farewell party.

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1. The graduates of the second edition of AmCham’s 30 Under 30 Program. 2. Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia, ERM Polska.

3. John Law, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy in Warsaw. 4. Anna Jakubowski, Senior Executive; Natalia Cetera, Google.

5. Angel Kalinov, Michał Witecki, C. H. Robinson. 6. John Law; Jan Pilewski, Łukasz Kowalski, MSLGROUP; Agnieszka Rogowiec, Ramboll Environ. 7. Tomasz Chrystyna, Agnieszka Reguła, Coimpex. 8. Anna Jakubowski; Magdalena Dziewguć, Google for Work. 9. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Karolina Wężyk, S&P Global Ratings. 10. Dorota Serafin, AmCham; Dorota Dabrowski; Michał Potyrała, EY; Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia; John Law. 11. Dorota Dabrowski; John Law. 12. Tomasz Paciorek, Emilia Kobylarz, Ewa Karwowska, MoneyGram Payment Systems; Anna Jakubowski. 13. Magdalena Pavlak-Chiaradia; Dorota Dabrowski. 14. The graduation ceremony in progress. 15. Agnieszka Tałasiewicz, EY; John Law. 16. Zijad Mahmutovic, Pavel Adamovsky, Magdalena Tobiasz, Karina Kosznik-Gadomska, Zbigniew Bartczak, UPS. 17. Daniel Zieliński, Direct Communication; Kenneth Duckworth, US Commercial Service, US Embassy; Angelo Pressello, Marta Zawadzka, Direct Communication.

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Events AmCham in Wrocław

Christmas is here again

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he annual International Christmas Evening, cohosted by AmCham, the German-Polish Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK), the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce, and the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFP), attracted over 300 guests from Wrocław and the region of Lower Silesia.

The venue was the Sofitel Wrocław Old Town.

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1. Monika Śniecińska, The French-Polish Chamber of Commerce (FPCC); Monika Ciesielska-Mróz, AmCham (PM Group); Ilona Chodorowska, the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC); Iwona Makowiecka, the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Trade (AHK).

2. Nicholas Richardson, BPCC; Christiane Botschen, German Consulate General in Wrocław; Joanna Bensz, AmCham (CH2M Polska).

3. Carl Artmann, Sofitel Wrocław Old Town; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz. 4. Aneta Ilkiewicz-Krawczyk, Platforma Kariery; Justyna Sroczyńska, Jutta Hutsch, IdeaPlace. 5. Iwona Makowiecka; Bartłomiej Andrusiewicz, Tieto Poland; Małgorzata Porębska, W-support.pl. 6. Leszek Górski, the Freewolni; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz. 7. Eveline Filipczyk, EY; Justyna Sroczyńska; Jutta Hutsch; Nikola Blania, AHK; Ewa

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Platinum Sponsor

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Product Sponsors

Partners Rogoż, IdeaPlace; Aneta Ilkiewicz-Krawczyk. 8. Tomasz Pyzik, Masklogik; Małgorzata Wójcik-Koczur, Kaufland Polska Markety.

9. Andrzej Simończyk, DSA Trade; Beata Ausbiter, AHK, Wojciech Pryczak, DSA Trade; Nikola Blania. 10. The glittering lobby of Sofitel Wrocław Old Town. 11. Monika Śniecińska, FPCC; Beata Ausbiter, AHK; Monika Ciesielska-Mróz. 12. The Freewolni live.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

Once a year in December

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he AmCham Annual General Meeting included the auditor’s report and the annual report, which were approved by a quorum of members. The highlights of the evening included an address by Ambassador Paul W. Jones, the presentation of the AmCham student essay contest winners, and the election of the new AmCham Board of Directors. The meeting was followed

by Holiday reception and grand raffle.

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1. The new AmCham Board of Directors (not pictured are Rober Bednarski of Facebook and Joseph Wancer of BGŻ BNP Paribas): Roman Rewald, Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Joanna Bensz, CH2M Hill Polska; John Lynch, Lynka; Marek Szydłowski, TVN S.A.; Magdalena Burnat-Mikosz, Deloitte; Sławomir Sikora, Citi Handlowy, Jolanta Jaworska, IBM; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Richard Lada (individual member); Magdalena Pawlak-Chiaradia, ERM Polska; Tony Housh (APCO Worldwide). 2. Kenneth Duckworth, US Embassy in Warsaw; Dorota Dabrowski; Mirosław Dackiewicz, Agri Plus; Tony Housh; Charles Ranado, US Commercial Service. 3. A review of the AmCham 2016 activities. 4. Sławomir Sikora; Tony Housh; John Lynch. 5.

Joanna Bensz; Ryszard Kapuściński, Procter & Gamble. 6. Anna Jakubowski; Tony Housh; Dorota Dabrowski.

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7. Tony Housh. 8. Paul W. Jones, US Ambassador to Poland. 9. Dorota Dabrowski; Paul W. Jones. 10. Luke Wilski, winner of the AmCham Essay contest (representing Arup). 11. Kamil Nagrodzki, Plagiat.pl; Tony Housh; Paul W. Jones; Luke Wilski; Iga Lis (American School of Warsaw); Wojciech Grabowski (McCormick); Iza Yeomans (Hewlett Packard). 12. Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director; Andrzej Celiński, Amazon. 13. Voting over the 2016 Annual Report. 14. Dorota Dabrowski; John Lynch; Anita Kowalska, AmCham. 15. Sebastian Arana, 3M; Rick Lada. 16. Marzena Drela; Krzysztof Kłapa, McDonald’s; Marta Pawlak, AmCham.

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17. Tomasz Lis; Iga Lis; Dorota Dabrowski. 18. Aleksandra Szmitkowska; Jarosław Bielecki; Alon Redlich, International Technology Sourcing. 19. Paul W. Jones; Anna Wieraszko, Amway. 20. Ryszard Kruk, Enterprise Investors. 21. Joanna Bojarska-Buchcic, HR Solutions; Robert Kruszyna, AmCham; Dominika Nowak, Manpowergroup; Ernest Bartosik, Unipharm. 22. Duarte Silva Gonçalo, Sheraton Warsaw Hotel; Dorota Dabrowski; Marcin Petrykowski, S&P Rating Services. 23. Andrzej Pawelczak, Animex; Marzena Drela. 24. Bartłomiej Morzycki, 3M; Paweł Wideł, General Motors; Agnieszka Jankowska, GE International.

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Events AmCham in Warsaw

Let's get on the ball

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n January, AmCham members and friends of the chamber met with Tomasz Pisula, president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), who talked about how the agency has reformed in order to make the lives of foreign investors easier. The venue was the InterContinental Hotel Warsaw.

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1. Tomasz Pisula, President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency; Tony Housh, AmCham Chairman (APCO Worldwide). 2. Tony Housh; Tomasz Pisula. 3. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Managing Director; Thomas Kurzmann, Erez Boniel, Globe Trade Centre. 4. Paweł Tynel, EY; Paweł Wideł, GM; Joanna Bensz, AmCham Vice Chairman (CH2M Polska); Michał Kobosko, Atlantic Council; Jolanta Jaworska, AmCham Board Member (IBM). 5. Tony Housh; Tomasz Pisula. 6. Tomasz Pisula; Daniel Piekarski, Minister of Foreign Affairs. 7. Roman Rewald, AmCham Board Member (Weil, Gotshal & Manges). 8. Tony Housh; Przemysław Kurczewski, Emitel. 9. Sławomir Majman, Dentons; Paweł Wideł; Monika Słomka, PM Group. 10. Dorota Dabrowski; Judith Gliniecki, AmCham Vice Chair.

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