American Investor Winter 2012

Investor

WINTER 2012Vol. XXII, No. 1 • ISSN 1506-3240

www.amcham.pl

American

Grace under pressure

INSIDE: Monthly Meeting: Marcin Herra • Focus: Paweł Oszczyk, Data protection, US visas, Manufacturers’Forum • Company profiles: Curb-Tech Europe, Hill International, Mazars • Experts: Keryx Group, Łaszczuk &

Partners, Salans, Wardyński & Partners •AmCham Membership Directory 2012

The quarterly of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland

Poland uses the globaleconomic crisis to gainground on Western Europe

MONTHLY MEETING in November 2011

A great catalyst Euro 2012 will help Poland growits economy in many different ways, p. 18

FOCUS

Manufacturers’ Forum: Power surgeWhile Poland’s manufacturers have figured outhow to survive in a down market, there is one bar-rier they cannot leap without a little push: electric-ity prices, p. 20

AMCHAM MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 2012

Alphabetical list of AmCham corporate and indi-vidual members as of December 15, 2011, p. 21

FOCUS

Top-down regulation on the way A new, more di-rect approach to data protection across the EU isexpected soon, and many businesses will welcomethe increased harmonization and clarity, p. 25

Food maverick Paweł Oszczyk, the chef of La Ro-tisserie Restaurant at Mamaison Hotel Le ReginaWarsaw, is a rising star of the city’s culinary world, p. 26

Hassle-free travel Applying for a visa to visit theUS may be easier than you think, p. 28

COMPANY PROFILE

Not afraid to get our hands dirty ChristopherHutchinson, CEO of construction specialist Curb-Tec Europe, about what makes the company spe-cial, p. 29

WINTER 2012 AMERICAN INVESTOR 1

Grace under pressure

Poland uses the global economic crisisto gain ground on Western Europe,

p.15

COVER STORY:WINTER 2012 Vol. XXII, No. 1

Contents

In this issue

Present on almost all continents Jacek Żurawski, Vice-President and Managing Directorof Hill International, p. 30

Integrated excellence Michel Kiviatkowski, Man-aging Partner of Mazars in Poland, p. 31

EXPERTS

Cubicle crusade Short of time, stressed, over-worked, behind on deadlines: Why do officeworkers have these problems? How can theywork more effectively? p. 32

A tangled web Selective distribution agreementsprohibiting online sales may violate competitionlaw, p. 33

The human side of the deal When you buy or sella company with employees, beware how you han-dle the staff, p. 34

Watch your step Expats who fail to comply withUS tax laws are skating on thin ice, p. 35

Build über alliances Effective B2B partnering isan organization-wide competency, not a silo func-tion, p. 36

EVENTS

Halloween Business Mixer, p. 37; Face to facewith the Euro 2012 czar, p. 38; Business in highgear, p. 39; 5th Manufacturers’ Forum, p. 40; Am-Cham Council Meeting, p. 41; Christmas Busi-ness Mixer, p. 42; Annual General Meeting, p. 44

DEPARTMENTS

Content summaries in Polish, p. 2; Newsline, p. 4; Agenda, p. 8; Guide to AmCham Commi-ttees, p. 13

Download this magazine!American Investor is available in full as a pdffor download from the www.amcham.plwebsite. Go to "About Us" in the horizontalmenu, and choose American InvestorMagazine from the pop-up menu. You candownload past issues of American Investor

dating back to October 2010.

Calendar

By clicking on red links in the Calendaryou may visit photo coverage of our pastevents. Blue links will take you to the an-nouncements of upcoming events.

EventsAmCham Monthly Meetings are one ofthe flagship events organized by thechamber. While American Investor coverseach Monthly Meeting extensively, in-cluding full-page pictorials, you cansearch through picture archives of pastevents that include never previouslyprinted material. Just go to Events andActivities, pick Monthly Meetings andscroll down for links to archived events.

RegionsAmCham may be closer than you think.Apart from Warsaw, AmCham has two re-gional branches which are active all yearlong and offer many exciting opportunitiesto interface with regional business leadersand politicians. To find out more about ouractivities in Kraków and the region ofsouthern Poland, and Wrocław, go to Re-gions in the horizontal menu bar, and pickyour region of interest.

Policy WatchIntelligence: For AmCham position pa-pers, policy statements, official letters togovernment ministers and research pa-pers, visit the Advocacy link on the hori-zontal menu to download the latest Am-Cham position papers.

Other useful sites

US Chamber of Commercehttp://www.uschamber.comAmerican Chamber of Commerce to the European Unionhttp://www.amchameu.beAmChams in Europehttp://www.amchamseurope.com

2 AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2012

BOARD OFDIRECTORS

SPONSORS

JOSePH WANCeR – DeloitteChairman

JuditH Y. GLiNieCKi – Wierzbowski EvershedsVice Chair

RiCHARd LAdA – TelestoVice Chairman

PeteR KAY – KPMG PolskaSecretary

StAN POPOW – FinacorpTreasurer

Tony HoushAPCO Worldwide

Paul FogoMiller Canfield

Piotr JuchaMcDonald’s

Thomas KolajaAlvarez and Marsal

Robert L. KońskiKulczyk Investments

John LynchLynka

Mac RaczkiewiczEx officio

Roman RewaldEx officio

Anna SienkoIBM

AmCham Auditor:

YOUR AMCHAM


MEMBERS

What’s on

www.amcham.plYour online guide to AmCham activities

Cover Story

Gracja pod presją Polski rząd chcewykorzystać kryzys aby skrócić dystansdzielący polską gospodarkę od tych wpaństwach Europy Zachodniej, str. 15

Monthly Meeting

Wielki katalizator Organizacja Mistr-zostw Europy w Piłce Nożnej w 2012 r.pomoże polskiej gospodarce w różnychaspektach, str. 18

Focus

Forum firm produkcyjnych Firmy pro-dukcyjne w Polsce dostosowały się dowarunków globalnego kryzysku, jednakjest problem, z którym sobie nie mogą po-radzić: rosnące ceny energii, str. 20

AmCham Membership

Directory 2012

Alfabetyczne listy członków korpora-cyjnych i indywidualnych AmChamu nadzień 15-go grudnia 2011, str. 21

Focus

Nowe regulacje Bardziej bezpośredniepodejście do ochrony elektronicznychdanych osobowych będzie sprzyjać har-monizacji prawa w krajach EU, str. 25

Wschodząca gwiazda Paweł Oszczyk, szef kuchni w restauracji La Rotisserie w hotelu Mamaison Le Regina, str. 26

Wizy bez problemów Aplikowanie owizę USA w Warszawie jest łatwiejsze niżmoże się wydawać, str. 28

Company Profile

Wywiad z Christopherem Hutchin-sonem, CEO firmy Curb-Tech Europe,str. 29

Wywiad z Jackiem Żurawskim, wi-ceprezesem i dyrektorem zarządzającymfirmy Hill International, str. 30

Wywiad z Michelem Kiviatkowskim,partnerem zarządzającymw firmie Mazars,str. 31

Eksperci

Monika Stabińska, PEPWorldwide(gościnnie) na temat wydajności pracy pra-cowników biurowych, str. 32

Konrad Raszkiewicz z Łaszczuk iWspólnicy na temat regulacji handlu w In-ternecie, str. 33

Adam Brzeziński i Paweł Krzykowskiz Salans na temat problemów pracown-iczych w przejmowanych firmach, str. 34

Jakub Kucharzyk z Kaye Scholer LPP wNowym Jorku i Aldona Leszczyńska-Mikulska z Wardyński i Wspólnicy natemat obowiązków podatkowych względemamerykańskiego fiskusa, str. 35

Anya Ogorkiewicz z Keryx Group o bu-dowaniu efektywnych relacji BtoB, str. 36

Relacje zdjęciowe

Halloween Business Mixer, str. 37;Spotkanie Miesięczne, listopad 2011, str.38; Speed Business Meeting, str. 39; PiąteForum Firm Produkcyjnych, Kraków, str.40; Krakowskie spotkanie zarządu Am-Chamu, str. 41; Świąteczny Mikser Bizne-sowy we Wrocławiu, str. 42; CoroczneWalne Zgromadzenie członków AmChamu, str. 44

Działy stałe

Od Dyrektor Zarządzającej, str. 3;Newsline, str. 4; Agenda, str. 8; Przewod-nik po Komitetach AmChamu, str. 13

W tym numerze:

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2012. All rights reserved.

American Investor to oficjalny magazyn Amerykańskiej Izby Handlowej w Polsce. Magazyn reprezentuje głos środowiskmiędzynarodowego biznesu w Polsce. Celem magazynu jest dostarczanie członkom Izby i innym czytelnikom aktual-nych informacji na temat działalności Izby a także trendów biznesowych i polityce społecznej firm.Listy do rekacji prosimy wysyłać na adres poczty elektronicznej: [email protected]

Dear Readers!

The current issue of American Investor is the magazine’s debut as a quarterly. For this occasion,

the magazine appears with a new logo and is partially reformatted so that the traditional 44

pages per issue can carry more material, especially in such sections as Agenda. Inevitably, the

content has become denser and the way we cover AmCham events, especially

committee meetings, more concise.

Nevertheless, I hope that the magazine will continue to attract the attention of read-

ers within the chamber as well as AmCham’s friends and partners, to serve as a

trusted guide to the chamber’s many activities and initiatives, and to reflect the huge

business and intellectual potential of AmCham’s member companies.

Wishing you interesting reading,

and a Happy New Year!

Dorota DabrowskiAMCHAM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Summaries in Polish From Executive Director

Your American Investor

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2012. All rights reserved.

American Investor is the official publication of the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in Poland. It is a voice for for-eign investors and the business community in Poland.The magazine strives to keep our members and otherreaders up to date by following chamber news and report-ing on the leading trends in business and policy.

Letters to the editor should be e-mailed [email protected]

AMCHAM STAFF

Dorota DabrowskiExecutive Director

[email protected]

Marzena DrelaDeputy Director

[email protected]

Anita KowalskaEvents & Media Manager

[email protected]

Robert KruszynaOffice Manager

[email protected]

Barbara Pocialik-MalinowskaMembership and Committees Coordinator

[email protected]

Marta PawlakResearch and Policy Coordinator

[email protected]

Robert ChomikProject Assistant and Committee Coordinator

[email protected]

AmCham in KrakówMonika [email protected]

AmCham in WrocławJoanna [email protected]

YOUR AMCHAM


EDITOR, ART DESIGN & DTP

tOMASz Ć[email protected]

EDITOR-AT-LARGECHRiStOPHeR [email protected]

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To contact AmCham please write or call:

ul. Emilii Plater 53, WFC 00-113 Warsawtel: +48 22 520 5999 fax: +48 22 520 5998e-mail: [email protected]

AmCham

At the Annual General Meeting in December,AmCham members approved the annual reportpresented by AmCham Chairman JosephWancer and passed amendments to the organi-zation’s constitution. David Green from PwC pre-sented the audit report, which was also ap-proved by the assembly. At the end of the meet-ing, AmCham Executive Director DorotaDabrowski gave special thanks to members andpartners who helped AmCham achieve its goalsthroughout the year. (Photo coverage at page42.)

AmCham 20th Anniversary Award

The President of the European Parliament,Jerzy Buzek, who was the special guest at theAmCham Annual General Meeting in December,received the AmCham 20th Anniversary States-man Award in recognition of his role in facilitat-ing Poland’s transition to democracy and a civilsociety and his accomplishments in EuropeanUnion politics. In his speech Buzek thanked thechamber for this recognition and said that theAmerican business community in Poland playeda vital role in helping the country catch up withthe West and become successful and competi-tive on a global scale. (Photo coverage at page42.)

AmCham Student Essay ContestThe 2011 AmCham Student Essay ContestGrand Prize went to Dorota Niedźwiedź, whorepresented UPC Polska, for an essay dis-cussing what Americans can learn from Polesand what Poles can learn from Americans.Niedźwiedź went beyond stereotypes about thetwo nations, arguing that increasing contactsbetween them may lead to a new quality of un-

derstanding between Poles and Americans andmutual appreciation of one another’s values.

AmCham WrocławFor the 9th consecutive year, AmCham Wrocławtogether with the British Polish Chamber of Com-merce, the Polish-German Chamber of Industryand Commerce, the French Chamber of Industryand Commerce, the Scandinavian Chamber ofCommerce and the Irish Chamber of Commerceorganized the International Christmas Eveningfor the business community and political leadersin Lower Silesia.

The venue of the event was the historic TownHall. The evening included many attractions,such as music shows, fortunetelling, and theGrand Prize Lottery Draw.

The food included the traditional French Yulelog, bûche de Noël.

Over the years, the International ChristmasEvening has become one of the highlights of theholiday season in Lower Silesia. (Photo cover-age at page 44.)

CiscoAn open and innovative environment in whichthey can live their lifestyle is what young employ-ees value more than money, according to a re-cent study by Cisco Systems. The Cisco Con-nected World Technology Report, a global sur-vey of 3,000 college students and young profes-sionals, revealed that many would rather be“wired” at work than receive a higher salary. Thestudy found:

• A third of college students and young em-ployees believe the Internet is as important asair, water, food and shelter.

• Two of five said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard todevice choice, social media access, and mobil-ity, than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

Regarding security-related issues in the work-place, seven of ten employees admitted toknowingly breaking IT policies on a regularbasis, and three of five believe they are not re-sponsible for protecting corporate informationand devices.

The Cisco Connected World Technology Re-port provides insight into challenges that compa-nies face as they strive to balance current andfuture employee and business needs amid ex-panding mobility capabilities, security risks, andtechnologies.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, an official sponsor of the Euro 2012soccer championship, has launched a limited

edition of cans with pictures of eight stadiums inPoland and Ukraine where the championshipwill take place—including the new National Sta-dium in Warsaw (pictured). First available in Mc-Donald’s restaurants, the cans also appeared inNovember in selected retail chains acrossPoland.

Cushman & WakefieldDespite the deepening of the debt crisis and thefragile mood of the wider economy, Europeanproperty investment markets saw trading vol-umes rise in 3Q 2011 to EUR 28.8 billion, ac-cording to a study by commercial real estateagency Cushman & Wakefield. The report foundthat property investment markets increased inthe aggregate by 5% on the previous quarterand 12.3% in the year to date.

By sector, retail was viewed as more defen-sive than others, but there was little change inpatterns of activity over the quarter, with retailtaking around 31% of activity, offices 45%, andindustrial 7%.

In another report, What’s in Store for Euro-pean Retail 2012? published in November, C&Wfound that an increasing number of retailers andinvestors are stepping up cross-border activityand international expansion in search of growth

in response to the downbeat economic senti-ment in Europe. The agency expects to see in-ternational expansion move further up theagenda for leading brands in 2012, but pointsout that retailers are still exercising caution andare actively evaluating their existing store portfo-lios to cut costs and maximize margins wherethey can, with many restricting their focus tomajor global cities in prime high street and shop-ping center locations.

Enterprise Investors

Robert G. Faris, former president of the Polish-

American Enterprise Fund, from which Enter-prise Investors emerged, has received the Com-mander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit.President of Poland Bronisław Komorowskihonored Faris with this very special distinctionfor his contribution to the development of thePolish economy.

Faris cofounded Enterprise Investors in 1990and is universally viewed by the private equity in-dustry in Poland as its founding father. Nowchairman of Enterprise Investors, for severalyears he was president of Alan Patricof Associ-ates (now Apax), one of the largest US privateequity firms, and co-founded Apax London.

Katowice visit

NewslineNews from AmCham and its members

Agata Dulnik from Right Management hasjoined Jolanta Jaworska from IBM as co-chair of

the Employee & Labor RelationsCommittee

AmChamPoland is in-volved in the

arrangements for theUS-Poland BusinessSummit, to be heldin 2012 with the USand Polish govern-ments. Other organ-izers include the Pol-ish Confederation ofPrivate Employers Lewiatan and the US-

Poland Business Coun-cil. The event is also anopportunity for compa-nies who are interestedin partnering with Am-Cham as sponsors.Sponsorship packageswill be available at PLN150,000, PLN 50,000 andPLN 25,000. Companiesinterested in this oppor-

tunity should contact AmCham.

WINTER 2012 AMERICAN INVESTOR 76 AMERICAN INVESTOR WINTER 2012

Newsline

In December AmCham deliv-ered assistance in cash andkind to selected single moth-

ers’ shelters and foster homesthrough the annual AmChamCharity Drive, which the cham-ber has been conducting for 16consecutive years. In 2010, thebeneficiaries of the drive werethe single mothers’ shelter inSłomczyn and a shelter for vic-tims of domestic violence inBrochów, plus eight fosterhomes across the country, in-cluding two in Bochnia and oneeach in Białystok, Grabinek, Ot-wock, Rzeszów, Świebodzin andWarsaw.

AmCham representativeAnita Kowalska, along withAdam Tomczak from X-PressCouriers, visited the singlemothers’ shelter in Słomczyn tobring presents and sweets forthe children. After returning fromthe shelter, Kowalska said, “Lastyear when we visited the shelterwe were particularly moved bythe difficult conditions in whichthe children lived, especially be-cause that there was no centralheating in the shelter and no hotwater. The heating device at thattime was just a coal stove,which produced a lot of smokeand made the living conditionsat the shelter extremely unpleas-ant. So last year we decided toprovide a modern heating sys-tem for the shelter, providingboth heat and hot running water.EuRoPol Gaz SA gave themoney to equip the shelter withthe new heating system. Wealso provided the shelter basicarticles such as food and cloth-ing throughout the year.”

AmCham also donated part ofthe money to the Ronald Mc-Donald Foundation and UnitedWay, and covered the cost of asummer social therapy camp forchildren from one of the fosterhomes in Bochnia.

Our warm thanks go to sponsors whoprovided in-kind goods, corporategrants and cash donations from their

employees: Boeing International Corpora-tion, CB Richard Ellis, Colgate-Palmolive(Poland), Crown Relocations, DeBenedetti,Majewski, Szcześniak, DPD, Estée Lauder,EuRoPol Gaz, GE International, GregoryRedos, the Hyatt Regency Warsaw, the Inter-Continental Warsaw, Łaszczuk & Partners,Maersk, Mars Polska, Panattoni Europe, the

Sheraton Warsaw, The Walt Disney Com-pany Polska, UPC Polska, and X-PressCouriers.

The most generous donor this year wasColgate-Palmolive, which provided 10 fullpallets of cleaning products and sent aSanta Claus to give Christmas presents tochildren in Bochnia.

To name just a few of the most generousin-kind donors: Maersk bought Christmasgifts for children at a foster home in Bochnia,

Boeing provided financial help for a fosterhome in Białystok, and Panattoni donatedthe proceeds from its annual business partyto the AmCham Charity Drive.

Special thanks go to Crown Relocationsfor sending over staff and materials to helppack goods.

We are also very grateful to X-Press Couri-ers for arranging the logistics of transportingthe boxes to their destinations. Without theirhelp the drive would not have happened!

1. Anna Klimek from EuRoPol Gaz, which covered the costs of the new heating system at the single moth-ers’ shelter in Słomczyn. 2. Santa Claus was sent by Colgate to entertain children at a foster home inBochnia. 3. Crown Relocations helped AmCham conduct the Charity Drive. 4. Children at the single moth-ers’ shelter in Słomczyn. 5, 6. Toys meet their owners. 7. Fifteen palettes of goods were distributed throughthe AmCham Charity Drive.

AmCham Charity Drive 20111 2

3 4 5

6 7

In November, AmCham members met withMayor of Katowice Piotr Uszok (pictured left)and Piotr Wojaczek, president of the KatowiceSpecial Economic Zone, to talk about invest-ment opportunities in Katowice and the Silesiaarea.

Uszok discussed the extent of investmentsmade by Katowice in improving the city’s infra-structure in such areas as public transportationand culture. Uszok said that Katowice’s long-term policy is to change the image of the cityfrom heavy industry to an economy driven byinnovative companies employing a young work-force. The importance of such rebranding iscrucial to keep young workers from migratingto other cities in Poland or abroad.

Wojaczek highlighted investors’ incentivesoffered by the Katowice SEZ. He said that thezone’s client service team approaches each po-tential investor on an individual basis, offeringall that they need to make an informed decisionabout investing in the zone. He also said thatPolish government ministers are lobbying hardin Brussels for the extension of SEZs’ lifespanin Poland, so most likely the current deadline of2020 will be eliminated in a few years and in-vestors in SEZs will continue to enjoy taxbreaks as long as they meet other require-ments.

Le Méridien Bristol

Le Méridien Bristol Warsaw celebrated its 110thanniversary in November with a birthday cakefor guests at the Café Bristol, baked by thehotel’s executive chef, Michał Tkaczyk. BristolGM Michael Goerdt said that the hotel’s staffare proud of the Bristol’s contribution to War-saw’s luxury lifestyle.

The Bristol opened on November 16, 1901. Itis now part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Mamaison Hotel Le Regina WarsawAndrzej Strzelczyk from Mamaison Hotel LeRegina Warsaw won 3rd prize in the PolishSommelier Championship, an annual event for

wine professionals in Poland organized by thePolish Sommeliers Association. Among thetasks set for the contestants were opening andserving champagne, recommending the chef’smenu and presenting matching wines, decant-ing wine, blind tasting of two wines and five spir-its, and editing a wine list. The Polish associa-tion is a member of L’Association de la Som-mellerie Internationale.

ManpowerGroupA global market study by ManpowerGroup hasrevealed a deepening shortage in skilled blue-collar workers, civil engineers, and productionprocess managers. The sixth edition of the Tal-ent Shortage report, which for the fourth timecovered Poland, found that the Polish market isno different in this respect, with approximately40% of employers finding it difficult to reachqualified candidates in these areas, while theglobal median is 39%. Poland improved on thiscount since 2010, when 51% employers saidthey had this problem.

According to Iwona Janas, general managerof ManpowerGroup in Poland, companies whoreduced their staff in the initial phase of theglobal economic crisis are now hit the hardestbecause they cannot find the right people to im-plement their business strategies. On the otherhand, some companies are postponing their hir-ing decisions until they see a better market.They hope that when they need new people,they will be able to lure the right people withhigher salaries.

Marriott Warsaw

Gavin Baxter, executive chef of the Marriott War-saw, and Evita de Gor, an accomplished author,co-wrote a cookbook entitled Flavours of theWorld, which has been acclaimed by food critics

as a guide to ecological world cuisine. The bookis the result of collaboration between two foodenthusiasts. De Gor is a traveler, living in Polandand Australia, who has authored 10 books, whileBaxter is an Australian who has served as a chefon private yachts and experienced a wide arrayof culinary cultures. The book is published byG+J Gruner+Jahr in Polish and English. Ameri-can Investor profiled Baxter in the September2011 issue.

Massive DesignA three-seater bench, codenamed Hexagon, de-signed for Casamania by Przemysław MacStopa from Massive Design, won the Best ofYear Honoree Award 2011 at the Best of YearAwards 2011 from the New York-based maga-

zine Interior Design.Hexagon is made of painted pre-galvanized

metal, suitable for both outdoor and indoor use.Its distinctive hexagonal structure reflects “the in-finite modularity of stems and atoms,” accordingto the company. The concept bench was first in-troduced to the public in April 2011 at the SaloneInternazionale del Mobile in Milan. •

News from AmCham and its members

New MembersTelecommunications specialist Motorola Mobility

(www.motorola.com/Consumers/PL-PL) has joined

AmCham. The company is represented by Arek

Zawada, Regional Sales Director.

Panattoni EuropeArtur Mokrzycki hasbeen appointed Head ofCapital Markets Europeat Panattoni Europe.Mokrzycki, who has over20 years of experience inreal estate investmentmanagement, will be re-sponsible for investormanagement and rela-tionships, including capi-tal sourcing and structuring for the Panattoni plat-form across Europe.

Members on the move

US-Poland Business Summit 2012


AgendaIntelligence from AmCham Committees

Employee & Labor RelationsCommitteeHow to do things faster

The efficiency of white-collar workers was onthe agenda of the AmCham Employee &Labor Relations Committee meeting in Octo-ber. Guest speaker Monika Stabińska fromPEPworldwide, a personal efficiency company,explained why office workers have notboosted their effectiveness in recent years theway blue-collar workers have, and discussedthe costs of an inefficient white-collar work-force. (More on these issues in the article “Cubicle crusade” on page 32.)

Energy & EnvironmentCommitteeSlow take-off forelectric mobility

The future of electric cars in Poland was thetopic at a meeting of the AmCham Energy &Environment Committee in December. One ofthe guest speakers was Katarzyna Sikorska,PR and marketing director of Polenergia, a pri-vate energy group owned by Kulczyk Invest-ments, who is also CEO of E+, a companythat delivers charging points for electric carsand other services specifically aimed at elec-tric car users. Tomasz Pałka, a senior man-ager in the automotive group at Deloitte, wasthe other speaker.

Sikorska said that the development of infra-structure supporting electric cars in Poland isslow, but in line with the number of electriccars on the street. According to Sikorska thereare approximately 300 electric cars registeredin Poland, which is a significant improvementfrom zero in 2010. She added that the numberof electric cars in Poland is still very low, al-though there are price incentives for electriccar users here, where their cost for “fuel” isabout PLN 6 per 100 km.

Warsaw now has 30 charging points forelectric cars—more than the number of elec-tric cars registered in Warsaw.

Sikorska said that fast-charging points (DCcharging points, which fully charge any elec-tric car in 30 minutes) are relatively expensivein Europe (costing EUR 100,000 each tobuild), but they are slowly appearing in differ-ent countries. She noted that in such countriesas Japan, DC points are the standard, whileold-fashioned charging points (which need upto 6 hours to fully charge an electric car) arean artifact of the past.

Sikorska said that there are approximately300 charging points in Poland at present, de-livered by different companies, but most ofthem are experimental, not commercial, set upon private property instead of at public places,to avoid the cost of obtaining all necessary

permits. She noted it takes E+ about sixmonths to obtain all permits from the authori-ties for one charging point in a public place inWarsaw. The cost of the red tape involved isabout PLN 15,000.

Sikorska said that the presence of a densecharging point infrastructure is an importantfactor for the peace of mind of electric cardrivers. According to a study by Frost & Sulli-van in Germany, 90% of electric car userscharge their vehicles at home, not in publicplaces. Nonetheless, they want to know thatthey will not be left out in the cold when theirbattery is low, which is why they want to seeas many charging points as possible.

Tomasz Pałka said that according to De-loitte’s research on the electric car market indifferent countries, what matters for car userswhen they think of migrating from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars is the price ofthe car, the total running costs (not just thecost of fuel per 100 km), the availability ofcharging points versus gas stations, andcharging time versus filling time at a gas sta-tion. Pałka said that given all the factors, driv-ers in North America and Western Europe arethe most pessimistic about electric cars, whilethe Chinese and the Turks are the most enthu-siastic.

The speakers agreed that the market forelectric cars is small and young and thereforehard to predict. On the other hand, investorsinterested in developing the infrastructure forelectric cars have to spend huge amounts ofmoney. But without proper infrastructure theelectric car will not become the standard forconsumers.

Energy & Environment and Tax & Financial Services CommitteesBank financing for power projectsAt a joint session of the AmCham Energy &Environment and Tax & Financial Servicescommittees, Michał Krupiński, managing di-rector and head for Poland at Bank of Amer-ica Merrill Lynch, and Eoin Kavanagh, seniorrelationship manager at Bank Pekao SA, dis-cussed the reality of financing power sectorprojects in Poland, with a special focus on fi-nancing possibilities available on the marketand structures for financing such projects.

The speakers gave an overview of the roleof banks in the Polish economy. They saidthat while the Polish economy is bullish incomparison with other EU countries, mostPolish banks try to stay on the safe side andmaintain good risk management.

When it comes to energy sector financing,the speakers said that generally it was dedi-cated to large state-owned companies for thefirst 15 years of the economic transformation.

Now the energy companies that appearedafter the market was reformed are creatingstrong demand for project financing, espe-cially in such areas as gas exploration andextraction, as shale gas in particular hasbeen identified as a fuel that is important tothe nation’s economy. Because of this, thepool of opportunities for financial institutionshas increased in the energy sector as it be-comes more and more interested in medium-and long-term financing.

European Union AffairsCommitteeOne-stop shop for free R&D money

At a meeting with the AmCham EU AffairsCommittee in November, AndrzejSiemaszko, director of the Polish NationalContact Point for Research Programs of theEU, discussed EU programs that offer fund-ing for R&D and shared the experience thatcoordinating institutions have had in Polandfor the last four years. He said that in terms ofresearch topics, the National Contact Pointsupports practically all areas of the economy,including health, ICT, security, transport,space, biology, energy, advanced materialsand nanotechnologies.

Siemaszko said that the agency an-nounces new projects at least once a year,through calls for proposals. He said he hadnoticed some disinclination on the part ofPolish companies to participate in researchprograms, even in the case of big companiesthat are top players in their industries. Hesaid that if companies are not sure whetherthey can actually take part in a project, theNational Contact Point is always more thanhappy to help them find the projects man-aged by the agency that best suit them. Headmitted that for first-timers there are a lot ofbarriers to entering the projects, but oncecompanies learn how to navigate the financ-ing programs they do not need any assis-tance from the agency anymore and growquite confident about choosing projectsthemselves.

Siemaszko said that the key players in bigR&D programs financed by the EU areFrench, German and British companies andacademia. While they comprise some 10% ofall companies and research institutions inter-ested in obtaining financing, they are so ef-fective in bidding for financing that they getinvolved in an estimated 80% of projects fi-nanced by the EU. Despite that, Siemaszkosaid there is always room for new companiesto enter programs—except for programs inspace and security research, two areas whichhave been dominated by a set of companiesthat are so competitive it is very difficult fornewcomers to get in.

Infrastructure CommitteeGive debt where debt is due

The public debt classification of expenditureson infrastructure projects was the topic at ameeting of the AmCham Infrastructure Com-mittee in December. The problem under dis-cussion was that debt generated through in-frastructure projects is included in the bal-ance sheet by Eurostat, the EU statistical of-fice, which has a negative impact on the over-all public debt of Poland as reported by Euro-stat. This also impacts the private sector, be-cause even when private investors are in-volved in financing infrastructure projects, inmany cases Eurostat books the debt asPoland’s public debt. This happens even inpublic-private partnership projects.

The speakers, who included DorotaMiziołek, director of corporate finance atKPMG Advisory, and Arwid Mednis, a partnerat the Wierzbowski Eversheds law firm, of-fered some hints on how legal criteria may beinterpreted in certain investment projects sothat some costs do not need to be includedin debt. In the end, however, it is up to thepublic side to make sure that costs that tech-nically can be taken off the balance sheet arein fact excluded by Eurostat as well.

Intellectual Property RightsCommitteeFresh approaches to IP protection

While US legislative initiatives aimed at betterprotection of intellectual property in the Inter-net were the main focus of the meeting of theAmCham Intellectual Property Rights Com-mittee in November, the first to speak wasspecial guest Zbigniew Barszcz from the De-partment of Economic Development at theMinistry of Economy, who gave an overviewof legislative work in the European Unionaimed at creating a single patent protectionlaw through an agreement of 25 memberstates (Italy and Spain opted out). Barszczsaid that the new system will be implementedin 2012 and will significantly simplify patentregistration procedures, by requiring, for in-stance, that the documents be translated intoonly three official EU languages (English,French and German) instead of all nationallanguages of the EU member states. Barszczsaid that when the new regulation becomeslaw, the same patent protection will be guar-anteed by all 25 states who are members ofthe agreement. He added that the only issuewhich has not yet been agreed on was the lo-cation of the central patent court.

Progressing to issues of intellectual prop-erty rights protection, Piotr Marczuk, Corpo-

rate Policy Director at Microsoft Polska, talkedabout new legislative initiatives by the statesof Washington and Louisiana aimed at penal-izing importers of goods to the US who usestolen or misappropriated intellectual prop-erty in their manufacturing, marketing orsales.

Another speaker, Bartłomiej Witucki fromthe Business Software Alliance, presented atrade initiative in the US that reinforces IP pro-tection in peer-to-peer file exchange. Thememorandum of understanding betweenleading US music and film industry organiza-tions and leading Internet service providersaims at cutting illegal exchange of music andmovie files in peer-to-peer systems. Wituckialso talked about the Protect IP Act, a federallaw that makes it illegal to create bogus web-sites in the US.

Marketing & CommunicationsCommitteeA corporate face on Facebook

Zofia Górska from Euro RSCG Sensors, whomet with the AmCham Marketing & Communi-cations Committee in December, unveiledsome mysteries about the Polish users of


Facebook and Twitter and presented somefindings of a study that Euro RSCG commis-sioned in 2010 to find out the way socialmedia are used in Poland.

Górska said that there are more femalethan male users of social media here, but thisonly reflects demographics and has nothingto do with any gender preference for socialmedia. Over half of users are married withchildren.

Facebook users are socially active and—unsurprisingly—attach a lot of importance tostaying in touch with others. Surprisingly,while they are community-oriented, they donot want to spend as much time on Facebookas they actually do. Somehow, they just can’tstay away.

Nearly half of Facebook users do not seeFacebook as something that is in voguetoday but will be passé tomorrow. In fact,20% of users perceive Facebook as amedium that is more credible than main-stream media such as television or newspa-pers. Its users treat Facebook as a real socialphenomenon that maintains contacts withinreal communities.

Another plus of Facebook is that it helpsusers maintain contact with people they metwhile traveling abroad.

While so many Facebook users have faithin the service’s credibility, some 35% do not

trust Facebook or other social media when itcomes to the safety of their personal informa-tion. The study revealed that such people usea made-up ID on Facebook and other socialmedia to be able to meet new people, pre-sumably date them, do something they wouldnever do as real personalities, or say some-thing which is not true.

When it comes to the acceptance of con-sumer brands in social media, over 50% ofusers said they do not like brands becausethey spoil the community spirit. On the otherhand, some 20% said they have no problemwith accepting consumer brands on their so-cial media profiles and recommending themto their online friends.

Users add brands’ fan pages to their pro-files on Facebook because they like certainbrands in real life, or they use them and wantto learn more about the products. More andmore users, however, add brands becausethey want to benefit from being a user of thebrand, through promotions or award cam-paigns carried out on Facebook by thebrand.

A fifth of users reject brands altogether andtreat marketing messages from brands asspam, or are disgusted by the strong market-ing focus of the messages they get frombrands. There are also users who rejectbrands in social media because of their un-satisfactory experience with them in real life.

Górska said that when it comes to brandmarketing, Facebook is difficult terrain be-cause it is home to many more brand hatersand trolls—users with fake IDs who are thereto express negative opinions—than Twitter, acommunity service which has become popu-lar among Poles, with 20,000 users fromPoland already there.

Górska said that before a brand decides tobe present on Facebook, it needs to find outwhether the target group is there at all. An-other big question for marketers is the sub-ject matter of the conversation with whichthey want to engage the targets. The conver-sation has to include unique content whichthe targets find attractive and entertaining.

Górska gave some insight into a Twittercampaign Euro RSCG did for a tablet com-puter marketer. She said that one of thebiggest misconceptions of Twitter is that it isonly about text, with no options to publishmusic and photos, which is untrue. Musicand pictures on Twitter do a good job atpropagating a consumer brand.

She also said that for a Twitter campaign tobe successful, it takes a lot of personal en-gagement from the community manager, whoposts tweets and has to work around theclock. What also helps is thinking about of-fline content for users and organizing someevents for selected individuals, especiallyopinion leaders, such as journalists, who fol-low the brand on Twitter. This reinforces posi-tive relations between them and the brand.

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Intelligence from AmCham Committees

Boss and business on the same pageWhat is the correlation between a company’sCEO and the company’s image in digitalmedia? This was the topic at a meeting of theAmCham Marketing & Communications Com-mittee in December. Speakers Beata Mońka,CEO of Canal+, and Maciej Filipkowski,general manager of Dell Poland, discussedhow digital media affect the way companyvalues are perceived by Internet users andhow the desired values can be reinforced forthe online audience by the CEO.

Mońka said that many CEOs joined com-panies with a mission to use their personalcharisma to change the way the company isviewed by the public. However, company val-ues are separate from the personal valuesrepresented by the CEO, and the issue forstrategists is to come up with the best way topresent those values online. Strategies maydiffer. They can present the values sepa-rately, or pick one set of values characteristicfor the company and the CEO and presentthem together.

She also said that some CEOs may not feelclose enough to social media. However, theycan use their staff to work their image in so-cial media. If they do not, they will lose out ona special kind of credibility that can be cre-ated in digital media. And some companies,in fields such as high tech and lifestyle, can-not afford not to have a digital presence.

Filipkowski said that before a CEO be-comes present in social media, he or sheshould decide what brand values to representin the digital world. These should be thingsthe CEO feels strongly about. At issue is cred-ibility in the digital world, where users sensewhether or not opinions are genuine. ButCEOs should not force themselves to be pres-ent on certain social media platforms. If theyare bored with the chat, they should leaverather than force themselves to continue.

Filipkowski pointed out that young peopledo not ask whether or not they should be insocial media, because social media are partof the world as they know it. They do notmake any distinction between the brick-and-mortar world and the virtual world. To them,they are one and the same. Thus social mediashould not be overlooked by companies thatwant to reach young people with their brands.

Project values visually

The power of internal and external brand-ing in corporate identification was the topic at ameeting of the AmCham Marketing & Commu-nications Committee in December, with guestspeakers Agata Osuch, a senior executive at3M, and Przemysław Stopa, president andchief architect at Massive Design.

Osuch stressed the power of brand creation

using image projectors and light-reflecting foils.She said that 3M, which celebrated its 20th an-niversary in Poland in 2011, offers turnkey proj-ects for clients that best suit their needs, fromselecting locations for their brand visualizationto picking out the best materials.

Stopa showcased some of his design proj-ects which reinforce corporate values in someunusual way. He said that companies that useopen space as part of their corporate identityoffer a lot of creative ways to stress their valuesthrough interior design, using different materi-als such as glass, plastic and metal.

Pharmaceutical Committee

Innovative healthcareand demographicsMichał Kaźmierski (pictured) from Gilead Sci-ences represented the American business com-munity at a conference held in October jointlyby the AmCham Pharmaceutical Committeeand Employers of Poland. The conference wasa launch event for a report entitled “Aging Pop-ulation as a Challenge for EuropeanEconomies,” compiled jointly by Employers ofPoland and the AmCham Pharmaceutical Com-mittee.

In his opening speech Kaźmierski said thatthe issue of the aging population is one of themost important economic challenges nowfaced by developed countries in the EuropeanUnion, including Poland. While one way totackle the problem is to implement governmentpolicies aimed at promoting parenthood, on thedemographic path Poland is now following by2060 there will be three working people forevery two retired people over age 65. Kaźmier-ski said that the percentage of people over age80, who require extensive healthcare servicesfrom the public sector, will increase by four- orfive-fold.

The challenge for the healthcare industry,therefore, is to keep working-age people fit and

healthy as long as possible and decrease thecost of healthcare services provided to that de-mographic group. Kaźmierski said that such apolicy would benefit all stakeholders, and hehoped that political leaders in Poland take note.

To achieve these goals requires improve-ment in industry standards in disease preven-tion, diagnosis and treatment. Kaźmierski saidthat international pharmaceutical companiesstudy thousands of new drugs that can poten-tially help alleviate the negative effects of agingsocieties for the economy, but even if newdrugs appear in the marketplace they will beonly a supplement to educational campaigns toraise awareness of prevention of the most com-mon diseases associated with old age.

Kaźmierski said that while prevention is veryimportant for having a healthy society, even if itis aging, the challenge for policymakers is tocome up with policies and strategies to encour-age innovative solutions in the drug industry.

Kaźmierski concluded by saying that innova-tive therapies are becoming an important partof modern medicine—a fact that must not beoverlooked by policymakers and political lead-ers.

Other speakers at the conference includedAndrzej Malinowski, president of Employers ofPoland, and industry experts Paweł Gembickiand Agnieszka Szpara from Employers ofPoland, Prof. Karina Jahnz-Różyk, president ofthe Polish Pharmacoeconomic Society, and Dr.Konstanty Radziwiłł, a member of the steeringcommittee of the European Innovation Partner-ship on Active and Healthy Aging.

Real Estate CommitteeBuild offices of the future today

Best practices and standards in office construc-tion were on the agenda of the last AmChamReal Estate Committee meeting in 2011, whichtook place in December.

Speakers included Chez Komorowski, headof the architecture department at Epstein, an ar-chitecture and design specialist, Robert Kar-czewski, development director at project man-agement company Hill International, andTadeusz Blecha, director of Hochtief Polska,one of the largest contractors in Poland.

Karczewski gave a presentation of the mostinteresting buildings in Warsaw, including officebuildings by such designers as the late Polish ar-chitect Stefan Kuryłowicz, as well as Złota 44,the residential tower designed by Daniel Libes-kind, which Karczewski said is one of the mostcomplex structures in town today. Karczewskisaid that every step of the design process has tobe preceded by a cost estimate, because onlythen can the client see which direction the build-ing is being developed and whether the projectwill stay within budget.

Chez Komorowski noted that the office market

in Warsaw, but also in other Polish cities, has de-veloped so fast that some buildings built just 7 to10 years ago do not meet current market re-quirements and have to be replaced. Accordingto Komorowski, when a new office building is de-signed today, the designer has to think about thefuture of the market, because it will have to com-pete with other office buildings that will appearon the market in the years to come. For Ko-morowski, this comes down to using the higheststandards possible. If the highest standards arenot applied today, the building will not be com-petitive tomorrow and investors will lose out.This is also important because Warsaw hasbeen attracting big names in the world of archi-tectural design, who are pushing standards sky-high. Komorowski concluded by saying that theessence of good practice is to deliver the bestpossible service to the client.

Tadeusz Blecha said that from the contractor’spoint of view, the objective is to reach a financialresult on time and according to plan, so theclient is satisfied and ready to go back to thesame contractor again. To achieve that, contrac-tors have to have a good system that allowsthem to maintain quality and standards on everyconstruction project they handle, which Blechacalled “value engineering.” For Blecha, one im-portant aspect of value engineering is the abilityto cut the price of the assignment and the con-struction time without compromising on qualityor performance.

The speakers agreed that unconventionalthinking in every segment of the entire develop-ment process is what really matters, becausethis is where value-added, competitive aspectsof project execution can appear.

Small & Medium-Sized EnterprisesCommitteeWhat’s ahead for privatization?

In November, Marcin Zieliński, director of thePrivatization Department at the Ministry of Treas-ury, met with the members of the AmCham SMECommittee to present the government’s plansfor privatization of nearly 800 companies that stillbelong to the state.

Zieliński said that privatization has been animportant revenue item for the government foryears. The ministry has managed to raise PLN140 billion from privatization since taking overthe process in 1996. The incumbent governmenthas supervised the privatization process since2007, and by the end of 2011 brought an esti-mated PLN 44 billion to the state coffers fromover 600 companies sold to private owners.Zieliński said that in 2010 the ministry sold inter-ests in companies for a total of PLN 22 billion,and in 2011 generated PLN 15 billion from 170companies.

While the money aspect is important, also im-portant for the Treasury is the quality of in-

vestors. The Treasury looks for investors who notonly have money to buy state-owned compa-nies, but also have viable business plans fortheir new acquisitions so that they can be mod-ernized and become more competitive in themarketplace. “Privatization is about further devel-opment of the Polish economy,” Zieliński said.

He explained that while in the early stages ofprivatization in Poland, direct privatization—di-rect sale of a company to another company—was the procedure of choice for most investors,today indirect privatization is what investors aremostly interested in. The ministry offers three dif-ferent methods of indirect privatization which suitdifferent types of investors.

The simplest way of acquiring a companyfrom the Treasury is to take part in a public auc-tion. In this process, price is the most importantfactor, and the auctioned company goes to thehighest bidder.

Public tender is another way of buying a com-pany from the Treasury. Here, however, alongwith the price, other aspects come into play.They may include additional requirements theTreasury has for the investor, such as employ-ment guarantees for the workforce or pledges toinvest a certain amount of money by a certaindate.

The most complex way of privatizing state-owned companies is through negotiations onthe basis of a public invitation. This process isapplied in the privatization of large companies.The Treasury announces the privatization andinvites initial offers from potential buyers. In thenext phase, the Treasury contacts only selectedbidders, asking them for a more specific bind-ing offer. After another round of negotiationswith all the shortlisted bidders, the best offer ispicked by the Treasury. This process may notlead to a final decision, because at any stagethe Treasury can withdraw from the negotia-tions. “This is where the price is by far not themost important thing on the agenda,” Zielińskisaid.

Zieliński said that the Treasury has somevery good companies in its privatization portfo-lio and encouraged AmCham member compa-nies to keep an eye on the privatization offers.“Our offers may be very interesting,” Zielińskisaid. “We privatize companies in different sec-tors of the economy, including machinery,heavy industry, construction and transporta-tion.”

Investing in tough timesInvestment opportunities in times of crisis werethe topic at a meeting of the AmCham SMECommittee in November which hosted three in-vestment specialists: Borno Janekovic fromFranklin Templeton Investments, MaciejStańczuk from Polski Bank Przedsiębiorczości,and Mariusz Kaczmarek from the BusinessAngels Guild, an investment arm of the ŁódźRegional Development Agency.


AgendaIntelligence from AmCham Committees

Janekovic said that for global investors, 2011was a game-changer. Developed countries, tra-ditionally associated with generating profit, didnot deliver. Their governments’ bond yield wasaround 0% in September. Meanwhile, govern-ment bonds of developing countries, tradition-ally viewed as high-risk, offer interesting profits.Bonds of Brazil, India and China yielded profitat around 10%. He said that while in the pastChinese bonds yielded well above 10%, thecountry is still quite a promising place for in-vestors even at below 10% bond yield.

Janekovic noted that China is a country in amajor economic transition, from a cheap-laborcountry to one that can effectively manufactureboth simple and complex products and wherelabor in no longer cheap. This transition, hesaid, will result in spreading inflation on theglobal scale, as products made in China will nolonger be cheaper than elsewhere. This policyhas been approved by the Chinese governmentand is one of the major changes underway inthe global economy today.

Janekovic said that Europe is quite diversewhen it comes to government bonds. WhileGreece is edging toward default, Ireland, for in-stance, offers some hope for investors becausethe Irish government has restructured the coun-try’s finances.

Maciej Stańczuk underlined the pros andcons of investing in Poland. He said that 2011was a very good year for Polish companies, andnow it is the government’s job to restructurepublic finances and cut the budget deficit tomake the country really interesting for investors.

Stańczuk said, however, that the threats fromthe eurozone will no doubt have a negative im-pact on the performance of the Polish economyin 2012 and beyond. On the upside, however,Stańczuk stressed that the Polish economy hasvery good fundamentals, a relatively large do-mestic consumer market, and relatively lowdebt. He also said that while the Polish bankingsector is expected to post record-high profits in2011, the problem is that some 70% of banks inPoland are owned by foreign entities, mostly inthe European Union. But banks in the EU willneed a lot of equity in order to comply with newEU regulations calling for an increase in liquidityratios from 5% to 9%. Since the equity is not tobe found among private investors, banks will ei-ther have to tap into public money, which theywill not be inclined to do, or repatriate profitsfrom countries where their banks have verygood balance sheets, and that includes Poland.

This may deliver a blow to the developmentof the Polish economy and, according toStańczuk, will be a serious issue for investors.

Mariusz Kaczmarek showcased some invest-ment projects undertaken by the Business An-gels Guild. He said the guild is a very economicway of getting investment funds, because as apart of the province’s regional developmentagency it can tap into different financial pro-grams and preferential credit lines still availablein Poland through EU funds.

A toast to the Polish economy

In November, the co-chairs of the SME Commit-tee, Alain Bobet (pictured, second from left)and Cezary Krasodomski (right), managed tobring together an interesting pair of speakers todiscuss the global economic outlook and how itmay affect doing business in Poland: RyszardPetru (third from left) from Demos Europa, athink-tank, who is also chairman of the Societyof Polish Economists, and Robert Mielżyński(first from left) from Mielżyński Sp. z o.o., a wineimporter, wholesaler and retailer with outlets inWarsaw and Poznań.

Petru said that every day there is some badnews about the global economy, which leadsthe business community in Poland and othercountries to lose confidence in the economyand postpone investment decisions. As a result,companies sit on piles of cash, buying onlytime.

According to Petru, there are no fundamentalproblems in the Polish economy. When it comesto manufacturing, for instance, Poland is still avery competitive place in the EU. Even if eco-nomic stagnation becomes reality in WesternEurope in 2012, Poland will be in a safe zone,which means the country’s economy will gener-ate some positive GDP growth.

While Poland’s economy is fine, investors arenonetheless postponing their investment proj-ects here for fear of how they may be affectedby the possible breakup of the eurozone. Ac-cording to Petru, all economists agree that acollapse of the eurozone would deliver a bigblow to the Polish economy. Petru noted, how-ever, that political leaders in the EU have a goodunderstanding of the gravity of the situation inthe eurozone and will do their best to prevent abreakup.

Petru concluded his assessment by sayingthat while the Polish economy is not likely to ex-perience any recession in 2012, companiesmay find it slightly more difficult to accomplishtheir business goals.

Mielżyński, who is in the process of buildinghis wine business in Poland, said that Polandhas a huge potential for growth in this field be-cause the average consumption of wine inPoland is 3 liters per head per year, while inFrance, by comparison, it is around 50 liters.

When it comes to risks, the PLN/EUR ex-change rate is one of them. The fluctuation ofthe rate has to be watched every day to makecorrect business decisions, Mielżyński said,adding that he is fortunate enough to havebought huge supplies of wine earlier when thezłoty was stronger against the euro than it istoday. Mielżyński has to watch the PLN/USD ex-change rate as well, because he buys winesfrom Chile, Argentina and South Africa, wherewine products are pegged to the dollar when thedollar is strong and to the euro when the euro isstrong.

Another business issue that Mielżyński haslearned to deal with in Poland is wavering con-sumer confidence. He said that the mood is un-certain, and if this continued into December itcould have a negative impact on the season’ssales. Facing this, he said, his strategy was tocompress his margins and grow the business,because he hopes to see a good time for thewine industry in Poland in 2012 and 2013.

Tax & Financial ServicesCommitteeCIT pointers forUS/Polish companies

The speakers at a meeting of the AmCham Tax& Financial Services Committee in November, Izabela Ścierska-Kulma and Michał Krawczyk,managers on the corporate tax team at Deloitte,gave an overview of the most important issuesaffecting corporate income tax in Poland today,discussed CIT issues under the tax treaty be-tween the US and Poland, and commented onthe CIT aspects of operating different businessmodels in Poland.

Ścierska-Kulma said that the tax system inPoland is rather ambiguous, and often no simpleinformation about how a transaction should betaxed can be provided instantly but only after anin-depth analysis of all tax regulations that mayplay a part in the given transaction. Here theproblem is that while your tax adviser may de-velop an opinion, the tax authorities may followtheir own practice, and their view of the transac-tion may differ in terms of what taxation shouldapply and how particular tax provisions shouldbe understood. Different tax authorities mayeven take different views on how tax regulationsshould be applied to one and the same transac-tion. Ścierska-Kulma said that companies shouldkeep this in mind especially before they conductcomplex transactions that may attract divergenttax interpretations. One helpful approach is toavoid overly complex structures, and arrangetransactions so that the tax aspects are clearand simple.

Krawczyk pointed out that under the US-Poland tax treaty, one key issue for effective ap-plication of the treaty is to have a clear under-standing of the concept of “royalties,” whichmeans different things in the tax systems of thetwo countries. •


Agri & Food Mission: To provide a plat-form for discussing andsolving issues and identify-ing opportunities in the agri-cultural and food sector bycreating a base for dialogueand expertise. Co-Chairs:

Andrzej Pawelczak, Animex; Maciej Łubieński, Universal Leaf Tobacco Poland.More at ww.amcham.pl/agri_food

InfrastructureMission: To discuss is-sues of the developmentof infrastructure; to pro-mote infrastructure solu-tions for cooperation be-tween private and publicpartners. Co-Chairs:

Krzysztof Wierzbowski, Wierzbowski Eversheds; An-drew C. Kapusto, Raytheon Homeland Security.More at www.amcham.pl/infrastructure

Tax & Financial ServicesMission: To provide a plat-form for identifying tax andfinancial issues and createan educational forum tokeep AmCham members in-formed on current and up-coming legislation. Co-Chairs: Piotr Bartuzi, Bank

BPH; Andrew Hope. More at www.amcham.pl/tax

Political Discussion ForumMission: To build relation-ships with key players inPolish politics, regardlessof whether within the gov-ernment or not, in smallgroups and in private set-tings, to serve as a vehicle

into the world of Polish politics behind official cur-tains. Co-Chairs: Robert Koński, Kulczyk Holding;Marek Matraszek, CEC Government Relations. More at www.amcham.pl/pdf

Small & Medium-Sized EnterprisesMission: To provide a forumfor exchange of ideas/bestpractices to improve the per-formance of SMEs; to iden-tify and promote solutions tofacilitate and support themanagerial and operational

efforts of SMEs through educational, networking orlobbying efforts that leverage the resources andknowledge of AmCham and its membership. Co-Chairs: Alain Bobet; Cezary Krasodomski, CiscoSystems. More at www.amcham.pl/sme

Employee & Labor RelationsMission: To create an infor-mation exchange forum ofHR professionals to share,discuss and learn about thelatest trends in HR manage-ment and influence local pol-icy and decision-makers.

Co-Chairs: Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Poland; Agata Dul-nik, Right Management. More at www.amcham.pl/labor

Travel & TourismMission: To provide a plat-form for discussing issuesand problems related totravel, leisure and the hospi-tality industry and to providenetworking opportunitiesand to discuss trends andstandards in the industry that

will allow them to fully benefit from membership inAmCham. Co-Chairs: Stijn Oyen, Sheraton Kraków;Pamela Gmiter, Staffer Hospitality. More at www.amcham.pl/travel_tourism

Consumer ProductsMission: To provide aforum to share knowledgeand exchange experiencein all areas common andrelevant to manufacturersand distributors of goods.Co-Chairs: Małgorzata Ur-

bańska, CMS Cameron McKenna; Agnieszka Dzięgielewska-Jończyk, HP Polska. More atwww.amcham.pl/consumer

Real EstateMission: To discuss issuesregarding the complexitiesof the real estate market inPoland, and exchange in-formation. To be an educa-tional and networkingforum for members and tolobby and influence legisla-

tive departments of the Polish government. Co-Chairs: Halina Więckowska, K&L Gates; JohnBańka, Colliers International. More at www.amcham.pl/real_estate

PharmaceuticalMission: To discuss andidentify common interestsand exchange informationregarding Poland’s pharma-ceutical market; to act as arepresentative body andcollective voice of pharma-

ceutical companies before governmental institutions.Co-Chairs: Jarosław Oleszczuk, Abbott Laborato-ries; Gianluigi Lisi, Eli Lilly Polska. More at www.amcham.pl/pharmaceutical

Outsourcing/High TechMission: To provide a plat-form for discussing, identify-ing and addressing commonSSC/BPO issues related tohigh-tech operations; tomaintain contact with localauthorities, educational and

governmental institutions to present a unified busi-ness perspective and to suggest ways of possible co-operation. Co-Chairs: Marek Suczyk, Kroll Ontrack;Jacek Stryczyński, Lionbridge. More at www.amcham.pl/outsourcing

Intellectual Property Rights Mission: To advocate for IPRprotection and provide lead-ership that will bring toge-ther interested partners; toshare information with deci-sion-makers and law en-forcement. The police, judi-

ciary, prosecutors, customs officials, legislators andjournalists are among the target groups, while thecurriculum of law schools should have more em-phasis on IPR. Co-Chairs: Agnieszka Wyszyńska-Szulc, Philip Morris; Anna Lasocka, Łaszczuk & Part-ners. More at www.amcham.pl/ipr

Marketing & CommunicationsMission: To provide aforum for member firms toshare knowledge and ex-change experiences inmarketing, communica-tions and PR; provide edu-cational and networking

opportunities for member firms interested in theseareas; and serve as an advisory body for AmCham.Co-Chairs: Anya Ogorkiewicz; Tadeusz Dulian, De-loitte. More at www.amcham.pl/marketing

Innovation Mission: To monitor innova-tion initiatives within the Pol-ish government and acrossindustries and commercialorganizations, while advo-cating best practice acrossinnovation approach, disci-

pline, creativity, dimensions, and systems for mem-ber companies and the local government and busi-ness ecosystems. Co-Chairs: Alexander King, Moni-tor Group; Paula Wąsowska, Cisco. More at www.amcham.pl/innovation

Defense & Security Mission: To serve as a plat-form for defense industry is-sues and exchange relevantinformation. The committeecreates a networking forumand fosters a positive work-ing relationship with the gov-

ernment and people of Poland. Co-Chairs: Paul Za-lucky; Stan Prusiński, Sikorsky Europe. More at www.amcham.pl/defense

Energy & EnvironmentMission: To help membersdevelop their energy andenvironmental business inPoland. By helping mem-bers work collectively toovercome any systemic diffi-culties encountered in their

business the committee aims to increase the level andquality of investment and activity in these sectors. Co-Chairs: Adam de Sola Pool; Jerzy Chlebowski, Mit-subishi. More at www.amcham.pl/environmental

European Union Affairs Mission: To provide mem-bers with relevant informa-tion on EU-related issues,including EU funds, and torepresent American in-vestors before the Com-mission and the Polishgovernment. Co-Chairs:

Magdalena Burnat Mikosz, Deloitte; Jerzy Thieme.More at www.amcham.pl/eu

-------------------- For the most recent information about the work of AmCham Committees and upcoming events ---------------------

www.amcham.plAmCham Committee Guide

The Polish Presidency of the Councilof the European Union for the sec-ond half of 2011 may be best re-

membered for the oratorical skills of somePolish government ministers, who arguedenergetically in favor of policies to rescuethe eurozone.

In September, Minister of Finance JacekRostowski told the European Parliamentthat if the eurozone broke up, “Europewould not contain the shock for too long.”He ended his speech by quoting a bankerfriend who told Rostowski he was seekingUS citizenship because he was afraid of warin Europe after the anticipated collapse ofthe eurozone.

Rostowski’s speech may have reverber-ated more in Poland than throughout theinternational media. But the speech deliv-ered in Berlin in December by Minister ofForeign Affairs Radosław Sikorski, a day be-fore the summit of EU prime ministers toreach agreement on measures to rescue theeuro, did an immense job of showingPoland’s determination to preserve the eu-rozone and work towards further integra-tion of the EU. Sikorski said, “I will proba-bly be the first Polish foreign minister inhistory to say so, but here it is: I fear Ger-man power less than I am beginning to fearGerman inactivity.” It was a clear indicationof Poland’s support for German rescue ef-forts. Sikorski added that the collapse of theeurozone “would be a crisis of apocalypticproportions,” which would lead to thebreakup of the single market.

In mid-December, Prime Minister Don-ald Tusk said he wished the EU were moreunited at the end of the Polish Presidencythan it was when the Presidency began, butthat was the reality. “Today I can say that weare at a crossroads,” Tusk said. “We have toanswer the question of whether we will walkthe community road, or the road of nationalselfishness. Either we fight for the future ofEurope now, or cry for Europe tomorrow.”

The high-toned speeches of Rostowski,and especially Sikorski and Tusk, were notpure exercises in public speaking, butshowed a level of frustration with eurozoneleaders who had failed to come up withclear policies to save the zone from collaps-


ing under the weight of debt. As they un-derlined, if the rescue fails and protection-ist policies take over in EU countries, it willbe one of the worst days in Poland’s con-temporary history.

Crisis is goodEconomists who have been trackingPoland’s economic performance in the timeof global crisis tend to stress that Polandhas been different from other countries inEurope. According to Prof. Marek Belka,president of the National Bank of Poland,speaking at a conference at the WarsawStock Exchange in December, Poland is dif-ferent because it did not fall into the boom-bust cycle in the last decade. Every otherEU member state, except the Czech Re-public and Slovakia, did so. Poland did nothave any credit craze, and its credit growthwas below the average for Central & East-ern Europe. Poland had stable GDP growth,unlike in the Baltic States, for instance,where one year the growth was 10% and thenext it fell to -20%.

Companies in Poland are very cautiousabout taking on commercial credit. Belkanoted that the total value of credit taken outby companies in Poland was equivalent to14.4% of Poland’s GDP. In addition, it is es-timated that loans issued to companies inPoland by their parent companies abroadrepresent another 14% of Poland’s GDP.“But even that 30% of GDP is a relativelylow level of credit dependence,” Belka said.And this is exactly what has kept Poland’seconomy out of the boom-bust cycle.

Another reason Poland’s economy hasdone relatively well during the global eco-nomic recession is that its economy is rela-tively closed to the outside world—some-thing Poland inherited from its past. This iswhy economic shocks outside of Polandhave only half as much impact on Poland’seconomy as they do on the economies ofWestern Europe. “With a relatively huge andstrong domestic consumer market, Poland’seconomy is relatively low in its dependenceon exports,” Belka said. Such countries asHungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republicdo not have the benefit of strong internalmarkets. They suffer in a crisis as the de-

mand for their products drops in the coun-tries they sell to.

Belka also noted that Poland’s current ac-count deficit, although negative, is relativelylow and stable. With the median variationwithin 1.5% over the last 10 years, Polandcan claim to have the lowest and most pre-dictable current account deficit in Europe.Part of that success should be attributed tothe inflow of foreign direct investment toPoland and transfers of EU structuralfunds.

Fdi is a mustSławomir Majman, president of the PolishInformation and Foreign InvestmentAgency (PAIiIZ), a government institutionthat promotes inward investment and as-sists foreign investors in implementingtheir investment projects, is fond of point-ing out that Poland is the biggest benefici-ary of the current economic crisis.

Indeed, when the global economic crisiswas in full swing, in 2009–2011, PAIiIZ sawthrough 131 investment projects worth atotal of EUR 2.6 billion, creating 28,000 di-rect jobs and approximately 100,000 indi-rect jobs. On average, each project involvedmore than EUR 20 million and created 225new jobs. The largest source, with 33 ofthose projects, was US companies.

So when it comes to FDI inflow, the crisisserves Poland well. While other EU coun-tries have either too-high labor costs, ahighly unionized workforce, and stagnationor actual depression of their internal con-sumer markets, Poland has none of that.For instance, at the end of last year,Poland’s consumer market had increasedyear-on-year. And despite their historicalsignificance, labor unions in Poland areweak, with only 15% of all employees be-longing to a union, lack significant leader-ship, and face organizational disarray.Salaries in Poland are generally lower thanin Western Europe. In addition, companieswith no foreign capital usually lack West-ern-style work organization, knowhow andtechnology. As a result, they are only a frac-tion as productive as companies with accessto foreign capital.

For instance, while companies in the pro-

Cover StoryThe state of the Polish economy

We encourage companies to sponsor our Business Mixers, CEO Forums, 4th of July Picnic and other events. Business Mixers

You can sponsor AmCham Business Mixers throughout 2012. To find out more about sponsoring Business Mixers, visitwww.amcham.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu bar, and choose Business Mixers.

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Do not miss the opportunity to sponsor AmCham events

in 2012!Grace under pressurePoland uses the global economic crisis to gain ground on Western Europe


Tomasz Ćwiok

duction sector with foreign capital employonly 10% of Poland’s total workforce, theyaccount for over 60% of Poland’s exportsand over 30% of total R&D expenditures,according to Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik,director of the Client Service Departmentat PAIiIZ. She said that companies with for-eign investment create more jobs on aver-age: 175 per company vs. 92 for Polish-owned companies.

Then there is the labor market. Prof.Belka observed that the Polish labor marketis one of the most flexible in Europe, be-cause of its specific salary structure. “Some30% of the total salary in Poland is com-posed of bonuses and other premium pay-ments,” Belka said. “It is just enough to cutthe bonus part to effectively cut wages. Inaddition, approximately 25% of all workcontracts in Poland are fixed-term con-tracts.” Belka added that according to astudy by the National Bank of Poland, payexpectations of the unemployed are in linewith the market and are by no means “exag-gerated.”

But Belka is concerned by the fact thatPoland’s economic growth is dependent onthe inflow of FDI. In 2000–2010 Poland wasthe only country in Central & Eastern Eu-rope that was a net importer of capital—taking in more money than it investedabroad. This process was especially inten-sive in the last few years. “One can sayPoland has been viewed by investors as acountry of good investment prospects,”Belka said. This helped the governmentbalance the books in 2010 and 2011. Butthere is a downside to it. As a result, todayPoland’s GDP growth is very sensitive toturbulence in FDI allocations.

According to Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Economy Waldemar Pawlak,FDI inflow to Poland is a significant ele-ment of keeping the country’s economicgrowth going at a time when the economy isflagging globally.

Pawlak is perfectly aware of the risks in-volved, however. He said in December thatthe government is lobbying hard in Brusselsto extend the lifespan of Special EconomicZones—havens for investors in Poland—beyond the current sunset of 2020. Mean-while, the government has extended thearea of the zones, to a total of 15,000hectares by the end of 2011. “The SEZ is avery simple tool with which to aid in-vestors,” Pawlak said. “It is our goal to boostthe areas of Polish SEZs so a piece of a zoneis in every Polish city, if possible.”

Pawlak also said that the government willdole out some EUR 730,000 million in2011–2012 in financial aid to investors inR&D and the innovative economy. It re-mains to be seen if all those measures andincentives are enough to keep attractingnew FDI in the years to come.

Currency dilemmaWhen Poland signed the EU accessiontreaty, it pledged to join the group of coun-tries who use the EU’s common currency.However, no roadmap for joining the euro-zone has ever been declared. Today, withthe crisis in the eurozone edging toward“apocalyptic dimensions”—to use Ra-dosław Sikorski’s words—Poland’s remain-ing outside of the zone is almost universallyviewed as a good thing. As Pawlak said,“Poland has huge potential to be a good ex-porter because it is outside of the euro-zone.” Pawlak added that over the last fewyears, the Polish złoty grew significantlyweaker against the euro, which has keptPolish exports price-competitive.

This is why Polish exports have grownsteeply, especially after Poland joined theEU in 2004 and started to benefit from thesingle market. In 2000, the contribution ofexports to Poland’s GDP growth was 24%,but in 2011 it was 40%. Today, 80% of Pol-ish exports go to other EU countries. Lastyear, Poland contributed 3.4% of all exportswithin the EU. In other words, with a flexi-ble PLN/EUR exchange rate, the Polishgovernment could apply “quasi-protective”measures to help Polish companies be com-petitive in the EU market. This approach ishardly in the spirit of the European single-market economy.

But there is also a downside to a weakzłoty as well. While the flexible exchangerate did help Polish products gain in pricecompetition in eurozone countries, thatworked well only for companies whoseproducts use domestic-sourced compo-nents. The weak złoty did not benefit theproducers of complex, innovation-intensiveproducts, which require components fromabroad. (For more on this, see the article“Power surge” on page 20.) As a result, it isuniversally acknowledged that the role ofinnovation is underestimated in the Polisheconomy, and the country has found it diffi-cult to sharpen the competitive edge of itseconomy in ways other than a weak złoty.

Then come other problems. While ex-porters are more prone to discuss the bene-fits of a flexible exchange rate for boostingtheir sales abroad, more and more busi-nesspeople complain about the burdens as-sociated with having a local currency: ex-change-rate risk, the need to peg transac-tions to the euro, and the administrativecosts of keeping PLN and EUR books.Jacek Krawiec, CEO of the petroleumgroup PKN Orlen SA, said at the WSE con-ference, “We are impacted by thePLN/EUR exchange rate in two areas: busi-ness operations and company financing. Inboth areas we have to ensure the right pol-icy vis-à-vis the exchange rate. Currentlycrude is quoted in dollars. The weak złotydoes not impact the competitive position of

Orlen in the market in Poland becauseeverybody buys on the same market withthe same currency.”

Orlen does not export very much. Thus,Krawiec said, “The weak złoty does nothelp Orlen to have a competitive advantage.On the other hand, high oil prices weakenthe złoty, which all means that the cost ofenergy goes up and inflationary pressuresgrow.”

Krawiec added that in terms of financingstructure, Orlen shares the positives andnegatives of the exchange rate with othercompanies: “It is more important to haveexchange-rate stability when you look at thefinancing needs, and of course if Polandjoined the zone this risk would be reducedinstantly.”

At the same conference, Deputy Ministerof Finance Maciej Grabowski said thatthere are more pros than cons when itcomes to Poland’s entry into the eurozone.“The zone is now in a mess,” he admitted,“but once the mess is cleaned up the bene-fits of entering the zone will be clear toeverybody.”

The benefits include, first, that Polandwill have to adjust its economy to the euro-zone entry criteria. Grabowski said thatPoland is on the right track to reduce itsdeficit by 1% by 2015. It also has no prob-lem covering the cost of its debt.

At the December conference, HenrykaBochniarz, CEO of Boeing Central andEastern Europe, pointed to the political vs.economic aspects of Poland’s being outsideof the eurozone. “Being outside signifi-cantly diminishes Poland’s impact on thefuture of the zone and consequently on thefuture of EU integration,” she said. “At thispoint, wait and see is about all we can do.”

Consumer confidencePKN Orlen’s Krawiec noted that a weakzłoty makes gas and oil companies, whopurchase crude in USD, raise the prices ofenergy they sell in Poland. A liter of gasolinehas been over PLN 5 for quite some time—a level almost unimaginable two years ago.With this, and the average 5% increase inelectricity prices in 2012, inflation increasesand consumer confidence folds.

This observation seems to be confirmedby a poll by TNS OBOP in mid-December,which revealed that 54% of Poles expectthat their economic situation will not im-prove in 2012–2014, while only 13% expectit will.

When asked about the state of the econ-omy, 71% of the sample said it is in crisis,and 21% said the crisis is deep. In turn,24% said the economy is growing, but only2% saw it as dynamic growth. TNS OBOPnoted that in the assessment of the eco-nomic situation in Poland, negative opin-ions grew by 11 percentage points from a

similar poll a month earlier, while positiveopinions decreased by 11 pp.

Population in migrationFor years Poland has been branded as acountry with low labor costs and a wide poolof talent available for the asking. This hassomehow evolved. First, low salaries (and aweak złoty) encourage young people to takeadvantage of the free flow of labor within theEU. It is estimated that approximately 1million Poles have gone to other EU coun-tries to work. Certain skilled workers, suchas welders, are hard to find in Poland, a phe-nomenon that affects investors. But mobilePoles prefer to work in such countries asPortugal, Spain, and Greece, not to mentionthe UK, Germany, or Scandinavia, wherethey make much more. For Poland, low-wage status has its price.

Another problem is demographics. In re-cent years it was often repeated that Polandhas a large and well-educated workforce.PAIiIZ would often underline that Polishyoung people account for 1 in 10 university-level students in Europe.

But this was a coincidence. As comparedwith other EU states, Poland had an extrawave of population growth as an indirect ef-fect of the introduction of martial law in1981, when people were forced to stay homewith little to do. People born in the early1980s hit the labor market around 2000. Nonew surplus of young Poles is available. Inits demographics, Poland will now be likeany other EU country—aging.

According to the Strategy for the Devel-opment of University Education compiledfor the Ministry of Science and Higher Ed-ucation by the Institute of Market Economyand Ernst & Young Business Advisory, thenumber of Poles age 18–25 will drop by 1.5million in 2008–2020. In 2010 there were 1.8million students in public and private uni-versities, but it is estimated that by 2020 thepublic universities alone would be able toaccommodate all of the students in Poland.

This is something that private schools aregrowing increasingly aware of. In Decemberone of the top-rated private universities inPoland, National Louis University in NowySącz, sold out to new investors. The schoolhad generated a debt of PLN 17 million. Ac-cording to Rector Krzysztof Pawłowski,there were two reasons the school failed toattract enough new students: poor demo-graphics and competition from other uni-versities in the EU.

Demographics trigger more problems. AsHenryka Bochniarz observed, there is nodoubt Poland will have to reform its socialinsurance system, something no govern-ment in the recent past has attempted to do.The Tusk government has already an-nounced it will undertake this task. But adeepening crisis in the eurozone, not to

mention a breakup of the zone, would prob-ably thwart those plans.

Good to goIn December the rating agency Moody’smaintained Poland’s rating at A2, with astable forecast. The agency announced thatPoland’s economy is resistant to externalshocks and has a credible policy for fiscalconsolidation, plus it has secured itself ac-cess to a money bloodline from the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, if the need arises.Moody’s analysts did find three factors thatare holding Poland back from achieving itseconomic growth potential: the level of sav-ings and investments is well below the me-dian for A-rated countries, Poland’s infra-structure is relatively underdeveloped, andthe costs of doing business are high.Moody’s also said that Poland’s rating couldhave been higher if it had a lower budgetdeficit and less public debt.

Maciej Grabowski made it clear: Poland’sbudget deficit hit the ceiling in 2010, at7.8% of GDP. The source of the problem isslumping tax revenue, triggered by the eco-nomic crisis in Europe. According to theOECD, Poland’s tax revenue, per capita,matches that of Canada or New Zealandand is above that generated by Greece, Por-tugal and Spain, but not by much. As a re-sult, Poland will have to raise some of itstaxes to keep the budget on the safe side inthe future.

Grabowski added that when it comes tostate budget revenues, EU funds are agame-changer. “Without the EU funds, the2011 budget would have contained the low-est expenditures in relation to Poland’sGDP in 20 years,” Grabowski said. “Thisshows that the government is trying to raisePoland’s fiscal credibility by reducing ex-penditures which are not a must-have.”

Grabowski stressed that the 2012 budgetwill work only if Poland’s GDP growth re-mains at around 2.5%. “With any troublesin the eurozone,” he added, “this will notcome together.”

Benefiting from the crisisProf. Witold Orłowski, chief economist atPwC, said that Poland is most successful atmaking up ground not when the globaleconomy is robust but when it is flagging.In the last 20 years, Poland’s largest single-year leap in bridging the gap in per capitaGDP with Western Europe took place in2009, when the global economic crisis wasin full swing. That year Poland cut the gapby 7 percentage points. “It was not becausePoland’s GDP growth was huge,” Orłowskiexplained. “In fact, it was mediocre at 2 pp.But at the same time, Western Europe sawa 5 pp drop in their GDP growth.”

Last year Poland cut the GDP gap fur-ther, from 42% of that in Western Europe

(average for the old EU 15) to 45%.Orłowski said that the numbers showPoland is best in catching up with the Westwhen the economy is poor rather than good.

This is exactly what Poland hopes to seecontinue in the coming years. Orłowski ex-plained that the problem of the largeamount of debt generated by Western Eu-rope can be solved in many different ways.The indebted countries may default ontheir debt, or the European Central Bankcan allow inflation to increase in the euro-zone. Another way is for rich countries topump more euros into the indebted coun-tries and make sure they pay off their debt.Poland is in favor of this scenario because itnot only means that Poland’s largest tradingpartner, Germany, will see its money paidback, but also that other countries, such asGreece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, willstruggle hard to pay off their debts, whichin turn will suppress their per capita GDPgrowth and help Poland catch up with theWest.

It seems that the Poles have master-minded the art of benefiting from globalcrises. In the early 20th century, they man-aged to take advantage of World War I toreestablish Poland as an independent state.Today they have done their best to benefitfrom the largest global economic crisissince the Great Depression to reestablishPoland on the economic map of Europe.

While it is a gamble, given the number offactors Poland has no influence on, it is awise bet. When the global economy isbooming, Poland has little chance to catchup with Western economies because theydevelop at a much faster pace. Poland’seconomy is a subcompact ticking along at50 km/h while the West is a luxury sedanzooming at 120 km/h. When the globaleconomy is strong, the high-performancecar accelerates with ease, leaving the smallcar in the dust. When the economy is weak,which happened in 2009, the big car slowsdown to save fuel.

In terms of GPD per capita growth, in2009 the big car slowed down from 120 to115 km/h. At the same time the small caraccelerated from 50 to 52. The accelerationwas possible not thanks to the efficiency ofits small motor, which is an outdated, fuel-thirsty design, but thanks to the windshieldthe big car extended over it—the effect ofEU funds and FDI inflow.

For Poland to compete in times of globaleconomic growth is much more difficult. Itwill take a few decades to see the difference.“Long live the crisis!” was reportedly theNew Year’s Eve toast of Polish governmentmembers—soon followed by the New Year’sresolution, “Pray it does not deepen.”

Cover StoryThe state of the Polish economy


The investment projects that are amust-have for seamless execution ofthe Polish part of the Euro 2012 soc-

cer championship will contribute to the na-tion’s economic development years after theevent, according to Marcin Herra, CEO ofPL.2012, the publicly-owned company thatsupervises investment projects and every-thing else connected with hosting the tour-nament in Poland.

Herra was the guest speaker at the Am-Cham Monthly Breakfast in November,where he said that big infrastructure proj-ects, such as new highways and rail connec-tions between the Euro 2012 host cities,were completed an average of 5 years earlierthan they would have been if it were not forthe tournament. They are expected to gen-erate a surplus of PLN 25 billion in the firsteight years following the tournament, ac-cording to independent studies by Poland’sleading business schools, such as the War-saw School of Economics.

For instance, the railway tunnel that willlink Warsaw Chopin Airport with the main

commuter hub in downtown Warsaw waspartially built four years ago, but never fin-ished, because the city always had some-thing more urgent to spend its money on.With Euro 2012 on the horizon, the connec-tion suddenly got top priority and was fin-ished within the last three years.

Train travelers between Warsaw andGdańsk will also benefit from the tourna-ment, as the trip will be shortened from 7hours to below 4 hours thanks to Euro 2012.Without the tournament the travel timewould have been cut sooner or later, but no-body knew when.

Among the 200+ investment projectsthat PL.2012 is in charge of, the Warsawtunnel is not unusual. But the imminenceof Euro 2012, scheduled for June 8 – July 1,2012, provided a backstop for planners, be-yond which, obviously, it will be too late toimprove on anything. The deadline alsoworked as a great motivating factor for allthe government agencies that are involvedin the preparations, and other stakeholders,to do their best to deliver. What would have

A great catalysttaken many years to come was in factachieved within the last four years. Out ofthe numerous investment projects PL.2012supervises, worth a combined PLN 100 bil-lion, over 180 are financed from publicfunds. Of this number, 83 are deemed to beof key importance: the construction of fivestadiums where the tournaments will takeplace; air transportation infrastructure inthe host cities, including boosting trafficprocessing capacity at the airports and up-grading all airport terminals; and othertransportation infrastructure, includingroads within the host cities as well as inter-city connections by road and rail betweenthem.

Herra noted that while 90% of the keyprojects are in the execution phase—at atotal cost of PLN 80 billion—luckilyenough Poland does not need to shoulderthe cost of all the investments by itself. As anew EU member, the country has drawn onEU funds it had available under the 2007–2013 financial perspective. It was a fortu-nate coincidence, without which Polandwould have found it much more difficult tobear the cost of all Euro 2012 investmentsin such a short time.

Have fun!While the new infrastructure is vital, it isonly part of the whole Euro 2012 project.An important aspect of the event is to make

it a fun time for soccer enthusiasts whovisit Poland, so they take home pleasantmemories and spread the good word aboutPoland.

Herra said that PL.2012 commissioned astudy on how Poland is perceived in publicopinion in 14 European countries. He saidpeople in Manchester, for example, have apicture of Poland that dates back to the1980s. “It’s as if they learned about Polandfrom their grandparents,” Herra said.“Euro 2012 offers opportunities to changethe way Poland is perceived across Europeand around the world.” He added that theevent will bring to Poland about a millionguests from 70 countries the world over,plus several thousand journalists. “Theirexperience in Poland is one of the most im-portant things for Poland’s image after theevent.”

Part of the positive thinking challengethat PL.2012 is in charge of implementingis an integrated ticket for foreigners whobuy accommodations in Poland for theevent—dubbed the “Polish Pass.” As Herraexplained, “The holders of the pass will geta single ticket for all types of transporta-tion, in all host cities and between them.Insurance comes with a premium pricewith the pass. The pass is meant to helpforeigners feel secure in Poland during thetournament.”

Another program aimed at foreigners willreach them as an app on their smart-phones, from a dedicated website called thePolish Guide. Come April 2012, six differ-ent language versions to choose from willcarry practical information about Poland, tohelp smartphone users find their wayaround the host cities.

Herra mentioned that security measuresare a vital part of the whole event execution.Detailed plans are still in the making, andas of the November AmCham meeting itwas not known yet which teams would playin which cities. Herra said for instance thatif the Dutch, known for being particularlyeager to follow the team, play Poland inGdańsk, some 100,000 of them may turnout because the Netherlands is not very faraway from Gdańsk. But, Herra said, “If wehave Germany v. the Netherlands inGdańsk, it is going to be even more chal-lenging, and a completely different scenariofor handling fans may evolve.”

Counting moneyThe long-term effect for boosting incom-ing tourism to Poland following the event isa key issue. When it comes to foreign soc-cer fans, PL.2012 estimates that their aver-age stay in Poland will not exceed a fewdays. PL.2012 also estimates that the totalrevenue from foreign visitors during thetournament will be over EUR 200 million.But the true measure of Euro 2012’s com-

mercial success will come later. The eventis expected to move Poland up one notch onthe scale of the Country AttractivenessIndex, a tourism industry standard that as-signs points to countries based on howmany foreign tourists they attract. Movingup one place would translate into 500,000more incoming foreigners a year. “We as-sume that after the tournament Poland willmatch Hungary on the index,” Herra said.“If we achieve this, it will have a snowballeffect. For the next 8 years there will be500,000 more tourists each year visitingPoland, which will translate into additionalrevenue of more than EUR 1 billion overthat period.”

Positive vibrationsHerra said that organizing Euro 2012-re-lated projects is all about teamwork, whichinvolves the cooperation of many differentagencies and institutions. This makes it anunprecedented enterprise, because neverbefore has such a huge collaborative effortbeen required. In Poland, however, it’s eas-ier to talk the teamwork talk than walk theteamwork walk, because there are so manyinstitutions that have always worked sepa-rately. “Now each of them contributes asmall piece of work, which together makesup the whole picture,” Herra said.

Successful continuation of the coopera-tion has been possible not only thanks topeople’s determination to succeed, but alsothanks to the application of the most mod-ern work management programs. “We useproject portfolio management systems,”Herra explained, “and are in touch with oneanother through online applications andworkflow management platforms.” Thanksto IT, Herra is able to check the status ofeach individual project implementation atany time and see how far from accomplish-ment each project is.

This knowhow is a very important lessonPoland is learning, and hopefully it will beable to benefit from the experience in thefuture. Herra said that if the event is a suc-cess, Poland will join the family of countriesthat are able to organize big internationalevents, which may have an application inbusiness as well: “It is about reliability andtrust.”

Self-confidenceAll of the projects that PL.2012 coordinatesadd up to the largest investment operationin Poland ever. Herra said that when Polandand Ukraine won the right to host Euro2012 four years ago, public opinion inPoland was rather skeptical of Poland’s ca-pacity to handle all the projects competentlyand deliver them on time. While such skep-ticism was understandable, given the un-precedented range and scale of the prepara-tions, Herra complained about the lack of a

Meet the speaker

MARCIN HERRA earned a law degreeand an MBA at the Gdańsk University ofTechnology. His professional careerstarted in 1995, when he managed agas station for the Lotos Group. AtLotos, Herra climbed to the position ofsales and marketing division manager.In 2001 Herra became developmentand operations director for Lotos PaliwaSp. z o.o., and in 2002–2005 he servedas CEO. In 2005 he served as counselto the CEO of Lotos SA, and in 2006 hewas named as counsel to the GM ofsales at Lotos Group. In February 2008Herra was named CEO of PL.2012.

The National Stadium, PL.2012’s flagship investment, is one of over 200 projects for Euro 2012 supervised by the agency

positive outlook. He said that PL.2012 isfaced with new problems and difficult is-sues coming up almost every day. But be-cause of the experience the company hasalready had and the operational principlesit has managed to stick to, problems aredealt with successfully as soon as they ap-pear.

This is also thanks to his personal atti-tude toward preparing for Euro 2012, whichis shared by all of the people at PL.2012.“It is difficult,” he admitted, “and involvesa lot of risks and a lot of challenges. That’swhy one cannot approach such a huge proj-ect without a healthy dose of optimism.” *

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Monthly MeetingNovember 2011

Euro 2012 will help Poland grow its economy inmany different ways


The 5th Manufacturers’ Forum, anannual AmCham conference de-signed to serve as a platform for ex-

perience sharing among professionals fromthe manufacturing sector, revolved aroundtwo issues: how to take competitive advan-tage of the specific situation of Poland’sgrowing economy, and how to deal with ris-ing electricity costs. The consensus wasthat if Polish lawmakers do not rein inpower prices, it may have drastic conse-quences for the competitiveness of the met-allurgical sector in Poland.

excellence rulesAccording to panelist Piotr Gąska, CEO ofCooper Standard Automotive, the companyhas won new business because of the hightechnological standards it was able toachieve in Poland. With 26 new productlaunches in the pipeline in Poland, the com-pany is evolving from pure manufacturinginto an R&D facility as well, because, asGąska put it, intellectual capacity is muchmore difficult to relocate than a simple pro-duction line.

Marek Rajca, CEO of Silgan White CapPolska, a food packaging company, under-lined the importance of technical and tech-nological staff. The engineers in Polandtook the breath away from the company's

top bosses when they were able to build anew hall in Poland in 5 months starting inthe winter, and rolled out new productionlines in quite competitive time.

Sławomir Szpak, GM of Rockwell Au-tomation, echoed this view, saying that staffwith a flexible skill set can successfullycover different production areas and re-spond quickly to changes in product orders.Thus he regards cross-training as a key tosqueezing the most out of workers’ intellec-tual capacity.

Szpak also said that regardless of themacro economy, a manufacturing enterpriseshould constantly focus on improving theareas it does control. For instance, the highquality standards in Poland may be enoughto offset lower labor costs in low-labor-costcountries and eventually increase the confi-dence of the company’s owners in the po-tential of their Polish operations. This inturn may lead the honchos to stream someinvestments into Poland, which will meanmore years in business for Rockwell’s man-ufacturing here. This was the case with thecompany’s factory in Katowice, which re-cently was scheduled for a 50% increase incapacity.

Power menaceWhile the news from the front lines of the

manufacturers’ business was optimistic, thesecond part of the forum, devoted to thegrowing prices of electricity, short-circuitedthe speakers’ optimism.

The notion of discussing the effects ofhigh energy prices on energy-intensivebusinesses, such as steel and chemicalplants, was raised by Jerzy Kozicz, CEO ofsteel plant CMC Zawiercie. In his introduc-tory presentation, Kozicz said that while thePolish metallurgical sector has come a longway, from a backwater 20 years ago to ahigh-performance steel sector, it has failedto attract enough loving care from lawmak-ers. Their help is needed to safeguard theindustry with preferential pricing schemesfor electricity. While energy-intensive indus-tries in nearly all EU states are protectedfrom bearing the full brunt of electricitycosts, in the form of taxes and semi-taxesthat comprise a huge part of the total elec-tric bill, energy-intensive companies inPoland do not have any offset system to re-sort to.

Stefan Dzienniak, a member of the man-agement board of ArcelorMittal Poland SA,said that the steel market in Poland is anopen one, and domestic producers facecompetition not only from Slovakia, theCzech Republic, Germany, Russia andUkraine, but also China, India and SouthKorea. Meanwhile, the industry relies solelyon domestic producers for its supply ofelectricity. They do not offer very muchchoice when it comes to discounts for bulkbuyers. To the contrary, they predict steepgrowth in prices in the years to come.

Faced with that forecast, large energyusers, such as steel mills, know they will notbe able to shift the growing costs to buyers,because if they do they will not be attractiveagainst their foreign competitors. Dzienniaksaid that while some metallurgical conglom-erates contemplate ideas for starting to pro-duce their own electricity, others plan to re-locate outside of Poland to remain in busi-ness.

The metallurgical sector in Poland sup-ports 25,000 jobs directly and 100,000–125,000 jobs indirectly.

Speaker Zbigniew Liptak from Ernst &Young said that the European Commissionhas a full understanding of the specific situ-ation energy-intensive companies are inwhen it comes to buying electricity, and thisis why the commission left it up to themember states to decide how much excisetax they think it is appropriate to chargebusinesses through their electricity bills—so long as it is not less than EUR 0.50 perMWh. While nearly all EU member statesapply a wide spectrum of preferential excisetax rates for industrial energy buyers,Poland charges EUR 5.80 per MWh, a terri-ble financial burden for companies whoseelectricity consumption is comparable of

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Without preferential pricing for energy-intensive businesses, metallurgy may becomeextinct in Poland within a few years

Continued on page 25...


Alphabetical list of AmCham corporate members, as of December 15, 2011. Corporate Members

AmCham Membership Directory 2012

1. 3M POLAND Sp. z o.o. Xavier Douellou Managing Director www.3m.com.plA

2. ABBOTT LABORATORIES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Oleszczuk General Manager www.abbott.pl3. ACCENTURE Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Kroc Managing Director www.accenture.pl4. ACCREO TAXAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Antosik Member of the Management Board, Partner www.taxand.pl5. ACE EUROPEAN GROUP LIMITED Przemysław Owczarek Director ww.aceeuropeangroup.com6. ACXIOM POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Agata Szeliga Staszkiewicz Member of the Board www.acxiom.pl7. ADECCO POLAND Sp. z o.o. Anna Wicha Country Manager www.adecco.pl8. ADVENT INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Monika Morali Efinowicz General Director www.adventinternational.pl9. AECOM Sp. z o.o. Paweł Fert Country Manager www.aecom.com10. AES POLAND WIND Sp. z o.o. Krzysztof Pilch Senior Project Manager www.aes.com11. AGRI PLUS S.A. GROUP Louis Cerdan Ibanez President www.agriplus.com.pl12. AGS Warsaw Antoine Duquesnay Polish Branch Manager www.ags-worldwide-movers.com13. AIG/LINCOLN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Brian D. Patterson Managing Partner www.aiglincoln.com.pl14. AIR PRODUCTS Sp z o.o. Piotr Wieczorek Member of the Board www.airproducts.com.pl15. ALCATEL-LUCENT POLSKA S.A. Andrzej Dulka President of the Board www.alcatel-lucent.pl16. ALPHA HR SOLUTIONS Sp. z o.o. Maciej Gwóźdź Business Development Director www.alphasolutions.eu17. ALVAREZ & MARSAL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Thomas Kolaja Member of the Board www.alvarezandmarsal.com18. AMERICAN EXPRESS Zbigniew Filipowicz Country Manager www.americanexpress.pl19. AMREST Sp. z o.o. Henry McGovern CEO & President www.amrest.eu20. AMERICAN SCHOOL OF WARSAW Tony Gerlicz Director www.asw.waw.pl21. AMGEN Sp. z o.o. Krzysztof Adamcewicz Corporate Affairs Director www.amgen.com22. AMWAY BUSINESS CENTRE-EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Przemysław Siuda General Manager www.amway.com23. AMWAY Polska Leszek Kręcielewski General Director Europe www.amway.pl24. ANIMEX Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Pawelczak PR Director www.animex.pl25. ANTENNA VOLANTIS LIMITED Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Maślanka Branch Director www.antennasoftware.com26. APCO WORLDWIDE Sp. z o.o. Tony Housh Senior Counselor www.apcoworldwide.com27. APOLLO-RIDA POLAND Sp. z o.o. David Mitzner President www.apollorida.com.pl28. ARUP Andrzej Sitko Director www.arup.com/pl29. AVAYA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Głażewski Chairman www.avaya.com30. AVIS Radosław Lesiak Vice President www.avis.pl31. AVON COSMETICS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Orlando Andrei Commercian Executive Director, Poland and Nordics www.avon.com.pl

No Company Name Person in charge Position Company website

B32. BAE SYSTEMS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. David Burgess Managing Director www.baesystems.com33. BAKER & MCKENZIE Krzyżowski i Wspólnicy Sp. k. Marcin Gmaj Managing Partner www.bakernet.com34. BAKER TILLY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Joe Smoczyński Partner, President of the Board www.bakertillysmoczynski.eu35. BANK BPH SA Richard Gaskin President www.bph.pl36. BANK HANDLOWY W WARSZAWIE SA Sławomir S. Sikora President, CEO www.citihandlowy.pl37. BANK POLSKA KASA OPIEKI S.A. Cezary Węgierski Communication & Marketing Support Office www.pekao.com.pl38. BANK ZACHODNI WBK S.A. Artur Chodacki Corporate Banking Director www.english.bzwbk.pl39. BANKOMAT 24/EURONET Sp. z o.o. Marek Szafirski President www.euronetworldwide.com40. BASELL ORLEN POLYOLEFINS Sp. z o.o. Steve Dwyer PR Manager www.basellorlen.pl41. BAXTER POLAND Sp. z o.o. Paweł Żelewski General Manager www.baxter.com42. BEST WESTERN HOTELS FINLAND Saija Kekkonen CEO Managing Director www.bestwestern.pl43. BIS INDUSTRIETECHNIK Polska Sp. z o.o. Wieslaw Kempa Managing Director www.bis.bilfinger.com44. BMW GROUP Andreas Biehler Managing Director www.bmw.pl45. BNK Polska Sp.z o.o. Jacek Wróblewski Country Manager www.bnkpetroleum.com46. BOEING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION Henryka Bochniarz President, CEE www.boeing.com47. BOSE Sp. z o.o. Witold Lisowski General Manager www.bose.pl48. BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP Sp. z o.o. Kevin J. Waddell Partner www.bcg.com.pl49. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marcin Gołębicki Regional Director Poland, Eastern Europe & Central Asia www.bsci.com50. BOVIS LEND LEASE Sp. z o.o. Artur Dziubak Business Development Manager www.bovislendlease.com51. BP POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Bogdan Kucharski General Manager www.bp.pl52. BPI POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Michał Kurtyka President www.bpi-group.com53. BRISTOL–MYERS SQUIBB POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Gianluigi Lisi General Manager www.b-ms.pl54. BROWAR NAMYSŁÓW Sp. z o.o. Ryan Gostomski Chairman of the Board www.browarnamyslow.com.pl55. BROWARY REGIONALNE ŁOMŻA Sp. z o.o. Ryszard Czopik Chairman of the Board www.royalunibrew.pl56. BROWN-FORMAN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Janota Managing Director n/a

C57. C.H. ROBINSON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Joseph Kozlak Branch Manager www.chreurope.com58. CA Sp. z o.o. Michał Furman Country Manager www.ca.com59. CAN PACK S.A. Małgorzata Podrecka Legal Counsel www.canpack.com.pl60. CAPGEMINI POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Frank Wagenbauer CEO www.pl.capgemini.com61. CATERPILLAR FINANCIAL SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Myszkowski Country Manager www.cat.com62. CBRE Sp. z o.o. Colin Waddell Managing Director www.cbre.pl63. CDM Magdalena A. Pavlak-Chiaradia Program Manager www.cdm.com64. CEC GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Sp. z o.o. Marek Matraszek Director and Founding Partner www.cecgr.com65. CEERES Sp. z o.o. Randy Michael Mott President www.ceeres.eu66. CELLANTENNA Sp. z o.o. Renata Schluss Vice President www.cellantenna.pl67. CENTRAL EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTION CORPORATION William Carey President & CEO www.cedc-c.com68. CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants (Polska) Dariusz Gorzeń General Manager www.cgi.com69. CH2M HILL POLSKA Ltd Sp. z o.o. Ruben Robles Vice President www.ch2m.com70. CHADBOURNE & PARKE LLP Włodzimierz Radzikowski Managing Partner www.chadbourne.com71. CHARTIS EUROPE S.A. Agnieszka Żołędziowska-Kulig Member of the Management Board www.chartisinsurance.com72. CHEVRON POLSKA ENERGY RESOURCES Sp. z o.o. John Claussen Country Manager Poland www.chevron.com73. CISCO SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dariusz Fabiszewski General Manager www.cisco.pl74. CITRIX SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Artur Cyganek Country Manager www.citrix.com75. CLIFFORD CHANCE, Janicka, Krużewski, Namiotkiewicz i Wspólnicy Sp. k. Nick Fletcher Managing Partner www.cliffordchance.com76. CMC ZAWIERCIE S.A. Jerzy Kozicz Chairman of the Management Board www.cmcpoland.com77. CMS CAMERON MCKENNA Dariusz Greszta Sp. k. Andrew Kozlowski Managing Partner www.cms-cmck.com78. COCA-COLA POLAND SERVICES Sp. z o.o. Paul Woodward Operations Director, Northern Central Europe www.cocacola.com.pl79. COLGATE-PALMOLIVE POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Król General Manager www.colgate.pl80. COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Monika Rajska Wolińska Deputy Managing Partner www.colliers.com

FocusManufacturers’ Forum

Power surgeWhile Poland’s manufacturers have figured outhow to survive in a down market, there is onebarrier they cannot leap over without a little help: electricity prices


No Company Name Person in charge Position Company website No Company Name Person in charge Position Company website

82. COOPER STANDARD AUTOMOTIVE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Gąska Director of Operations Poland www.cooperstandard.pl83. COPERNICUS FOUNDATION IN POLAND Jerzy Bystrowski Director of the Board www.woe.edu.pl84. COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT WARSAW AIRPORT Paweł Pytlakowski Senior Sales Manager www.courtyard.com/wawcy85. CPC EXECUTIVE SEARCH Janina Obniska Managing Partner www.cpc-executivesearch.pl86. CREDIT SUISSE (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. Marek Gul Country Manager www.csfb.com87. CRESTCOM INTERNATIONAL Andrzej Kuras Partner www.crestcomtraining.com88. CROWLEY DATA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Roszkowski President, CEO www.crowley.pl89. CURB-TEC EUROPE Sp. j. Chris Hutchinson CEO www.curb-tec.pl90. CURVER POLAND Sp. z o.o. Piotr Roman Serbiński Operations Manager www.curver.pl91. CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Richard Petersen Managing Partner www.cushmanwakefield.com

92. DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING Pablo Martinez General Manager www.dalecarnegie.com.pl93. DBM Piotr Kociołek Managing Partner www.dbm.pl94. DEBENEDETTI MAJEWSKI SZCZEŚNIAK Kancelaria Prawnicza Sp.K. David DeBenedetti Partner www.dms.net.pl95. DELL Sp. z o.o. Maciej Filipkowski Managing Director www.dell.pl96. DELOITTE Marek Metrycki Office Managing Partner www.deloitte.com/pl97. DELPHI POLAND S.A. Dariusz Adamek Country Director www.delphi.com98. DEWEY & LEBOEUF Jarosław Grzesiak Managing Partner www.dl.com99. DIRECT COMMUNICATION Sp. z o.o. Angelo Pressello President www.dir.com.pl100. DLA PIPER WIATER sp.k. Krzysztof Wiater Managing Partner www.dlapiper.com101. DOW CORNING POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Leonidas Kolaitis Director Operations Central & Eastern Europe www.dowcorning.com102. DOW POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Chlebicki Managing Director www.dow.com103. DUPONT POLAND Sp. z o.o. Thierry Marin Director - Central Europe www.dupont.com.pl

104. EC HARRIS Sp. z o.o. Marcin Klammer Partner www.echarris.com105. EDELMAN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Barbara Kwiecień Chairman of the Board, General Manager www.edelman.com.pl106. EEZ Sp. z o.o. Krystian Stachowiak President of the Management Board www.eez.pl107. EGON ZEHNDER INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Borysław Czyżak President www.egonzehnder.com108. ELI LILLY POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomy Vahevaara Managing Director www.lilly.pl109. EMC COMPUTER SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dariusz Chwiejczak Country Manager www.emc.com110. EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT POWER AND WATER SOLUTIONS Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Kosik Sales Director Central & Eastern Europe www.emersonprocess-powerwater.com111. ENTERPRISE INVESTORS Jacek Siwicki President www.ei.com.pl112. ENVIRON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jerzy A. Kołłajtis Principal www.environcorp.com113. EPSTEIN Sp. z o.o. Janusz T. Lichocki President www.epstein.com.pl114. ERNST & YOUNG S.A. Duleep Aluwihare Country Managing Partner www.ey.com/pl115. ESTEE LAUDER POLAND Sp. z o.o. Magdalena Kamińska General Manager www.esteelauder.com116. EURODENTAL Ltd. Michał Siciński President www.eurodental.pl117. EUROMEDIC INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Janicki President of the Board www.euromedic.pl118. EUROMONEY POLSKA S.A. Martin Bauer President www.securities.com119. EXPRESS MAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Janusz Przeorek President www.e-map.pl120. EXXONMOBIL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Ville Ylosjoki Poland Lead Country Manager www.exxonmobil.com

121. FCM TRAVEL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o. Tim Hyland Managing Director www.travelexpress.pl122. FEDERAL EXPRESS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Michael Muehlberger President www.fedex.com/pl123. FEDEX TRADE NETWORKS TRANSPORT & BROKERAGE (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. Michał Rene Country Manager Poland www.ftn.fedex.com124. FINACORP (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o. Stan Popow Managing Partner www.finacorp.pl125. FIRESTONE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Piotr Bogaczyński Plant Manager www.firestone.polandtrade.pl126. FISERV POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Aleksandra Gren General Director www.fiserv.com127. FLEISHMAN–HILLARD Sp. z o.o. Julia Kozak Managing Director www.fleishman.pl128. FLUOR S.A. Dave Gibson General Manager www.fluor.pl129. FOCUS RESEARCH Sp. z o.o. Richard A. Żabiński President, General Manager www.focusmr.com130. FOREVER LIVING PRODUCTS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jacek Kandefer Managing Director www.flpp.com.pl131. FOSTER WHEELER ENERGIA POLSKA Jarosław Mlonka President & CEO www.fwc.com132. FRANKLINCOVEY CEE (DOOR Poland Group) Marek Choim Group President www.franklincovey.pl133. FRITO-LAY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Małgorzata Skonieczna Public & Government Affairs Director www.fritolay.pl134. FUNDACJA TECHSOUP Nick Eyre President www.fundacjatechsoup.pl

135. GE INTERNATIONAL SA, Oddział w Polsce Lesław Kuzaj GE Regional Executive for Central Europe www.ge.com136. GENERAL MOTORS POLAND Peter Fahrni Manufacturing Director www.opel.pl, www.chevrolet.pl137. GENZYME POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Paweł Miśkiewicz General Manager www.genzyme.com138. GILEAD SCIENCES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Michał Kaźmierski General Manager, Member of the Board www.gilead.com139. GLADSTONE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Donal Charles Bailey Business Development Manager www.gladstonellc.com140. GOODYEAR DUNLOP TIRES POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jacek Pryczek President & Managing Director www.goodyear.pl141. GOOGLE POLAND Sp. z o.o. Artur Waliszewski Country Manager www.google.pl142. GRAS SAVOYE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Alexander Leszek Konopka President of the Management Board www.grassavoye.pl143. GTECH POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Włodarczyk Site Manager for Poland www.gtech.com144. GUARDIAN CZĘSTOCHOWA Sp. z o.o. Zsolt Erdosi Managing Director www.guardian.com

145. HALCROW GROUP LIMITED Jarosław Karpiejuk Regional Director Poland www.halcrow.com146. HANSBERRY COMPETITION Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska Founder www.hansberrycompetition.com147. HAY GROUP Sp. z o.o. Mik Kuczkiewicz Chairman of the Board www.haygroup.pl148. HAYS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Michał Młynarczyk Managing Director CEE www.hays.pl149. HBO POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Aleksander Kutela President www.hbo.pl150. HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES Matthew Tebeau Partner www.heidrick.com151. HEITMAN FINANCIAL Sp. z o.o. Dennis Dart Senior Vice President www.heitman.com152. HERMAN MILLER LIMITED Maciej Karbownik Representative www.hermanmiller.co.uk153. HEWITT ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Edward Robert Stanoch Managing Director www.hewitt.pl154. HEWLETT PACKARD Paweł Czajkowski Managing Director www.hp.pl155. HEWLETT-PACKARD GLOBAL BUSINESS CENTER Jack Levernes Vice President GBS EMEA www.hp.com156. HILL & KNOWLTON POLAND Monika Stępień Managing Director www.hillandknowlton.pl157. HILL INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Jacek Żurawski Vice President www.hillintl.com.pl158. HILTON WARSAW, HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTRE (HGC S.A.) Remco Norden General Manager www.hilton.com159. HINES POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Mieczysław Godzisz Managing Director www.hines.pl160. HJ HEINZ POLSKA S.A. Adam Dyszyński Managing Director www.pudliszki.pl161. HOGAN LOVELLS (Warszawa) LLP (Spółka Partnerska) Beata Balas-Noszczyk Managing Partner www.hoganlovells.com

162. HONEYWELL Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Krajewski Chairman www.honeywell.com.pl163. HYATT REGENCY WARSAW Heddo Siebs General Manager www.warsaw.regency.hyatt.com

164. IBM POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Anna Sieńko General Director www.ibm.com/pl165. ILOOP MOBILE INC. Magdalena Bicz Director www.iloopmobile.com166. IMPERIAL CINEPIX Sp. z o.o. Sunil R. Shah President www.imperial-cinepix.com.pl167. INSTANT POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Anthony Narushka General Manager www.instant.com.pl168. INTEL TECHNOLOGY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Klekowski Territory Manager CEE www.intel.pl169. INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL WARSZAWA Christian Henkemeier General Manager www.warsaw.intercontinental.com170. INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE Carina Pierre Rochard Regional Director www.global.nytimes.com171. INTERNATIONAL PAPER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Berbeka President of the Board www.ipaper.com.pl172. IRON MOUNTAIN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Iwona Wałach Commercial Director www.ironmountain.com.pl173. IT WORKS SA Leszek Rożdżeński President www.itworks.pl

174. JAVA COFFEE COMPANY Sp. z o.o. Glen S. Gregory CEO & President www.javacoffee.pl175. JOHNSON & JOHNSON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Magdalena Skopińska Managing Director www.its.jnj.com

176. K&L GATES Maciej Jamka Managing Partner www.klgates.com177. KAJIMA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Koji Oura General Manager www.kajimaeurope.com178. KAŁUŻYŃSKI & MADEJA Sp. z o.o. Richard Kałużyński Managing Director www.kaluzynskimadeja.com179. KATO LABS Sp. z o.o. Janusz Wołejko President www.kato.pl180. KELLY SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Agnieszka Walter Country General Manager www.kellyservices.pl181. KLINEMAN ROSE & WOLF– POLAND Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Barylski President www.krw.com.pl182. KPMG Sp. z o.o. Peter Kay Partner www.kpmg.pl183. KRAFT FOODS POLSKA S.A. Stefan Golonka General Manager www.kraft.com184. KREVOX EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE Tadeusz G. Krężelewski General Director www.krevox.pl185. KROLL ONTRACK Sp. z o.o. Marek Suczyk Managing Director www.krollontrack.pl186. KULCZYK INVESTMENTS Dariusz Mioduski President of the Management Board www.kulczykinvestments.com187. KULCZYK SILVERSTEIN PROPERTIES Sp. z o.o. Piotr Krawczyński Managing Director www.ksprop.com

188. LE ROYAL MERIDIEN BRISTOL Michael Goerdt Director General www.lemeridien.com/warsaw189. LEASEPLAN FLEET MANAGEMENT (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o. Sławomir Wontrucki Managing Director www.leaseplan.pl190. LEMNA INTERNATIONAL, INC. Viet Ngo President & CEO www.lemnapolska.com191. LEVI STRAUSS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dorota Gutkowska General Manager Eastern Europe & President www.eu.levi.com/pl192. LIONBRIDGE POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jacek Stryczyński Country Manager Poland & Slovakia, President www.lionbridge.com193. LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL EMEA Region Beata Kaszuba EMEA Region Director www.eteamz.com/llbeurope194. LOCKHEED MARTIN GLOBAL INC. S.A. Robert Orzyłowski Executive Director www.lockheedmartin.com195. LYNKA PROMOTIONAL SOLUTIONS John Lynch President www.lynka.com.pl196. ŁASZCZUK I WSPÓLNICY sp.k. Justyna Szpara Managing Partner www.laszczuk.pl

197. MAERSK POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jeff Jarosław Gościniak General Manager www.maerskline.com/poland198. MA MAISON LE REGINA HOTEL Agnieszka Naumiuk Sales & Marketing Manager www.leregina.com199. MANPOWER GROUP Iwona Janas General Director www.manpowergroup.pl200. MARATHON OIL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Carl R Hubacher Director www.marathonoil.com201. MARRIOTT HOTEL Albert Helms General Manager www.marriott.com/wawpl202. MARS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Kutelski Corporate Affairs Director www.mars.pl203. MARSH Sp. z o.o. Richard Radford President www.marsh.pl204. MARY KAY COSMETICS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Ewa Kudlińska-Pyrz General Manager www.marykay.pl205. MASSIVE DESIGN Sp. z o.o. Przemysław Stopa President, Architect www.massivedesign.pl206. MATTEL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Sanjay Luthra Finance Manager www.mattel.com207. MAZARS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Michel Kiviatkowski Managing Partner www.mazars.pl208. McDONALD'S POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Jucha Managing Director www.mcdonalds.pl209. MCKINSEY & COMPANY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Daniel Boniecki Managing Director www.mckinsey.pl210. MEDICOVER Sp. z o.o. Loic Fretard Director of Medicover Hospital www.medicover.pl211. MEDTRONIC POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Jeżewski Finance Manager www.medtronic.com212. METLIFE AMPLICO Łukasz Kalinowski CEO www.metlifeamplico.pl213. METROPOLITAN ZOOS Sp. z o.o. Jonathan Campion President www.metropolitan-krakow.com214. MEYER TOOL POLAND Michał Sękowski Finance Drector www.meyertoolpoland.pl215. MICHAEL PAGE INTERNATIONAL (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. Jerome Lafuite Managing Director www.michaelpage.pl216. MICROSOFT Sp. z o.o. Jacek Murawski Prezes www.microsoft.com/poland/217. MILLER, CANFIELD, W. Babicki, A. Chełchowski i Wspólnicy Sp. k. Richard Walawender Senior Partner www.millercanfield.pl218. MISZERAK & ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Martin Miszerak CEO www.miszerakassociates.it219. MITSUBISHI CORPORATION Kunihiko Uchimura General Director www.mitsubishicorp.com220. MŁODE ORŁY S.A. Magdalena Mirski Member of the Supervisory Board www.mlodeorly.com221. MONITOR GROUP Alexander King Associate Partner www.monitor.com222. MOTOROLA MOBILITY Sp. z o.o. Arek Zawada Regional Sales Director www.motorola.com/consumers/pl-pl/223. MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS POLSKA Sp z o.o. Ewa Porębska President www.motorola.pl224. MSD POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Łukasz Zybaczyński General Director www.msd.pl

225. NALCO MOBOTEC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Hajewski Sales Director www.nalco.pl226. NARODOWY FUNDUSZ INWESTYCYJNY OCTAVA S.A. Piotr Rymaszewski President www.octava.com.pl227. NCR Polska Sp. z o.o. Barłomiej Śliwa President of the Board www.ncr.com228. NEUMANN LEADERSHIP POLAND Sp. z o.o. Marek Ambroziak Partner www.neumannpartners.com229. NEW GAS S.A. Jakub Kostecki CEO www.newgas.pl230. NORDSON POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Rutkowski General Manager www.nordson.com.pl231. NORTON ROSE Piotr Strawa i Wspólnicy Sp. k. Piotr Strawa Managing Partner www.nortonrose.com232. NOVARTIS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Georg Schrockenfuchs General Manager www.novartis.pl

233. ORANGE PRODUCTS EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Mariusz Leoniak Commercial Manager www.orangeproducts.com234. ORCO PROPERTY GROUP Alicja Kościesza Sales & Marketing Director for Poland www.orcogroup.com235. OTIS Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Begier President www.otis.com.pl

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236. PANATTONI EUROPE Robert Dobrzycki Regional Partner www.panattoni.com/pdceurope.cfm237. PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF Jarosław Putresza Director www.pbworld.com238. PEPSI COLA GENERAL BOTTLERS Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Bruczko General Manager www.pepsi.pl239. PFIZER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jan Stawiski Marketing and Sales Director Hospital Division www.pfizer.com.pl240. PHILIP MORRIS POLSKA Aleksander Grzesiak Managing Director www.pmintl.pl241. PITTSBURGH GLASS WORKS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. Bill Hall European Operations Manager www.pgwglass.com



...continued from page 20

In November 2011, AmCham EU andAmCham Poland, with the support ofIntel, hosted a half-day seminar in War-

saw on data protection. In the presence ofkey stakeholders from government, acade-mia and business from Poland and abroad,the discussions focused on the potentialimpact on the regional economy of revisedEU data protection legislation, which is ex-pected in early 2012.

Wojciech Wiewiórowski, Poland’s Inspec-tor General for Personal Data Protection,said, “Europeans will not engage with themarket environment if they do not trust itand those who provide the services. Thustrust is a key element.” Wiewiórowskistressed that privacy is a fundamental right,but it must be implemented in a practicalway.

Wiewiórowski said that by the end of Jan-uary 2012, the European Commission willpresent a new framework for data protec-tion. It will be of paramount importance forthe future of e-commerce in the EU be-cause most likely it will take the form of aregulation rather than a directive.

If a regulation is issued, it will becomelaw in all EU countries as soon as it goesinto force. If the new EU regulation con-flicts with member states’ regulations, it

will automatically override national law.The regulation will be binding on all judi-cial institutions, from local courts up to theSupreme Court.

Wiewiórowski noted that even with uni-versal application of EU data protectionlaw, member states’ laws will continue togovern in cases where criminal or tax lawcomes into play. “The national laws herewill supplement the EU law in the case ofan EU data protection regulation,” he ex-plained.

Speaking on the second panel, JonathanWeeks, Intel’s Deputy Legal Director forEMEA, presented the case for harmoniza-tion across the single market for any newlaw on data protection. Several panelistsechoed Weeks’s remarks on the need forharmonization and consistency as key ele-ments to ensure the growth and competi-tiveness of the EU.

As one of the largest member states inthe region, Poland is an important marketfor the digital economy. Stakeholders hereare watching closely for the EuropeanCommission’s new proposal on data protec-tion. As was evident at the seminar, they areready to be a partner in the process. •

Judith Y. Gliniecki, AmCham Vice Chair; Wojciech Wiewiórowski, Inspector General forPersonal Data Protection; and Arwid Mednis, partner at Wierzbowski Eversheds

that of a big city such as Warsaw.Liptak noted that pursuant to EU law, in

case of energy intensive industries it is pos-sible for the Polish government to levy azero excise duty rate on electricity, whichapproach is followed by the majority ofhighly industrialized countries of the EU.

Marcin Jakubaszek from Miller Canfieldnoted that while the European Commissionis working toward establishment of a singlepan-European energy market, it also fo-cuses on climate change and has assigned aprice for emission of CO2. In Poland, CO2-related semi-taxes comprise nearly 40% ofthe total price of electricity and are likely togrow, because the domestic power industryis still very emission-intensive. And whilethe power industry is in the process ofmodernization, it makes end users foot thebill through a “transitory fee” (part of theprice of electricity), which in the case of en-ergy-intensive operations is a major cost.

A ray of hopeMarek Matraszek, CEO of lobbying firmCEC Government Relations, gave a presen-tation about the balance of “power” in thenew government. He said that after the fallparliamentary elections, which brought vic-tory to the incumbent Civic Platform party,the position of Prime Minister Donald Tuskand his immediate allies in the governmenthas strengthened. This is good news for thebusiness community in Poland, Matraszeksaid, because Tusk and some other keyministers, such as Minister of Foreign Af-fairs Radosław Sikorski, have a good under-standing of the importance that policieshave for the economy and their impact onforeign investors. While they attach priorityto the economic aspects of urgent issues onthe EU agenda, they are determined tostand for Poland’s economic interest as wellin such areas as reduction of CO2 emis-sions. Matraszek said that during its EUPresidency, Poland was doing a good job indefending the country’s key economic poli-cies in Brussels. In the European Court ofJustice, Poland is challenging the basisupon which permits for CO2 emissions willbe distributed between member states andindustries, and is resisting in the EuropeanParliament proposals to increase the targetsfor reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020from 20% to 30%. Matraszek said thatalong with the government, nearly all Polishmembers of the European Parliament take apragmatic approach to the economy and aredetermined to work to help Poland keepgrowing.•

243. POLISH ENERGY PARTNERS S.A. Zbigniew Prokopowicz President www.pepsa.com.pl244. POLSKA TELEFONIA CYFROWA SA (T-Mobile) Miroslav Rakowski Chairman of the Board www.era.pl, t-mobile.pl245. PRATT & WHITNEY a United Technology Company Zbigniew Gradowski In-Country Program Manager www.pratt-whitney.com246. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS Olga Grygier Siddons Managing Director www.pwc.com/pl247. PRIME CAR MANAGEMENT S.A. Grzegorz Czarnecki Chief Executive Officer www.primecar.com.pl248. PRINTPACK POLAND Sp. z o.o. Steve Snowden Site Director www.printpack.com249. PROCTER & GAMBLE DS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marek Kapuściński General Manager www.pg.com250. PROLOGIS Ben Bannatyne President www.prologis.com

R251. RAIFFEISEN BANK POLSKA S.A. Krzysztof Lubkiewicz Head of International Desk www.raiffeisen.pl252. RANDSTAD Sp. z o.o. Kajetan Słonina General Director www.randstad.pl253. RAYTHEON INTERNATIONAL, INC. Spółka Kapitałowa, Przed. w Polsce Kathryn Buer Country Manager www.raytheon.com254. RIGHT MANAGEMENT Agata Dulnik Principal Consultant www.rightmanagement.pl255. ROCHE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Sławatyniec Funding and Regulatory Director www.roche.com256. RR DONNELLEY EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Jan Przepióra Vice President www.rrdonnelley.eu.com257. RUSSELL REYNOLDS ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Dorota Czarnota Managing Partner, Poland & CEE www.russellreynolds.com

S258. SABRE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Kathleen Nolan Product Manager www.sabre-holdings.com259. SALANS Tomasz Dąbrowski Managing Partner www.salans.com260. SANOFI-AVENTIS Sp. z o.o. Marynika Woroszylska-Sapieha Managing Director www.sanofi-aventis.com.pl261. SAS INSTITUTE POLSKA Alicja Wiecka Country Manager www.sas.com/poland262. SCOTT WILSON Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Krawczyk President of the Board www.urs-scottwilson.com263. SERCOM SOLUTIONS LIMITED Sp. z o.o. Anna Achremienia Business Development & Commercial Manager wwww.sercomsolutions.com264. SHERATON WARSAW HOTEL Thomas Schoen General Director www.sheraton.pl265. SIEMENS Sp. z o.o. Piotr Dobrowolski Member of the Managing Board www.siemens.pl266. SIKORSKY EUROPE Stanley J. Prusinski Director www.sikorsky.com267. SILGAN WHITE CAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marek Rajca General Manager www.silgan.com268. SITEL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Antonio Dos Santos Director www.sitel.pl269. SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE S.A. Oddział w Polsce Stéphane Hild Country Head www.sgcib.com270. SODEXO POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Yann Gontard Managing Director www.sodexo.pl.271. SOFITEL WARSAW VICTORIA Jean Michel Lathuilliere General Manager www.sofitel.com272. SONY PICTURES GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES Sp. z o.o. Michał Gryglewski Executive Director n/a273. SPENCER STUART POLAND Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Maciejewski Office Manager/Consultant www.spencerstuart.com274. SQUIRE SANDERS Święcicki Krześniak Sp.k. Peter Święcicki Chief Accountant www.ssd.com275. STAFFER HOSPITALITY Pamela Gmiter President www.staffer.pl276. STEELCASE S.A. Przedstawicielstwo w Polsce Elżbieta Gajowska Dealer & Marketing Manager www.steelcase.com/uk277. SWIFT AVIANA CARGO SERVICES Sp. z o.o. Alam Chaudry Chairman www.swiftaviana.com

T, U278. TELEKOMUNIKACJA POLSKA S. A. Maciej Witucki Chairman www.tp.pl279. TELESTO Richard M. Lada Vice President www.telesto.pl280. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o. Katarzyna Westermark Managing Director www.disney.pl281. TRANSEARCH INTERNATIONAL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Beata Żytka Managing Partner www.transearch.com282. TRUSIEWICZ SIWKO Kancelaria Prawna SP.P. Rafał Trusiewicz Partner www.ts-kancelaria.pl283. UBS AG Przedstawicielstwo w Polsce Marcin Jarkiewicz Head of the Representative Office www.ubs.com284. UL INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Bogdan Maliszewski Branch Manager Czech Republic & Poland www.ul.com285. UNIPHARM, INC. Tomasz Albinowski Country Manager www.unipharm.pl286. UNITED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Sp. z o.o. Peter James Strupp CEO, President of the Board www.ubd.pl287. UNIVERSAL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o. Stefan Hildt Member of the Board www.uer.pl288. UNIVERSAL LEAF TOBACCO POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Lik Chairman of the Board www.universalleaf.com289. UPC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Simon Boyd President www.upc.pl290. UPS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Sitarek Country Manager www.ups.com

V, W, X291. VF POLSKA DISTRIBUTION Sp. z o.o. Marek Hińcz Managing Director www.vfc.com292. VIKING PETROL SAHASI HIZMETLERI SA Oddział w Polsce Robert Dunn Vice President & Country Manager www.viking-intl.com293. VISKASE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Monika Pływaczewska Commercial Director www.viskase.com294. WARDYŃSKI & PARTNERS Tomasz Wardyński CBE, Founding Partner www.wardynski.com.pl295. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Waldemar Saniewski Managing Director www.warnerbros.com296. WARSAW DESTINATION ALLIANCE, FOUNDATION Alex Kloszewski Chairman & Managing Director www.destinationwarsaw.com297. WAWEL HOTEL DEVELOPMENT Sp. z o.o. Stijn Oyen General Manager www.sheraton.com/krakow298. WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES Roman Rewald Partner www.weil.com299. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY Mats Olsson Director www.westinghousenuclear.com300.WHIRLPOOL POLSKA Sp z.o.o. Mariusz Dąbrowski General Manager Poland, the Baltic States www.whirlpool.com301. WHITE & CASE W. DANIŁOWICZ, W. Jurcewicz i Wspólnicy Kancelaria Prawna Sp. k. Witold Daniłowicz Managing Partner www.whitecase.pl302. WIERZBOWSKI EVERSHEDS Judith Gliniecki Partner www.eversheds.pl303. WINCOR NIXDORF Sp. z o.o. Mirosław Janik Chairman of the Board www.wincor-nixdorf.com/pl304. WOODWARD GOVERNOR POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dominik Kania Executive Director www.woodward.com305. WRIGLEY POLAND Maciej Wysocki Managing Director www.wrigley.pl306. WS ATKINS - POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Stephen Novis Member of the Board www.atkinsglobal.com307. XEROX POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marzena Tarkowska Country General Manager www.xerox.com.pl

No Company Name Person in charge Position Company website242. PM GROUP POLSKA Sp. z o. o. Con Murphy Managing Director www.pmg.pl

Member Contact phone1. Adam Bergmann 48-664-444-7772. Alain Bobet 48-513-190-2083. Brian Bode 48-22-648-08414. Alan Capodanno 48-694-487-4675. Dario Cipriani 48-608-000-5116. Andrew Davis 48-22-456-45007. George Dembinski 48-603-681-5258. Peter Dembinski 48-602-677-6009. Maksymilian Ebenstein 48-600-810-10010. Richard Engel 48-508-047-51011. Ewa Esquerra 48-602-722-62212. Kenneth Globerman 48-798-234-447

Member Contact phone13. Thomas Gresk 48-728-961-04414. Irene Grzybowski 48-601-802-04015. Kent Holding 48-791-111-77716. Andrew Hope 48-668-691-88417. Sylwester Klarowicz 48-668-133-03418. Agata Kocia 48-22-428-573319. Jon Kolasinski 48-500-206-22720. Steve Krupa 1-847-564-193121. Matthew Lynch 48-22-622-715322. George Michalski 48-606-917-00023. Don Mucha 1-602-402-262124. Anya Ogorkiewicz 48-510-419-141

Member Contact phone25. Adam Paszkowski 48-22-835-300026. Adam de Sola Pool 48-22-756-323227. Bret Schlussman 1-212-5339-09028. Michal Scholtes 48-501-700-52229. Alex Shannon 48-501-515-74030. Bogy Cimoszko Skowronski 48-22-436-742031. Christopher Smith 48-22-616-006232. Tadeusz Szostak 48-22-834-332133. Jerzy Thieme 48-601-282-81234. Stanley Urban 48-502-709-19035. Andrzej Wróbel 48-501-305-56536. Paul Zalucky 48-606-802-998

Alphabetical list of AmCham individual members, as of December 15, 2011. Individual members

FocusManufacturers’ Forum Data protection

Top-down regulation on the wayA new approach to data protection across the EUis expected soon, and many businesses will wel-come the increased harmonization and clarity



Rotisserie received the Hermes awardfrom Polish HoReCa trade magazines Po-radnik Handlowca and Poradnik Restau-

ratora. Oszczyk was also mentionedin the April 2011 edition of AndrewHarper’s Hideaway Report, one of themost respected publications in luxurytravel, which praised the hotel and therestaurant for their commitment toclassic hospitality and underlined thequality of French cuisine served at LaRotisserie.

Oszczyk’s food is authentic becauseit is personal. No red pepper or whitechocolate for him: “Both those itemsare forbidden here,” Oszczyk jokes.

Freedom to createAt Le Regina, Oszczyk has the free-

dom to pursue his ideal of a perfectrestaurant. “I am fortunateenough not to have to im-plement anybody’s visionhere but mine,” Oszczyksays. Even though La Ro-tisserie is part of the hoteland has its hotel duties,such as delivering break-

fast to hotel guestsevery day, the hori-zons are set by Os-

zczyk. His vision is most

evident in his signa-ture dishes. “We haveonly two fish dishesand two meat disheson the menu,” Oszczyk says. “Theyare linked by a culinaryconcept of mine.” Oszczyk explains thata good restaurant isnot “something foreverybody,” but a se-lection of dishes thatthe chef has full con-

Last year La Rotisserie was singledout as a gastro outlet by the Miche-lin Guide. This year the restaurant

was shortlisted forPaweł Oszczyk’s sig-nature cuisine andwine pairings byDining Guide, aHungarian trademagazine, for a CEEFood Award in itsranking of Central &Eastern Europe’sTop 10 Restau-rants—the onlyrestaurant in Polandto make the cut.Earlier this year La

trol of, starting from the sourcing of pro-duce—something Oszczyk is not willing tocompromise on—through cooking andserving.

Oszczyk also has complete freedom incomposing his six-dish tasting menus.“I’m bound only by the availability of pro-duce, a huge part of which is seasonalproducts,” he says. “I do not aim at offer-ing a huge variety of dishes at a time, but I rotate them often instead.” Oszczyk isrelatively content with what he hasachieved at Le Regina over the last sevenyears: “We have found the right balancebetween being a restaurant and being ahotel restaurant.”

Quest for individualityIndividualism in the kitchen is somethingOszczyk grew up with. At home he was ex-posed to a variety of dishes prepared by hismother. They radiated different aromasand offered different flavors, but werebound by one idea: it has to taste good.

When Oszczyk began his vocationaltraining at a gastronomic school at the ageof 14, one of his teachers had a broadenough outlook on the culinary world topreach individualism. “Krystyna Ślusar-czyk taught us about chefs who were like aone-man band. They delivered torque toentire businesses. She taught us aboutculinary culture and that the real culinary

experience is celebration. All thoseideas prompted me to go further insearch of my own individual take ongastronomy.”

In 1990 Oszczyk finished schooland took an apprenticeship at a

Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. Thetwo years in Italy helped him learn theropes of a top-notch food venture. “It was abig step that advanced my professional ca-reer,” Oszczyk says. “I learned to cook, aswell as some professional attitudes. Iworked 12- to 14-hour shifts and learnedto accept that as standard.”

Back in Poland in 1992, Oszczyk waslucky enough to get to work with renownedAustrian chef Kurt Scheller, who was justopening a restaurant at the Bristol Hotel inWarsaw. “Kurt created opportunities foryoung cooks,” Oszczyk recounts. “He mo-tivated me to take part in the Bocuse d’Or

1. Paweł Oszczyk in his underground kingdom, the Le Regina kitchen. 2. Another dish dispatched up to the restaurant floor. 3. Man-aging relations with suppliers on the phone.

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culinary competition in France. I was thefirst Polish cook ever to take part in thecompetition. Then he motivated me totake part in other competitions, and that ishow I began to win awards.”

Another person who had a pivotal influ-ence on Oszczyk was Bernard Lussiana,chef of the Bristol’s flagship restaurantMalinowa. Their duo made somethingnew. “The goal was to create a restaurantthat would merge Polish products andculinary traditions with French cookingtechniques,” Oszczyk says. “It worked. In1995–1996, Malinowa was named the bestrestaurant in Central & Eastern Europe byMichelin.”

At the Bristol, apart from cooking, Osz-czyk learned a lot from the hotel’s generalmanager, Michael Goerdt. “He showed methat if you want to be successful in thisbusiness, you have to go through all levelsof the professional career,” Oszczyk says.“That is how you learn that the guests arethe most important part of this business.And that is also how you learn to motivateyour workers.”

the creation processIn the early stages, the process of creatinga new dish is a purely mental exercise forOszczyk. “I can imagine two or three dif-ferent tastes and can figure how they feelwhen mixed,” Oszczyk says. “I can feelwhether the mix is going to work for din-ers or not. With this I can spare myself thetrial and error phase of new dish creation.”

Pure mind games are not all, however.When Oszczyk gets down to the real dish,he grabs a piece of paper and a pencil towrite down tastes in different new dishesand how they can interlink as parts of amenu, when it comes to preparation, cook-ing techniques and presentation. This partof the preparation involves Oszczyk’s mosttrusted cooks, who know his tastes and the

Food maverickPaweł Oszczyk, the chef of La Rotisserie Restaurant at Mamaison Hotel Le Regina Warsaw, is a rising star of the city’s culinary world

tastes that he will never accept in hiskitchen.

Regional produceTraditional Polish dishes are a standaloneclass of Oszczyk’s inspiration. “Żurek is aculinary phenomenon,” Oszczyk says ofthe fermented rye soup that is a trial-by-fire for many foreigners visiting Poland. “Itoffers some obvious culinary associations.It is acidic and makes a perfect sauce forany white fish.”

Oszczyk has a range of Polish foods thathe perceives as having huge potential infusion cooking. They include dried mush-rooms, bison grass, and smoked buck-wheat groats—kasza gryczana palona.When he goes abroad for culinary assign-ments, those are the products he alwayshas with him, and they never fail to im-press diners.

When it comes to meats produced inPoland, Oszczyk complains that there is alot of room for improvement—especiallywith pork. “We need to see specialty pro-duce here,” he says. “In Germany thereare farmers who feed pigs with apples,which results in sweeter, more aromaticpork. In Spain, there are farmers who addacorns to the fodder to achieve specialtypork.” Oszczyk wishes there were farmersin Poland with some more creative ap-proach to pork production. “It is high timewe had more diversity in pork, especiallysince pork is one of the most popularmeats in Poland.”

Part of the problem is the lack of promo-tion of domestic produce, to encouragechefs to use more foods produced inPoland. “At least 50% of produce should befrom Poland,” Oszczyk says. “But this isnot the case here, and we have to importmeat and fish from Germany and France.Meanwhile, the same quality products aremade in Poland, but in small amounts, be-

cause there is no distribution system tomaintain deliveries to a group of restau-rants. This is a business that perhapsshould take off in Poland, but so far it hasnot.”

Another problem that thwarts the devel-opment of a quality meat industry is thelack of a meat quality grading system. Osz-czyk has his own tried and trusted beefproducer. Sometimes he looks at beef inother places, however, and what he sees isfar below reasonable quality standards.“You see beef that is like rubber because ithas not been seasoned for at least twoweeks,” he complains. He thinks that pre-mium beef production is another businessniche that sooner or later has to be filled:“There are some initiatives among smallproducers who get together and try to sellto restaurants. But we need some 5–6years for the industry to develop.”

Fine diningLike most accomplished chefs, Oszczykwould love to have his own signaturerestaurant. But he admits that it is tooearly for the market in Poland to support astand-alone gastronomic restaurant thatworks with world-quality produce andcharges world-quality prices.

While Warsaw is slowly starting to getnoticed by standard-setting reviewers,such as the Michelin Guide, Polish con-sumers have not yet developed the sense ofwhat fine dining is all about. By and large,they perceive gastro-restaurants as luxuryitems on the to-do list of the wealthy. “Themarket needs to develop a bit more,” Oszczyk says. “That takes time. But I hopeit will not be too late for me.”

Tomasz Ćwiok


FocusExecutive chef


Not afraid to get our hands dirty

How was the year 2011 for Curb-tec inPoland?We started to lay the groundwork in 2010 fora watershed year in 2011. We sell Curb-Tec,Inc.-manufactured small extrusion curbingmachines and the larger slipform machines.We can also provide curbing services, butour true mission is to get the extrusion andslipform curbing methods accepted in mar-kets where traditional handforming andprecast blocks are used. The methods areabout 50 years old, but here in Poland, andin many parts of the world, they have to bemarketed as new technology—especially ex-trusion.

Going into 2010, we were only dealingwith extrusion curbing, and while we werehaving success in countries like Hungaryand Romania, we were struggling in ourown local Polish market. At that point, wedecided to change our strategy a little. Dueto Poland’s ambitious highway plans inpreparation for Euro 2012, we felt therewere more initial opportunities for thelarger, more versatile slipform curbing ma-chines. The machine poured-in-place tech-nology saves a lot of time, and with a lot ofpress about missing deadlines we thoughtthat it would be more likely to get a slipformmachine on a road project. Then we wouldbe able to build relationships and gain moretrust so we could highlight the benefits ofextrusion curbing.

So, I started talking with an Irish com-pany that does slipform work and was look-

ing to enter the Polish market. We wantedslipform knowledge and experience, whichthey had, and they wanted Polish contacts,which we had. By 2011, we had helped themwith three contracts and my business part-ner was completely dedicated to supervisingtwo of those three projects.

We have gained a tremendous amount ofexperience from this. It allowed us tobroaden our offer, and the change in strat-egy did indeed seem to play out as wethought. After five months of working onthe slipform project on the A2 expresswayin Mińsk Mazowiecki, we were able to per-suade the general contractor to also sub-contract extrusion curbing work to us. Theslipform machines are more versatile, butwhen extrusion curbing can be used, thecosts involved are much lower. We’ve beenpouring extruded curb on the A2 from Mayuntil now and will still have more to dogoing into 2012.

Another big change in 2011 was to startcooperating with a Polish concrete equip-ment dealer, Ciepiela Technology Promo-tion. They focus strictly on sales, while weconcentrate more on the marketing—realmarketing, get-out-of-the-office and get-your-hands-dirty marketing. This has al-lowed us to conserve some of our resourcesand opened the door to many new contacts,which led to our recently doing a curb andgutter project at Plac Sienkiewicza inTarnów. It was our first job that wasn’t partof a road project. It was difficult, but ourcrew gained a lot of experience as well asconfidence.

Another decision I made was to put moreof an emphasis on associations. We joinedAmCham in 2011, and I haven’t been disap-pointed thus far.

What key factors have fuelled the com-pany's business growth in Poland?Passion and persistence. That’s about all Ican say about that.

What are the corporate culture andworkplace culture like at Curb-tec eu-rope?I have to give a little history about Curb-TecEurope. When we started the company in2005, it was with full expectation of theglobal economic crisis inevitably coming inthe next couple of years. Our supplier,Curb-Tec, Inc., was about 95% tied to theUS market at the time. We knew that theirsales would go down dramatically andwanted to have time to create new markets

American Investor’s Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Christopher Hutchinson, CEO ofconstruction specialist Curb-Tec Europe, about what makes the company special

in order to compensate for the loss in USsales. Our goal was to get Curb-Tec to sur-vive during a time when we knew manysmall companies would go bankrupt. Be-cause we started with economic hard timesin mind, we operated very lean, never takingany loans. This was great regarding neverhaving any debt, but some of the effectswere that growth was slow, and we can be abit chaotic at times. Not necessarily be-cause we don’t know what needs to be done,but more because our resources can bestretched. Everyone in the company wearsmany hats, working at least 2 or 3 differentpositions.

Don’t get me wrong though, I am con-stantly talking with everyone about it, and Iam exceptionally proud of our corporateculture. One of the things my employeespoint out after talking with guys from othercrews on the jobsites we work on is thatthey are always better informed about whythey are doing the things they do. They tellme it helps with their morale tremendously.It was something I learned very well whileserving as an Airborne Ranger in the USArmy. You had to be better informed in aunit like that, and I know I personally alwayspaid better attention to detail and had highmorale because of it.

I think a good example that describes ourcorporate culture happened a few weeksago. We were in Tarnów on Thanksgiving,still working on the curb and gutter project.I was a bit down because I wasn’t homewith family, but not really talking about it.My crew completely surprised me with aturkey dinner. Now, Thanksgiving is somuch more than turkey, but if I couldn’t behome with my family that was the next bestthing. I cannot express how thankful I am tohave employees like that.

What can you say about Curb-tec’splans and growth prospects in Polandin 2012 and beyond?As we plan for 2012, we are slightly worriedabout funding issues, and tighter nationaland local budgets, but considering we pro-vide solutions that save money compared tousing precast curbs so commonly usedhere, I believe we are well-placed to take ad-vantage of our new experience and have anextremely successful 2012 in Poland—notto mention since we have been gettingcloser and closer the past seven monthswith a company that’s a legend in our in-dustry. I have high hopes about how that re-lationship will impact 2012 for us. •

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opeWaiting months for an appointment,

standing in long lines in the cold,and spending hours at the US Em-

bassy waiting for an interview: Is this whatcomes to mind when you think of applyingfor a US visa? Do not be misled by past expe-riences or outdated video footage. The appli-cation process today is a very different thing.

Today, interviews are scheduled easily overthe phone through the Visa InformationService, and the wait time for appointmentsis much shorter than just a few years ago. Ap-plicants can typically schedule an appoint-ment in as little as three days, or far in ad-vance if preferred, with appointment timesscheduled at 30-minute intervals.

The appointment is no longer a half-daytime commitment either. Most applicantsspend only about an hour at the embassy,from arrival at security to conclusion of theinterview, and the process today is not onlyfaster but more pleasant.

Completing the security check at entry,once a bulky and time-consuming process,now averages about four minutes. Consularstaff also use this time to check applicants’documents, to ensure smooth intake once in-

side. Applicants then spend an average ofseven minutes waiting for and completingintake procedures at one of the registrationwindows, where a consular employee scansfingerprints, conducts data entry, and pro-vides applicants with interview numbersfrom the automated queuing system. Fin-gerprint scanning now speeds up the entireprocess, as it is a quick, accurate, and non-intrusive way of ensuring that the applica-tion information is unique to each individ-ual.

The bulk of time (averaging 30 minutes)is spent in a spacious waiting room, wherevideos, travel guides and brochures give ap-plicants a preview of places they may see inthe US or tempt business travelers to addtourism to their plans. Once an applicant’snumber appears on a screen above one ofthe windows, the interview with a consularofficer (in either Polish or English) typicallylasts about four minutes.

The entire non-immigrant visa office andapplicant waiting room were renovated in2007, providing a more efficient layout, withmore windows for intake and interviews, anda comfortable atmosphere during the wait.In response to applicant feedback, the em-bassy added sound reduction barriers to thewaiting room in 2011 to increase the privacyof individual interviews as well.

In the last fiscal year, the US Embassy inWarsaw adjudicated more than 48,000 appli-cations, a slight increase over fiscal year2010, and the number of travelers continuedto rise in 2011. With a streamlined and effi-cient visa application process, the US Em-bassy in Warsaw is prepared for even more.

It’s always a great time to visit the US forbusiness or pleasure, and now you have onemore reason to go! •

do you need an interview?

Some applicants may be able toapply for a visa by mail. If the ap-plicant meets the following crite-ria, check the US Embassy War-saw website to determine if an in-terview is necessary:• Applicants who received a visaafter December 10, 2007• Children under the age of 14• Travelers age 80 or over • Foreign government officialsand international organizationrepresentatives.

How to apply• Schedule an appointment.Call the Visa Information Serv-ice Monday – Friday, 7:00 am –8:00 pm (from a landline 703700 120, from a cell phone *74094 00)• Complete the visa applicationform online and pay the visa fee(MRV fee). Have a photo readyto submit with your application.Some applicants may be exemptfrom the MRV fee. • On appointment day, bringproof of payment of the visa fee,application (DS-160) confirma-tion page, DHL Express form,and a valid passport. Some visacategories require additionaldocuments; see the US Em-bassy Warsaw website for infor-mation if you are applying for astudy or work visa.

Visa information Servicetelephone numbers

To schedule an appointmentwith a consul please call the VisaInformation Service Monday –Friday, 7:00 am – 8:00 pm. • 703 700 120 from landlinephones (PLN 4.92 per minute) • *740 94 00 from cell phones—you must dial a * before thenumber (PLN 4.92 per minute) • (+48) 22 523 2000 from any-where in the world (USD 7.11for 7 minutes, charged to a Visaor MasterCard) If you have problems reachingthe info line, please contact yourphone service provider to ensureyou have access to premium ratenumbers.• You may watch video on theapplication process at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es-PJZqtk6aw

Elizabeth Shackelford and ElżbietaIwaszko, US Embassy, Warsaw

FocusUS visas

Hassle-free travelApplying for a visa to visit the US may beeasier than you think

Company profileCurb-Tech Europe


Integrated excellence

the corporate advisory, accountingand auditing markets have been un-dergoing constant change lately, sohow was 2011 for Mazars in Poland?Mazars is an international, integrated andindependent organization. We specialize inaudit, accountancy, tax and advisory serv-ices. Mazars has offices in 61 countries,employing about 13,000 professionals. Theever-expanding portfolio of Mazars’ serv-ices reflects the group’s ambition to provideits clients—whether international corpora-tions, SMEs or individuals—with tailoredand global solutions to help them achievesustainable growth.

Since 1992, Mazars has been present anddeveloping in Poland. Over the past twodecades, we have had the privilege of partic-ipating in the process of transformation ofthe corporate market and in Poland’s eco-nomic development.

Overall, 2011 was another successful yearfor Mazars Poland. We managed to maintaina good level of revenues from audits and ac-counting, and the relatively good economicsituation in Poland allowed our tax and advi-sory services to develop further. With the fi-nancial and economic crisis spreading allover the world, the established rules, waysof acting, and market positions that until re-cently were taken for granted are now beingquestioned. This situation has caused themajor economic actors to ask themselves le-gitimate questions about the sense of theiractions. Therefore, it is a delicate period toface, but at the same time it creates new dy-namics.

Although our profession has not directlybeen called into question, it has comeunder debate, particularly in the context ofauditing the accounts of large internationalcorporations. Reinforcement of the supervi-sion of audit firms at the European level hasbeen placed high on the agenda. The Euro-pean Commission has published a greenpaper entitled “Audit Policy: Lessons fromthe Crisis” in order to rethink the functionof audits and the way in which the auditmarket is structured in the EU. The cre-ation of a less concentrated, more efficient,integrated and competitive audit market iscrucial for ensuring financial stability to Eu-rope, and for serving the public interest.

Given the relatively recent experience ofaudit actors, the audit market in Poland isopen and adaptable to new perspectives. Inaddition, Mazars has practiced joint audits,under French regulations regarding public-interest entities, and this practice guaran-tees excellent technical quality and re-

sponds to the risk of excessive market con-centration. The generalization of well-bal-anced joint audit practice in Europe couldbe an appropriate measure.

What has been the key to Mazars’growth in Poland?We started from a small team of profession-als serving our international clients withtheir investments in this country. Now weare present in Warsaw and Kraków, withover 170 professionals, and we offer a fullrange of audit, tax, business advisory andaccounting solutions. We serve more than800 Polish and international enterprises,large and small, including those listed onthe Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Naturally, this success is partly due to therole of Mazars in France in joint audits forlarge listed companies. This positions us asa player with a very high level of technicalquality. We realized that the majority ofthese large companies continue to chooseMazars in other countries. So, the recogni-tion of the large corporations hiring Mazarsis a major factor in our development. Fur-thermore, the appeal of Mazars to interna-tional organizations other than French onesis now another key factor in our worldwidedevelopment, and especially in Poland.

does Mazars have a distinct businessmodel?Mazars naturally has its origins in France,due to the origins of its founders and the

American Investor’s Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Michel Kiviatkowski, Man-aging Partner of Mazars in Poland, about the company’s challenges and plans

dynamics of large French companies usingMazars’ services. However, Mazars is estab-lished strongly all over the world, followingthe integrated model, with more than 80%of staff outside France.

For example, for our American friends,the positioning of Mazars in the US resultsfrom the merger with Weiser in 2010, whichconfirmed the long-standing cooperationbetween Mazars and Weiser, with over 700professionals. I recently discovered the Pol-ish origin of some of the professionalsworking in New York, namely that the presi-dent of Weiser Mazars, Douglas Philips, hasa Polish mother.

The Mazars model of partnership is nowpresent worldwide and is led by the sameprinciples everywhere. We strive to make adifference to our clients and our teams. Weare passionate about delivering value andthe personal touch to clients, about devel-oping our people and about shaping ourprofession.

Just one final word about our businessmodel: For over twenty years we have beenbuilding an integrated organization becausewe remain convinced that this is the mosteffective model—one that enables the bestsharing of experience and abilities, the onlyreal way to achieve transparency and, ulti-mately, to provide the best services to ourclients all around the world.

How does Mazars see the years aheadin Poland?2011 was a very interesting year. The Polishmarket was only moderately influenced bythe international crisis, though the meas-ures to remedy the crisis are far from com-pleted. But 2012 will require new adjust-ments and Poland will not be spared. Nev-ertheless, the CEE markets, and the Polishmarket in particular, remain very attractive,and the quality of the emerging market(strong demand, low costs) is widely recog-nized.

The positioning of Mazars on the marketis to meet the requirements of technical ex-cellence and keep costs at a well-adaptedlevel. Our development in Polish regions isone of the means to achieve this goal.

Besides this, we think that the require-ments necessary to carry out our activitiesin Poland, in the area of audit, outsourcingand tax, will increase and will cause profes-sionals to regroup within those organiza-tions that want to provide top-quality serv-ices to the Polish market. •

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Present on almost all continents

How has the past year been for Hillinternational in Poland?This year our company is celebratingits 20 anniversary of successful opera-tions on the Polish market. 2011 was avery important year for our company.After two years of economic crisis anduncertainty on the market, especiallyin our area of activity—constructionprojects—more and more investors de-cided to continue projects suspendedduring the crisis or start completelynew projects. The company success-fully survived the crisis and becamestronger in organization and cost-con-trol areas. That allowed us to be morecompetitive on the market and obtainsome very large and interesting proj-ects. The projects are in differentphases of realization, preparation orimplementation, which provides a solidbase for the company’s further devel-opment and further success on thePolish market.

What are the main reasons for yoursuccess in Central & eastern eu-rope, and Poland in particular?We are members of a global corpora-tion, with more than 3,000 profession-als in 100 offices worldwide. Our com-pany is involved in the most presti-gious and innovative projects world-wide. We have the experience and theexpertise to help our clients delivertheir projects on time, within budget,and with the highest quality possible.That definitely allows us to be perceivedas a very reliable party, and definitelyhelps in growing market share under thecurrent economic conditions. We alsoemploy highly qualified staff capable ofdelivering high-quality services.

Our company offers a wide range ofservices, including cost management,project management, construction man-agement, fit-outs, due diligence report-ing, fund monitoring for banks, energycertificates, obtaining permits from theauthorities, construction claims, andPPP expertise. Our services are cre-atively tailored to the individual needsand interests of each client and eachcommission.

The projects we undertake range frommulti-million-dollar developments tolow-budget roll-out projects, all marked

American Investor’s Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Jacek Ż̇urawski, Vice-Presi-dent and Managing Director of Hill International, a project and construction man-agement company, as it celebrates 20 years of business in Poland

by the same commitment to excel-lence, effective management and suc-cessful outcomes.

What is Hill international’s corpo-rate culture all about?Hill International’s corporate cultureis about work, work ethics, and itspeople. It is about development, de-sign and construction. Our culture isteam-based and goal-oriented, focusedon the client and the quality of ourwork, as we always strive to surpassour client’s expectations. Globally, weall work together to achieve our com-mon goal, and ours is success: thesuccess of our clients, which ulti-mately turns into our success and thesuccess of our shareholders.

We are also a multicultural organiza-tion, open to dialogue and experience-sharing, and heavily focused on prob-lem-solving. We are present on almostall continents—we need to know howto talk to each other.

What are Hill international’sprospects for 2012 and beyond?We see ourselves growing our businessthrough outstanding relationship man-agement, acquisition of new clients,diversification of our services, and ex-tension of our operations on new mar-kets like Russia and Ukraine. On onehand, we definitely see ourselves deliv-

ering on retail, office and high-rise proj-ects. On the other hand, we would like todevelop new types of services, like En-ergy Performance Certificates, sustain-ability certifications—BREAM andLEED—and public procurement.

As a global company, we are very expe-rienced in delivering energy, environ-mental and rail projects, and we defi-nitely see ourselves applying our globalexperience on the local market. We alsohave very valuable expertise in public-private partnerships, which we will bedrawing on for prospective PPP projects.To achieve these goals, we will be im-proving our corporate standards andservices on an ongoing basis, adaptingthem to the current market and the con-tinuing growth of the company. •

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“We are a multicul-tural organization,open to dialogueand experience-sharing, and heavily focused on problem-solving.”

Company profileHill International Mazars


A tangled web

By Konrad Raszkiewicz

Łaszczuk & Partners

could the ban be objectively jus-tified in this case by a need toprovide individual advice to thecustomer about the product orto protect the customer againstimproper use of the product.

The ECJ also held that a defacto ban on Internet sales didnot fall within the “block exemp-tion” allowing use in a selectivedistribution system of a provi-sion “prohibiting a member ofthe system from operating out ofan unauthorised place of estab-lishment” (Art. 4(c) of Commis-sion Regulation (EC) No.2790/1999, now covered by Art.4(c) of Commission Regulation(EC) No. 330/2010 to the sameeffect). In theory such a clausemight qualify for an individualexemption under Art. 101(3) ofthe treaty (for agreements orpractices that contribute to im-provements in production, dis-tribution, technology and thelike, benefitting consumerswithout substantially eliminatingcompetition), but the court didnot have enough information torule on that issue in this specificcase.

Because Polish competitionregulations are modeled on EUlaw (both the treaty and the 2010regulation), the judgment in thePierre Fabre case is expected toguide the interpretation of na-tional law by the Polish competi-tion authority and the Polishstate courts when they reviewthe lawfulness of clauses con-tained in selective distributionagreements.

What is permissible?If, as a rule, a general and ab-solute ban on online sales maynot be imposed on an author-ized distributor in a selectivedistribution system, is theresome other way that producersusing this distribution modelcan limit online sales in order toprotect their brands withoutrunning afoul of competitionlaw?

According to the “Guidelineson Vertical Restraints” (2010/C130/01), published by the Euro-pean Commission in May 2010as an aid to interpreting and ap-

The recent ECJ case involvedPierre Fabre, a French companyproducing cosmetics and personalcare products distributed mainlythrough pharmacies in France andelsewhere in Europe, although theproducts are not pharmaceuticals.The distribution agreement re-quired that the goods be sold ex-clusively in a physical space inwhich a qualified pharmacist mustbe present. De facto they could notbe sold online.

In 2006 the French competitionauthority initiated a proceedingagainst Pierre Fabre in which itfound that this provision violatedcompetition law, and imposed afine on Pierre Fabre. The companyappealed to the court in Paris,which had doubts about interpre-tation of the relevant provisions ofcompetition law and sought a pre-liminary ruling from the ECJ todetermine whether such a generaland absolute ban of online saleswas consistent with EU law.

The ECJ found that the clausewould amount to a restriction oncompetition “by object,” in viola-tion of Art. 101(1) of the Treaty onthe Functioning of the EuropeanUnion, unless it was “objectivelyjustified.” To determine whethersuch a clause is “objectively justi-fied” requires “an individual andspecific examination of the contentand objective of that contractualclause and the legal and economiccontext of which it forms a part.”

The ECJ did not list all the cir-cumstances that might objectivelyjustify the use of such a restriction.It did find, however, that the needto maintain the prestigious imageof the products cannot serve as anobjective justification for imposinga ban on Internet sales within a se-lective distribution network. Nor

In recent years the Internethas become not only an im-portant instrument for com-

munication, but also a major out-let for businesses to sell theirproducts. Some businesses seekto exploit this outlet to the fullestin order to reach as many cus-tomers as possible and move asmuch product as they can. Butsome producers regard the Inter-net with suspicion, afraid that on-line sales may have negative con-sequences, for example by dimin-ishing their image and cheapen-ing their brand. Such producersmay try to limit online sales oftheir products through variousmeans.

The law is not indifferent tothis conflict. Online sales aresubject to principles of competi-tion law, for example concerningthe issue of selective distributionagreements in which the pro-ducer restricts or prohibits onlinesales of its goods. It is not just atheoretical issue, as demon-strated by the recent judgment ofthe European Court of Justice inPierre Fabre Dermo-CosmétiqueSAS v. Président de l’Autorité dela concurrence (Case C-439/09,October 13, 2011).

eCJ positionSelective distribution is definedunder EU law as a system inwhich the producer promises tosell only to specific distributorswho meet certain criteria. Thedistributors cannot resell thegoods to other distributors whodo not belong to the system. Thistype of system is typically used fordistribution of brand-name con-sumer products that require spe-cial sales skills, such as cosmeticsor jewelry.

Selective distribu-tion agreementsprohibiting onlinesales may violatecompetition law

plying the 2010 regulation, aproducer may require compli-ance with certain quality stan-dards when its goods are resoldvia Internet, just as it may re-quire certain quality standardsfor brick-and-mortar points ofsale. The criteria for onlinesales should be “equivalent” tothe criteria for sale through tra-ditional outlets. Equivalent doesnot mean identical, but the cri-teria should serve the same pur-poses and achieve comparableresults. If the principle of equiv-alence is violated, the criterioncould be found to be contrary tocompetition law.

According to the EuropeanCommission, a producer may,for example, require that its dis-tributors have one or morebrick-and-mortar shops orshowrooms as a condition forbecoming a member of its dis-tribution system. It may requiredistributors to use third-partyplatforms for online sales. Itmay also require the distributorto sell a certain offline minimum(the same for all distributors ordetermined individually for eachdistributor) to ensure efficientoperation of its physical point ofsales. Nonetheless, any attemptto impose maximum permissi-ble quantities of online sales bydistributors would be rejectedas a “hardcore” restriction oncompetition. Similarly, dualpricing, requiring the distribu-tor to pay a higher price forproducts intended to be resoldonline than for products in-tended to be resold offline,would also be regarded as un-lawful.

Guidelines onlyThese examples of restrictionson online sales have been recog-nized by the European Commis-sion as generally falling withinthe block exemption under the2010 regulation. They are guide-lines and are not binding.Nonetheless, these guidelinesshould be useful for privatebusinesses seeking to interpretthe regulation, as well as courtsand national competition au-thorities applying the law. •


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Effective work is a result ofworking habits. Some employ-ees confess that they are ineffi-cient and consider changingthe way they work. However,most people are not comfort-able with change and will resistit. Hence the conclusion thatthere are only two reasons peo-ple don’t change: They don’twant to, or they don’t knowhow.

What price do you pay?White-collar workers spend onaverage 10% of their work timesearching for information,which over the course of a yearadds up to 6 weeks. And 40% ofwhite-collar personnel admitthat clutter and extensiveamounts of paperwork on theirdesk confuse them, boostingtheir personal anger and ag-gressiveness at the workplace.However, they do nothing tochange that undesirable state of

affairs. In fact, 40% of white-collar personnel admit that theyrepeatedly lose documents. Atypical white collar worker loses1 out of every 20 documents.

The issue of poor documentflow shows that the better weare organized about our work-ing space the easier it is for usto work and the more we getdone. We tend to overlook ourwork space, even though theway it is organized is crucial toefficiency. This lesson is lost onmost office workers, and ineffi-ciency is the result.

Efficiency is well-known onthe production side. Con-cepts for continuous im-

provement, such as Kaizen andSix Sigma, have been extensivelyimplemented in heavy industry.Studies in the US show that effi-ciency in blue-collar industrieshas improved by 90% over thelast decade. During the same pe-riod, however, white-collar pro-ductivity has improved by only4%—despite enormous advancesin technology. Let’s try to applythis philosophy to an office envi-ronment. In this area, efficiencyshould mean getting everythingdone, but with less effort.

Why are you ineffective?When working at a desk, theprocess of doing things in an ef-fective way is often overlooked.Most of us pay little or no atten-tion to our personal workingprocesses, because we just wantto accomplish our goals. Most

people are only vaguely aware oftheir personal work process, andthey seldom if ever address it.But most people do not learnpersonal work practices. Instead,they develop their own individualworking habits—some good andsome bad. The key question inpersonal efficiency is “How do Ideal with my work?” If a clearpicture explaining the process isoffered, employees will act ac-cordingly. If the picture is fuzzy,they will hesitate. Worst of all, ifthere is no picture, they willfreeze.

Cubicle crusade

By Monika Stabińska

PEPworldwide

How do you spend your time?Many people use the SMARTsystem for setting goals—thatgoals should be Specific, Meas-urable, Attainable, Relevant andTime-bound. The SMARTmethodology is very popular inbusiness, but it does not deter-mine priorities. Managersshould distinguish between im-portant/unimportant and ur-gent/not urgent tasks. In studies,managers claim that they do setpriorities and are focused on im-portant tasks, but when they setpriorities it means postponingless important tasks, resulting ina drop in performance. Thenprocrastination sets in, eatingaway at workers’ self-confidence,optimism and creative energy.People who suffer from procras-tination have trouble settinggoals, and struggle to meet thegoals they do set.

In order to control time, wemust understand how we spendit. While most managers hope tominimize extra hours, they donot really have any idea howmuch time they spend on a task.Tasks can be divided into thosethat are major, routine or ad hoc.Without being aware of howtasks are split, we cannot per-form them effectively.

Are you perfect?Aristotle said that perfection isnot a one-off task but a habit.

Work on effectiveness implies acontinuous process of improve-ment. Things cannot be changedall at once, but they can bechanged over time. Workersmust take absolute control overtheir own work habits and styles,and seek ways of continuouslyimproving them. Almost anyonecan work more efficiently andmore effectively, but improve-ment requires comprehension,and that comes slowly to most.But once introduced, it providesa strong foundation for individ-ual and corporate success. •

Short of time,stressed, over-worked, behind ondeadlines: Why dooffice workers havethese problems?How can they workmore effectively?

A typical white-collar worker loses 1 outof every 20 documents.

ExpertWork efficiency Internet law

rectly, or having the authority tocontrol an account owned bysomeone else, including an em-ployer, may create an obligationto file an FBAR. The penaltiesfor failing to do so are severe:USD 10,000 per account, up tothe greater of USD 100,000 or50% of the value of the ac-counts, depending on the will-fulness of the failure to file.

Seek professional assistanceUS persons living abroadshould consult with counsel todetermine their filing require-ments. If they are pro-active,they will very likely be able toavoid the most draconian penal-ties.

Given the onerous reportingrequirements the US imposeson its citizens and Green Cardholders regardless of wherethey reside, many Americansliving abroad, including inPoland, are considering the ad-vantages of relinquishing theirUS citizenship or Green Cardstatus. The consequences ofexpatriation are complicatedand should be considered care-fully with a trained tax adviser.

Watchful PolandAmericans in Poland shouldalso be mindful that the toler-ant stance that the Polish Min-istry of Finance has taken overthe last 20 years with regard toindividuals declaring limitedtax residency in Poland is nowbeing reassessed. Recently, theministry has dedicated staff intax offices to take charge of amore systematic analysis of theannual tax statements of non-residents. How effective thesechanges are remains to be seen,but it is clear that the authori-ties on both sides are taking anactive approach to issues affect-ing the taxation of Americans inPoland. •

terms of employment of thetransferred employees.

RestructuringUnder Polish law the transfer

of an undertaking is not groundsfor dismissal of an employee.This rule applies to both thetransferor and the transferee.

Other grounds that comply withthe Labor Code are acceptable.

In practice, the transfer of anundertaking is often the conse-quence of a corporate merger.After the merger, the new com-pany or the acquiring companyoften considers restructuring thenew entity by laying off employ-ees for economic reasons—forexample, to make the companymore efficient or to unify two dif-ferent pay systems. In such situa-tions, management may wonderwhether they are allowed to re-duce the workforce after thetransfer, given that the labor lawsays that the transfer of an un-dertaking is not grounds for dis-missal of an employee. Can thetwo different pay schemes, of theprevious employer and the newemployer, be harmonized?

It seems that restructuring(i.e. terminating) or harmonizingemployment contracts after atransfer should be deemed ad-missible, so long as it complieswith the general rules for termi-nating or amending employmentcontracts. Employers are entitledto make economic decisionsaimed at making their businessmore profitable, and should befree to create their own organiza-tional structure.

In our view, dismissals ongrounds of redundancy should bepermitted even if they occur aftera transfer, on condition that thenew employer (i.e. the trans-feree) ensures that the decisionis fair under the Act on GroupLayoffs (applicable also to indi-vidual dismissals for reasons at-tributable exclusively to the em-ployer). In particular, the em-ployer should ensure that the se-lection for redundancy is fair andjust, and should not be based onthe fact that the given person is atransferred employee.

This position appears to beconsistent with Art. 4 of the Ac-


The human side of the deal

By Adam Brzeziński, Advocate, Senior Associate at Salans, and Paweł Krzykowski, Advocate,Senior Associate at Salans

ferred employees. The transferorand the transferee are jointly andseverally liable for any employment-related obligations which arose priorto the transfer, but in some casesonly the new employer is liable forsuch obligations. The new employeris generally bound by all of the trans-feror’s obligations to the transferredemployees. This applies not only toobligations under employment con-tracts. The new employer is alsobound by obligations under collec-tive bargaining agreements, payrules, bonus programs and the like.However, the new employer may at-tempt to amend or even terminateparticular employment contractsunder general rules of labor law.

NotificationThe transferor and the transfereeare required to inform the employ-ees about the planned transfer. Thenotification procedures vary depend-ing on whether there are tradeunions operating at the workplace.The trade unions—or the individualemployees if there are no tradeunions operating at the workplace—should be informed in writing atleast 30 days in advance of the dateof the transfer. The notice muststate the date of the transfer, thereasons for the transfer, the legal,economic and social consequencesof the transfer for the employees,the intended actions concerning theterms of employment (work condi-tions, pay and re-training). If theemployer does not fulfill the obliga-tion to notify the trade unions oremployees of the intended transfer,it may be liable for any resultingdamage (there are no other sanc-tions). In addition, consultationswith trade unions are required if thetransfer involves changes in the

The employment law aspectsof the sale of a business en-tity—referred to in EU ter-

minology as the “transfer of an un-dertaking”—are important in manycorporate transactions, especiallythose involving tangible assets, be-cause, under Polish and EU law, thetransfer of an undertaking triggersthe automatic transfer of employees(by operation of law) from one em-ployer to another, on the sameterms of employment.

Some important practical aspectsrelated to the transfer of employeesunder Polish law are discussedbelow. In particular, we draw atten-tion to issues related to restructur-ing involving the transfer, and em-ployees’ entitlement to severancepayments if they decide to termi-nate their contract because they donot want to work for the companythat would take them over.

definition of a transferFirst of all, there is no legal defini-tion of a “transfer” in Polish law,and the understanding of the con-cept has been developed by caselaw. The transfer of a businesstakes place when its tasks or assetsare taken over by another entity.This is the case in particular withthe sale of an enterprise or part ofan enterprise, or an organized col-lection of assets. The employeesconnected with the business aretaken over by the purchaser by op-eration of law. It is crucial to re-member that the parties to thetransfer cannot override the law onthe transfer of undertakings if it ap-plies. The law regarding the trans-fer of undertakings will not apply ifas a result of the transaction there isonly a change of control (as in thecase of a sale of shares), as there isno change of employer.

LiabilityAs a consequence of the transfer ofan undertaking, the transferor is re-placed—automatically, by operationof law—by the transferee in all em-ployment contracts with the trans-

When you buy orsell a companywith employees,beware how youhandle the staff

quired Rights Directive (CouncilDirective 2001/23/EC of 12March 2001), which provides thatthe transfer of an undertaking orbusiness, or part of an undertak-ing or business, does not in itselfprovide grounds for dismissal bythe transferee or the transferor,but it should not stand in the wayof dismissals for economic, tech-nical or organizational reasonsentailing changes in the work-force.

Although there are no recentcourt rulings on this subject, itcannot be completely ruled outthat a court might find that re-structuring is in fact the conse-quence of a recent transfer.Therefore, in such a case, termi-nation notices stating reasonssuch as restructuring might bedeemed unfair under the generalrule that the transfer of the work-place cannot be grounds for ter-minating an employment con-tract.

Moreover, some labor law ex-perts take the view that dis-missals carried out just before atransfer to obtain a higher pricefor the business should be foundto be in violation of the rule thatthe transfer of an undertakingcannot constitute grounds forterminating an employment con-tract.

HarmonizationThe new employer should also beentitled to harmonize pay sys-tems after the transfer of the un-dertaking. It requires compliancewith the formal procedure foramending the terms of employ-ment. Under Polish court rulingsin certain cases, such harmoniza-tion may even require compliancewith the procedure for group lay-offs (involving consultations, no-tification of the labor office, andso on). However, if the new em-ployer (i.e. the purchaser) doesnot harmonize the terms of em-ployment after the transfer, itcould be exposed to an accusa-tion of discriminating againstemployees who receive worsesalaries or benefits after thetransfer of an undertaking thanother employees (originally hiredby the other employer). There isone important restriction, how-

ever, with respect to collective bar-gaining agreements, because,under Polish law, for one year afterthe transfer of an undertaking orpart of an undertaking to a new em-ployer, the employees continue tobe covered by the provisions of thecollective bargaining agreementthat applied to them before thetransfer.

Severance paymentsWithin 2 months of the actualtransfer, any transferred employeemay terminate his or her employ-ment contract on 7 days’ notice.Under the Polish Labor Code, thishas the same legal effect as if thecontract were terminated by theemployer, which in certain situa-tions is beneficial for the employees(e.g. they could be entitled to re-ceive state unemployment benefitsimmediately).

In practice, employees who ter-minate their employment contractsthis way often demand statutoryseverance pay. Many such caseshave been heard by the laborcourts.

According to judicial precedent,employees who terminate their em-ployment on 7 days’ notice due to atransfer will not always be entitledto statutory severance pay. This en-titlement arises only if the em-ployee terminates the employmentrelationship within 2 months afterthe transfer due to a seriously nega-tive change of working conditions,e.g. a salary reduction, a change inthe type of work, a change in theplace of work, or a change of thework schedule. It appears that anemployee terminating the employ-ment contract on 7 days’ noticeshould indicate the reason for ter-mination. This means that if theemployee wishes to receive sever-ance pay, he or she should specifyas the grounds “a significantchange of working conditions to theemployee’s disadvantage.” If theemployee does not indicate thisreason, the termination will still beeffective but it will not entitle theemployee to receive severance pay.In the case of a court dispute, theemployee would have to produceevidence of entitlement to sever-ance. •

Watch your step Expats who failto comply withUS tax laws areskating on thinice

By Jakub Kucharzyk, attorney, Kaye

Scholer LLP, New York,

and Aldona Leszczyńska-Mikulska,

legal and tax adviser, head of the Pri-

vate Client practice, Wardynski &

Partners, Warsaw

that announcement of a taxamnesty for Americans in Canadais imminent.

For Americans living abroadand with business interests else-where, the solution will be lessstraightforward. The first step,however, is to understand the UStax and reporting obligations.

taxpayer’s obligationsGenerally, all US citizens and USpermanent residents must file anannual income tax return report-ing their worldwide income, re-gardless of where they reside.Failure to do so may subject a USperson to penalties of up to 25%of the tax due plus interest. Manynon-filers rationalize that theyowe no US tax as a result of acredit for taxes paid in their resi-dent country. Even this flawedjustification is not available tomany Americans in Poland, asmost liberally treat themselves asnon-tax residents of Poland, pay-ing minimal Polish income tax.Furthermore, irrespective of theirtax liability, Americans abroadmust file certain other reportingforms, most importantly the Re-port of Foreign Bank and Finan-cial Accounts, commonly knownas the “FBAR.”

Any US person who has a finan-cial interest or signature authorityover a foreign bank or financialaccount with a value of at leastUSD 10,000 is required to file anFBAR annually. Owning a foreignbank account, directly or indi-

On December 8, 2011,the US Internal Rev-enue Service quietly

published on its website a factsheet summarizing the taxand reporting obligations ofUS citizens living abroad. AsIRS Commissioner DougShulman warned earlier in theyear, the IRS is “not letting upon international tax issues,and more is in the works. Therisk of being caught will onlyincrease.” Publication of thefact sheet represents a pro-gressive shift in the US gov-ernment’s recent tax enforce-ment efforts to include tax-payers who may have beenhonestly unaware of their obli-gations.

Over the past five years theUS government has aggres-sively pursued tax enforce-ment beyond its own borders,first by prosecuting Swissbankers and their US clientsand then by initiating twoamnesty programs designed tocapture hidden offshore bankaccounts, all while openingnew offices abroad and addingstaff to existing overseas of-fices. These efforts haveproved to be enormously suc-cessful by netting tens ofthousands of non-complianttaxpayers and hundreds ofmillions of dollars in backtaxes and penalties. Even hon-est Americans abroad are nowafraid that if they don’t some-how clean up their US tax sit-uation, they will be stoppedand questioned upon return-ing to the US, or worse.

In Canada, home to over amillion Americans, the result-ing public outcry hasprompted negotiations be-tween leaders of both coun-tries. As of the writing of thisarticle, the IRS has confirmed

ExpertEmployment law US tax compliance

modes of governance and cor-porate standards, and createnew business offerings, un-cover unspoken needs, encour-age creative thinking and gain abetter grasp of the landscapewhich the business operates in.

In encouraging your corpo-rate culture to be open to form-ing alliances, there are howevertwo main pitfalls. The first isthat insufficient funds will beearmarked. Creating and man-aging a network of alliances andpartnerships is an investmentof time and resources. If afterthe initial PR announcement,no other means are put intoplace to maintain the partner-ship, the best of alliances aredestined to failure. This can becountered by promoting part-nerships as a core corporatestrategy and not a short-termtactic or one-off perk in timesof plenty. This will be crucial inproviding the business networkthe legitimacy and long-termresources needed to generatevalue over time. The secondrisk is that entering a partner-ship will be considered inter-nally as an M&A and thus bestraitjacketed into formalagreements, limiting the scopefor communication and cross-board collaboration.

Business relations manage-ment must be a corporate-widecompetency, not a silo-specificspecialty. Staff across all unitsshould be encouraged to iden-tify potential new partnershipopportunities. Managing yourbusiness relations means muchmore than sending your signedChristmas card to a top client.Make it your corporate NewYear’s resolution to generatemuch more value out of yourbusiness relations this year. •


Halloween Business Mixer

The Pure Sky Clubin the Lumen of-fice building in

Warsaw was the venue ofthe 2011 HalloweenBusiness Mixer. Whilethe lucky participantstook home raffle prizes,all enjoyed food anddrink and had a goodtime until late.

1. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Director; Wojciech Dziomdziora and Andrzej Bobiński, Telekomunikacja Polska;Paweł Tynel, Ernst & Young. 2. Alexander King; Adam de Sola Pool; Paul Fogo, AmCham Board Member. 3. The raffle: AnitaKowalska, AmCham; Paul Cowen, Pure Sky Club; Marzena Drela, AmCham. 4. Radosław Lesiak from Avis with a lucky rafflewinner. 5. Robin Wendell-Zabielowicz, Ernst & Young; Paweł Wideł, General Motors. 6. Tomasz Bieliński, Bank Zachodni WBK;Marzena Drela. 7. Joanna Chomicka, US Commercial Service; Paweł Pudłowski, Marathon Oil, with his wife. 8. ElżbietaRaczkowska, John Bower, Aleksandra Gren, Fiserv; Sylwia Puzanowska, Kancelaria Prawa Pracy. 9. Paul Cowen; Jenny Norris,Jacek Duwadziński, UPS. 10. Katarzyna Borucka, Coca-Cola Poland Services; Pushkar Butani, MediaPolska. 11. Joel Mont-gomery, Endeavor Global; Rick Lada, AmCham Vice Chairman. 12. The mixer in full swing.

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Build über alliances

By Anya Margaret Ogorkiewicz,

Co-chair of the AmCham Marketing &

Communication Committee and

Managing Director, The Keryx Group

collaborate with outside firms,business relations manage-ment becomes a corporate-wide competency and turnsyour organization into onestructured around creating al-liances and allies in every field.

Alliance organizationsPartnerships should not beshort-term collaborationsstruck up in times of crisis.Developing alliances, creatingpartnerships and engaging innew collaborations with variousindustries and across diverseenvironments should be at theheart of a flexible corporateculture.

Alliance organizations arerecognized by their broad ap-proach to engaging with out-side firms. Partnerships areseen as vital, strategic andlong-term engagements withthe ever-shifting business en-vironment. If partnershipswere instead to be considereda luxury, the budget for main-taining these collaborationswould be the first to go intimes of belt-tightening. Part-nerships are made at many lev-els of an organization; however,the approach is not that of afunctional need to be immedi-ately filled but of a broadlyhorizontal learning opportu-nity. Most collaborations canbe beneficial across severalunits of a company. If a part-nership with an outside organi-zation only benefits one de-partment, we are back in thesilo mentality.

By embedding partnershipsin the long-term strategy ofyour company, and thus liber-ating them from performancereports, a wealth of addedvalue can be generated frommaintaining a lattice of al-liances. Alliances are above allcorporate-wide centers of ex-pertise and resources, moreakin to sounding boards thanecho chambers. At best, part-nerships share more than casestudies and best practices.They allow each partner togain mutual visibility in the in-dustry, access new conceptsand innovations, discover new

tency by assigning it to a particu-lar unit is an example of silothinking. Besides the governmentrelations or sales department, aholistic view of your firm mightreveal that your top business rela-tions executives are found in suchdiverse units as investor relations,R&D, media relations, procure-ment, supply chain managementor community relations. Officeand administration managers whointerface with a company’s vitalservice providers are also keybusiness relations managers.

Moreover, in each of these sep-arate business units, the value ofa business relationship may bedefined through the sales or dealsthat it has recently delivered forthe department. Following the80/20 rule, where 80% of anybusiness comes from 20% of thecustomers, many companies areseeking ways to minimize the en-ergy spent on the vast majority oftheir business relationships. Ifyou expect your engagement withoutside partners to regularly showup in the quarterly revenue reportand be broken down per depart-mental unit, your organization isnot getting the most value out ofits business relations investment.

There are several ways forbreaking out of silo thinking,from cross-training staff tochanging the corporate rewardsystems to better encouragecross-departmental work. An-other good way to unite inde-pendent parts of the business isby making business relationsmanagement the heart of yourcompany’s long-term strategy. Bybringing together the best prac-tices of all the employees who

Which business division isin charge of your mostimportant business rela-

tions? Most executives would saythe sales department or the publicaffairs team. How does your firmmanage its outside business rela-tions? Often the answer will be ei-ther a piece of marketing softwarethat gauges customer satisfaction,or a particularly charismatic per-son engaged by the firm to partakein that fizzy business-mixer sportthat only natural extroverts seemto excel at.

The state of business relationsshould be of prime concern toevery organization. However, theresponses above are all too typicalin how they do not begin to graspthe importance of promotingbusiness relations management asa corporate-wide competency.Today’s tendency is to pigeonholethe management of a company’snetworks, alliances and businessrelations with a specific depart-ment, person, or dedicated soft-ware solution. In a similar vein,the best sign that you are not get-ting enough mileage out of yourbusiness relations is that thiscompetency is expected to delivera specific function, be it to in-crease sales or to cut a businessdeal. Breaking out of this type ofsilo thinking is the first step toengaging in better business rela-tions.

escape the siloSilos are the large cylinders thatseparate and store grain after theharvest. In firms organized intobusiness units, silo thinking iswhen a particular competency isassigned to a particular group,which may create self-organizedentities, much like silos in a land-scape, that mark their distancefrom other business units withinthe same company. Compartmen-talizing a key business compe-

Effective B2B part-nering is an organi-zation-wide compe-tency, not a silofunction

ExpertBusiness relations

EventsWarsaw


1. Guest speakerMarcin Herra, CEOof PL.2012; JudithY. Gliniecki, Am-Cham Vice Chair.2. PawełPudłowski,Marathon Oil; PaulZalucky. 3. MarcinHerra; AndrzejPawelczak, Ani-mex; RichardKałużyński,Kałużyński &Madeja. 4. DavidDeBenedetti,DeBenedetti, Ma-jewski, Szcześniak;Howard Melemed,CA Wireless;Dorota Dabrowski,AmCham Execu-tive Director.5. DorotaDabrowski; An-drzej Sitko, Arup.6. Judith Y. Glin-iecki; Brian Bode;Andrew Hope.7. Rick Lada, Am-Cham Vice Chair-man; Jean-MichelLathuilliere, SofitelWarsaw Victoria.8. Tony Housh,AmCham BoardMember; IreneGrzybowski.

1. Speed Business Meeting. 2. Agnieszka Kowalcze, Director, Scandinavian-Polish Chamber of Commerce; Carsten Nilsen, Chairman,Scandinavian-Polish Chamber of Commerce; Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Director. 3. Dorota Dabrowski; Przemysław An-drzejak, Business Angels Guild. 4. Robert Korzeniowski; Michał Szwarc, Techsoup Foundation. 5. Tomasz Respondek, SupertourLufthansa City Center; Alina Gronek, UBD; Dariusz Malczyk, Medicover. 6. Karolina Figura, Miller Canfield; Paul Fogo, AmCham BoardMember. 7. Agata Prosińska, Thomas Schoen, Sheraton Warsaw Hotel. 8. Perła beer on tap. 9. Dorota Dabrowski tries a Time SpaZen treatment. 10. Angelo Pressello, Direct Communication; Thomas Sullivan, Robinson Europe. 11. Lucky winners at the raffle tookhome 26 prizes.

Face to face with the Euro 2012 czar Business in high gear

The Warsaw InterContinental’s Hemisphere restaurant was the venue of the Monthly Breakfast Meeting in No-vember, which featured Marcin Herra, CEO of PL.2012, the company that coordinates and oversees all invest-ment processes in Poland for smooth execution of the Euro 2012 soccer championship.

The Speed Busi-ness Meetingand Business

Mixer in November wasthe latest in a series ofcooperative events be-tween AmCham andthe Scandinavian-Pol-ish Chamber of Com-merce. This time thevenue was the SheratonWarsaw.

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AmCham EventsWarsaw


5th Manufacturers’ Forum AmCham Council Meeting

How to take competitive advantage of the specific situation of Poland’s growingeconomy and curb the growing costs of electricity were the two issues that dom-inated the 5th Manufacturers’ Forum, a day-long conference in December for

manufacturing professionals from southern Poland. (More on page 20.)

The medieval interior of Collegium Maius, the oldest building at Jagiel-lonian University in Kraków, was the venue of the AmCham Councilmeeting in December, attended by representatives of the American

business community in southern Poland, the US Consulate, local govern-ment and higher education.

1. Prof. Andrzej Mania, Prof. Stanisław Waltoś, Jagiellonian University; Ewa Mar-tuszewska, Fluor; Marek Suczyk, Kroll Ontrack; Adam Czasak; Andrzej Kiedrzyn, MillerCanfield. 2. Monika Pilarska, AmCham Kraków Director; Stanisław Waltoś; AllenGreenberg, US Consul General to Kraków. 3. Andrzej Kiedrzyn; Małgorzata Podrecka,Can-Pack. 4. Dave Gibson with his wife, and Ewa Martuszewska, Fluor. 5. TomaszBerbeka, International Paper; Allen Greenberg. 6. Paweł Tynel, Ernst & Young; AlexFiszer, Klub Marchołt; Allen Greenberg. 7. Stanisław Waltoś; Ewa Martuszewska; Andrzej Mania. 8. Tomasz Berbeka; Prof. Janusz Szpytko, AGH University of Scienceand Technology. 9. Mike Dietz, Sabre; Paweł Mazur, Wardyński & Partners.10. Stanisław Waltoś; Monika Pilarska; Paweł Mazur.

1. Monika Pilarska, AmCham Kraków Director, with Marek Matraszek, CEC Govern-ment Relations. 2. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Director, opens the forum.3. Allen S. Greenberg, US Consul General in Kraków. 4. Paul Fogo, AmCham BoardMember. 5. Sławomir Szpak, Rockwell Automation. 6. Henryk Kaliś, ZGH Bolesław.7. Zbigniew Liptak, Ernst & Young; Stefan Dzienniak, ArcelorMittal; Jerzy Kozicz, CMCZawiercie; Sławomir Szpak; Krzysztof Sieradzki, KGHM Polska Miedź; MarcinJakubaszek, Miller Canfield. 8. Zbigniew Liptak. 9. Stefan Dzienniak; Jerzy Kozicz.10. Jan Przepióra, RR Donnelley; Jerzy Kozicz; Piotr Gąska, Cooper Standard.11. Marek Rajca, Silgan White Cap. 12. Krzysztof Sieradzki; Marcin Jakubaszek.

AmCham EventsKraków

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Christmas Business Mixer

AmCham EventsWrocław

1. Tasting StarbucksChristmas-flavored cof-fee. 2. Hosts of theevent: IwonaMakowiecka, Germanchamber; Joanna Bensz,AmCham; and IlonaChodorowska, Britishchamber. 3. Jerzy Tutaj,Lower Silesia provincegovernment. 4. JanuszCharytonowicz, KPMG.5. Philippe Marié, CréditAgricole Polska.6. Michael Kern, Germanchamber; Joanna Bensz.7. Agnieszka Kowalcze,Scandinavian chamber;Joe Tunney, Britishchamber. 8. JessicaGlover, British Embassy.9. Jeffrey Vick, USDeputy Consul General.10. Michael Kern chat-ting with one of theguests. 11. BożenaKrzyżanowska live.12. Joanna Bensz, PatMcGrath, PM Group.13. Tasting sweets fromKraft Foods. 14. IlonaChodorowska with alucky lottery winner.15. Applause for BożenaKrzyżanowska’s perform-ance. 16. Monika Con-stant, French chamber;Iwona Makowiecka;Joanna Bensz; IlonaChodorowska. 17. Deli-cious food was plentiful.

The 9th annual Christmas Business Mixer, a joint production of AmChamWrocław and the British, French, German, Irish and Scandinavian cham-bers of commerce, has become a highlight of the holiday season for the in-

ternational business community in Lower Silesia.

Special thanks go to Platinum sponsors KPMG and Crédit Agricole; GoldSponsors Akcja Job and Nelson Lamartine Executive Search; Silver SponsorCampanile and Premiere Classe Hotels; Bronze Sponsors Avis, Baker TillyPoland, Contact Center, Cukier Królewski, Legnica Special Economic Zone,Randstad and Start People; Product Sponsors Kraft Foods, Starbucks, PM Groupand Xpress; and Lottery Sponsors IBB Andersia Hotel, Avis, Clarena, Baker TillyPoland, Curver, Crédit Agricole, Deloitte, Hertz, Hotel Zamkowy, Leroy Merlin,MeetingsPoland.pl, Mennica Wrocławska, Grupa Trinity, PM Group, ScandicWrocław, Siemens, and Xpress.

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Once a year in December

The Westin Warsaw was the venue of the AmCham Annual General Meet-ing in December, which included voting on the annual report and amend-ments to the constitution. The guest speaker was Prof. Jerzy Buzek, pres-

ident of the European Parliament, who received the AmCham 20th AnniversaryStatesman Award. AmCham also handed out the awards for its Student EssayContest.

The meeting was followed by the Christmas Reception, with a special fusionmenu prepared by Janusz Korzyński, Westin Warsaw Executive Chef. The re-ception was generously sponsored by Citrix Systems, with help from CEDC,Coca-Cola Polska, and the Westin Warsaw.

AmCham EventsAnnual General Meeting & Christmas Reception

Main sponsor:

Supporting sponsors:

Media Patrons:

1. Joseph Wancer, AmCham Chairman. 2. Voting. 3. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Execu-tive Director, with Board Members Thomas Kolaja, Paul Fogo, Judith Y. Gliniecki, PiotrJucha, Joseph Wancer and Rick Lada; Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament;Board Members John Lynch and Robert L. Koński; William Heidt, Chargé d’Affaires, USEmbassy. 4. Barłtomiej Morzycki, Hewlett Packard; Paweł Wideł, General Motors; JerzyBuzek; Jola Jaworska, IBM; Agnieszka Jankowska, GE. 5. Joseph Wancer; Jerzy Buzek;Rick Lada. 6. William Heidt; AmCham Essay Contest participants Zofia Krasodomska,representing Cisco Systems; Zofia Hecht, representing Staffer; and Oliwia Jakubowska,representing Mars Polska; Grand Prize winner Dorota Niedźwiedź, representing UPC Pol-ska; Joseph Wancer. 7. David Green, AmCham auditor, PwC. 8. Robert Lange, AgnieszkaŁukasiak, Magdalena Ostrowicz, Artur Cyganek, Citrix Systems. 9. Anita Kowalska, Am-Cham, with Richard Engel, winner of the raffle grand prize sponsored by Citrix Systems.10. Marek Matraszek, CEC Government Relations; Elisabeth Asirifi, IBM Polska. 11.William Heidt.12. Alain Bobet. 13. Dorota Niedźwiedź reads her essay. 14. Tony Housh;Robert Koński. 15. Thomas Kolaja; Alexander King. 16. Peter Kay and Stan Popow, Am-Cham Board Members. 17. Marek Sowa; Tomasz Wróblewski, editor-in-chief, Rzecz-pospolita daily. 18. Piotr Jucha; Paweł Pudłowski, Marathon Oil. 19. The Bols team.

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