Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Artur Tomala Managing Director, Head of Warsaw Goldman Sachs

Artur heads the Polish investment banking effort at Goldman Sachs and is the director of Goldman Sachs International, Warsaw Branch. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2006. In his role, he has originated and led several of the landmark transactions in the Polish/CEE market across products (M&A, ECM and DCM) and various industries. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Artur worked at Lehman Brothers and ABN AMRO. He earned an MBA from IESE Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

Ondřej Vičar Partner Genesis Capital

Ondřej joined Genesis Capital in 2007 from the position of Account Manager with Ogilvy Public Relations Prague where he specialized in financial sector clients. He began his cooperation with Genesis Capital as a turnaround manager in one of the portfolio companies Vltava.cz. Since then, he has been involved in GTH Catering, AZ KLIMA, Servodata, JRC Czech, HSW Signall and 3070 projects.

Brian Wardrop Managing Partner ARX Equity Partners

Brian Wardrop has been originating, executing, monitoring and exiting private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe ("CEE") since 1997.

Mr. Wardrop is Managing Partner of ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”), which is an established private equity firm targeting middle-sized companies in the select countries of the CEE region. The firm has completed more than 25 investments and has been operating in the CEE region since the late 1990s. ARX recently completed the first close of its fourth managed fund (ARX CEE IV).

Mr. Wardrop has led ARX investments in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

Prior to joining ARX, Mr. Wardrop was a Principal and head of the Prague office with Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe). During his tenure at Baring Communications Equity, Mr. Wardrop played key roles in several telecommunications and media sector investments throughout the CEE region.

Mr. Wardrop holds a Master’s degree from Boston University and a Bachelor’s degree from Bishop’s University. Mr. Wardrop is also a graduate of the Owner/President Program at Harvard Business School.

Simon Bodjanski Senior Relationship Management Director TMF Group

Simon Bodjanski has 15+ years of experience in corporate finance, corporate structuring, transaction and asset management build mainly upon the Alternative Investment Funds industry. His professional track record is built on various positions: previously as CEO of Sqope SA, a Private Equity backed RegTech company active in forensic KYC/AML/EDD services for the global finance industry; prior to this role he was a Managing Director at CITCO REIF Luxembourg where he ran the European Real Estate and Private Equity service platform; as Head of International Business Development at Intesa SanPaolo Bank Luxembourg, covering the corporate and financial engineering division. Simon holds Master degrees in Business Administration, Finance and speaks several languages. He is an active board member of various investment funds.

Illia Neizvestny Senior Associate Arendt

Illia Neizvestny is a Senior Associate in the Tax Law practice of Arendt & Medernach where he specialises in the field of national and international tax law with a focus on the tax aspects of unregulated and regulated investment structures for private equity, commercial and private wealth clients. He furthermore focuses on the German, Eastern European and Eurasian markets (including Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine amongst other countries).

Illia is a member of the Koblenz Bar (Germany) and has been admitted by the Luxembourg Bar to practice in Luxembourg under his German professional title. He is also a member of the German Lawyers’ Association.

Prior to joining Arendt & Medernach, he worked in the legal team of the investment funds department of a Luxembourg subsidiary of one of the biggest German banks and as an international tax manager within the Luxembourg and Moscow offices of one of the Big Four firms where he led the Russia and CIS Desk in the Luxembourg office.

He studied in Trier and Speyer and holds the German first and second state exam in law. At the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer he completed the studies and obtained a certificate in European and International Business Law writing a paper on “The new Council regulation on merger control: challenges and issues of the new orientation of the competition law rules applicable to merger control at the level of the concerned undertakings and national competition authorities.

Karolina Stawowska Partner Wolf Theiss

Karolina Stawowska heads the local Tax team in Warsaw. She is a tax and business adviser with over 20 years of professional experience acting for corporate clients, private individuals, and private equity and venture capital funds. Karolina has worked on the restructuring of capital groups, development of tax strategies for acquisitions and sales of companies, and investment financing. She also has extensive experience in tax proceedings and conducting tax litigation in administrative courts. Prior to joining Wolf Theiss, Karolina worked at other prominent international law firms and at a Big Four accounting and consulting firm in Warsaw. She is a member of the National Bar of Tax Advisors.

Krzysztof Kulig Senior Partner Innova Capital

Krzysztof is a Senior Partner and a co-owner at Innova Capital, a leading mid-market private equity firm in Central Europe. He has over 17 years of experience in private equity and capital markets.

At Innova Capital, Krzysztof is responsible for developing investments in financial services and B2B services across the region as well as maintaining relationships with the company’s business partners and LPs and fundraising process for the Fund. Krzysztof has strong experience in European private equity and a proven track record of active engagements in numerous transactions throughout the region.

Krzysztof led or oversaw investments in Polcard, Meritum, Expander, Provus, PEKAES and PeP. He has also sat on the non-executive boards of Neomedic, WP, PEKAES and PeP.

Before joining Innova, he served a position of Vice – President & Managing Director in Euronet Services Poland. He previously worked as a Principal Consultant and Head of the e-business and professional services operations in Heidrick & Struggles.

Krzysztof holds an MBA from the University of Calgary in Canada and graduated from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. Since 2018 he’s been a member of the Polish Business Roundtable (PBR).

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Magdalena Magnuszewska Partner Innova Capital

Magda started her career at Innova Capital in 2004. Since then, she has gained experience in the private equity market, taking part in numerous projects, particularly in the field of TMT and related services.

Her focus has been on investments in new technologies and online markets. Magda’s latest transaction in this sector was Innova’s investment in the Inelo & OCRK, the Polish company offering top quality software for analysis and management of drivers’ work time and is a developer of telematics solutions offered to the transportation industry. She has also been a team leader and mentored new talent at the fund.

Magda Magnuszewska has been involved in the following Innova investments: Mercor, Meritum Bank, Libet, GTS/Benestra, Emitel, WP, NetSprint Group, and the Inelo & OCRK.

Mrs. Magnuszewska graduated from Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management with Honors. She holds a master degree in Finance and Banking.

Kinga Stanislawska Managing Partner Experior Venture Fund

Kinga is Managing Partner and Founder of Experior Venture Fund, responsible for Fund’s operations, including deal sourcing, value creation and mentoring in investments, supervision of exits from investments, obtaining debt financing for portfolio companies as well as for relations with the Fund’s private investors and KFK.

Kinga has been working in investments and finance for the past 17 years. Her experience encompasses direct equity investments (private equity and mezzanine)  as well as investment banking (M&A, capital raising in the form of private and public equity, financing) and investment supervision. Today she sits on the boards of XTRF Management Systems, Tourmedica, iTaxi, Luna Lang, WeGirls, Custom (Tylko), Perfect Dashboard and Cosmose.

Prior to EVF, she was Global Head of TMT at Raiffeisen Investment in Vienna from 2007 to 2009. She started her career in banking at Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup, London) and followed on to become a Manager in Equity Capital Markets team of ING Barings, with responsibility for the EMEA region. In 2001-2007 she was a Principal Banker at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London and Warsaw), where she led equity investment and structured financing projects across the TMT and infrastructure sectors. She was responsible for supervising selected assets of EBRD’s equity portfolio.

Kinga is the Vice President of the Polish PE Funds Association (PSIK). She is member of the European Innovation Council - High Level Group. She is active in supporting women led companies – Kinga is a mentor in Vital Voices and Foundation for Women Entrepreneurship.

Kinga Nowakowska Member of the Board, Chief Operating Officer Capital Park

From 1997, for 11 years, she was the General Director of Call Center Poland, which under her leadership has become one of the largest outsourcing and multi-lingual customer service centers in Eastern Europe;

Since 2007, she has been the Operating Director of the Capital Park Group;

Since 2009 she has also been the General Director of the special-purpose vehicle ArtN Sp. z o. o., belonging to the Capital Park Group, whose aim is to implement a prestigious, multi-functional revitalization project in the place of the former Norblin Factory in Warsaw;

Education: Sorbonne University at the Faculty of Law in Paris, with the specialization of International Business Law.

Maciej Ćwikiewicz CEO PFR Ventures

Maciej Ćwikiewicz has over 15 years of experience in private equity and strategic advisory.

Between 2009 and 2014 he was an Investment Director at ARX Equity Partners (a private equity fund investing in medium-sized enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe), where he focused on industrial and service sectors in Poland.

In the strategic advisory, Maciej Ćwikiewicz worked, among others, for McKinsey & Co, Kolaja & Partners (now Alvarez & Marsal) or PwC. He advised primarily private equity funds during commercial due diligence or the performance improvement programs. He advised also entrepreneurs-owners of Polish manufacturing companies such as Kross, POCH, or Dr Irena Eris. On selected projects he acted as an interim manager, such as Chief Restructuring Officer for RUCH, Kross, or Sanitec Budfarfor.
Maciej Ćwikiewicz gained international experience in the United States, where in 2000-2001 he worked as an Analyst in Aviation Research at Portland International Airport, and also in Indonesia where he worked at Elnusa in 2002.

Maciej Ćwikiewicz graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics, Finance and Banking in 2000 and obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009.

Andrea Ferancová Bartoňová Founding Partner, Chair of the Board Espira Investments

Andrea has over 20 years’ experience in emerging market finance. Prior to ESPIRA, Andrea was a co-owner of Wood & Company, a leading Central European investment bank and brokerage. Andrea was instrumental in growing Wood & Company’s business since its early days, where she started in 1995 in the Equities Division. After a management buy-out in 2000, she became a co-owner as well as the Head of Equities. Under Andreas’s leadership, Wood & Company’s market share in the Czech Equity market grew from 5% to the market leading position of 30%, which the firm still holds today. She also pioneered electronic trading access in Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Istanbul and Dubai, among others. Andrea was the key driver in Wood & Company’s expansion into 11 CEE markets as well as in establishing its London office.

Andrea was numerous times ranked among TOP 25 business women in the Czech Republic by Hospodářské noviny and Forbes surveys and acts as a jury member for a prestigious award Via Bona Slovakia. Andrea is also a Board Member of the Charter 77 Foundation, the largest NGO in the Czech Republic, which supports disadvantaged people and groups.

Andrea graduated from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Economics, Prague.

Tomasz Stasiak Partner Wolf Theiss

Tomasz Stasiak is a Partner and the head of the Real Estate and Construction practice group of Wolf Theiss in Poland. He has 19 years of experience on the Polish real estate market, acting for international investors and developers and participating in a number of landmark transactions. He has been involved in all stages of property projects, from purchasing land, through commissioning contractors and consultants and arranging for funding and leasing, to sale of completed projects. Prior to joining Wolf Theiss, Tomasz worked at other prominent international law firms in Warsaw and Kyiv  He is admitted to the Warsaw Bar of Legal Advisers.

Robert Knorr Co-Managing Partner Mid Europa Partners

Robert Knorr is a  Co-Managing Partner of Mid Europa Partners, a leading buyout investor focused  on the growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Mid Europa has raised and  managed €4.6bn of funds since inception in 1999, and has successfully completed  36 investments in 18 countries in the region to date.

Robert has been with Mid  Europa since the inception of the firm in 1999. He serves as a member of Mid  Europa’s Investment Committee, co-chair’s the firm’s Management Committee and  heads Mid Europa’s Retail and Consumer practice. Mid Europa has recently  announced the acquisition of Hortex, one of the leading branded consumer  players in Poland. Moreover, Mid Europa completed the acquisition of Profi, the  leading grocery retail in Romania and, together with Cinven and Permira, the  acquisition of Allegro, the leading online marketplace in Poland. In February  2017, Mid Europa announced exit from its successful convenience retail  investment in Poland, Zabka. Robert is on the board of directors of Allegro,  Profi, Moji Brendovi Group, Hortex and Waberer’s boards. 

Prior to joining Mid Europa, Robert worked with Bankers  Trust and Deutsche Bank in London and Milan. Robert holds a B.A. in Economics  and Business from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and a Masters in Finance  from London Business School.

Krzysztof Krawczyk Head of Poland CVC Capital Partners

Krzysztof Krawczyk is a Head of Warsaw office at CVC Capital Partners, one of the world’s leading private equity and investment advisory firms. He is also a board member of CVC's two Polish portfolio companies, PKP Energetyka and Zabka.

Krzysztof has over 20 years of successful track record in European private equity and he served on the boards of numerous private and publicly-listed companies in telecom, media, manufacturing, logistics and healthcare sectors throughout CEE region.

Prior to joining CVC, Krzysztof was Managing Partner at Innova Capital, a leading mid market private equity firm in Central Europe. Krzysztof also worked at Pioneer Investment, a Poland-based private equity fund, and Daiwa Institute of Research, an advisory arm of Japanese investment bank Daiwa. He is a Vice President and Treasurer of Polish Private Equity Association and co-founded and co-chaired its LBO Committee in the past.

Krzysztof holds a degree (with Honors) in Finance & Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also an alumnus of Executive Program at Harvard Business School. Krzysztof has been awarded a PE Person of the Year for 2014 by members of Polish Private Equity Association.

Piotr Nocen Managing Partner Resource Partners

Piotr Noceń is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Resource Partners. Prior, he was Director at The Carlyle Group and Investment Director and Partner at 3TS Capital Partners where he led and co-led 3 investments in telecom, media and financial services.

Before joining 3TS Capital Partners in 2001, from 1999 to 2000, Mr. Noceń was Executive in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Financial Advisory Services department in Warsaw, as part of the Central European team focusing on merger and acquisition lead advisory projects. He began his career in 1997 as Junior Equity Analyst at Deutsche Bank Research (formerly Deutsche Morgan Grenfell).

Piotr earned his M.Sc. in Finance and Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics and has also completed post-graduate studies in International Economics at the same University.

Krzysztof Konopiński Partner Private Equity Managers / MCI Capital

Krzysztof Konopiński is a Partner at Private Equity Managers / MCI Capital, one of the CEE’s leading private equity firm. He is also a Vice President of the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. 

Krzysztof has over 13-years experience in corporate finance, banking, financial modeling and transaction structuring, supported with several years of entrepreneurial experience. Involved in numerous private equity investments in financial services, fintech, agriculture, healthcare and e-commerce throughout CEE region.

He started his career at KPMG, on a team responsible for audits of banks and financial institutions. From 2004 to 2010, he was actively involved in developing mBank. Krzysztof also worked in KGHM and PKO BP capital group.

Krzysztof holds a degree in Finance & Management from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He is the Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Dariusz Prończuk Managing Partner Enterprise Investors

Dariusz Prończuk specializes in the financial services, IT and construction materials sectors. He has led 20 investments at EI, including those in AVG Technologies, Comp Rzeszów (now Asseco Poland), Kruk, Lukas, Magellan and Skarbiec Holding. Before joining EI, Dariusz worked in consulting and was vice president of the investment bank Hejka Michna.

Nicole Tovstiga Reporter Unquote

Nicole Tovstiga joined Unquote in 2017 as a reporter, focusing on the private equity market in the Nordic and CEE regions. She previously worked for various publications covering energy, commodities and wealth management.

Nicole graduated from SOAS with an MA in Social Anthropology in 2016. She also has an MSc in Business Analysis from Reading University and a BA in English Literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Nicholas Lunn Executive Director, Transactional Risks, Mergers & Acquisitions, FINEX Global Willis Towers Watson

Nick is an Executive Director at Willis Towers Watson where he is responsible for M&A advice on W&I insurance placements. Nick joined Willis Towers Watson in January 2017 from Ambridge Europe where he was UK Underwriting Manager. Nick also previously worked as an M&A underwriter for Pembroke and inhouse corporate counsel at EDF Energy. Nick is a solicitor admitted to practice law in England and Wales. He trained and qualified as a corporate M&A lawyer at Dentons London where he advised on numerous private and public cross border M&A deals, joint ventures and IPOs. Nick left Dentons in 2012 as a Senior Associate having also spent time on international secondments in Rome, Paris and Dubai as well as client secondments to the London Stock Exchange plc and Total UK Limited.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Łukasz Wierdak Investment Partner MCI Capital

He has a 10-year professional experience in private equity and investment banking in Warsaw and London. He has worked for such renowned institutions as Citigroup, Penta Investments, and CAG, and presently is working for MCI Capital/Private Equity Managers. During his professional career he has been involved in over 20 investment projects, both on the buy-side and the sell-side (as the owner or an advisor). The major transactions that he has taken part in are as follows: the take-over of 100% of the shares of Mobiltek/Dotpay and 51% of the shares of eCard, the investment in and then – the disposal of non-controlling interest in Netia, the preparation and the disposal of the shares of Mediasoft Polska (eBroker) and other projects attended by such companies as Bakalland, MK Żary, Promedica24 and the Iglokrak Group. He manages Helix Ventures Partners fund and is in charge of investment projects at the MCI.EuroVentures 1.0 fund.

Krzysztof Urbański Director - M&A Orange Polska

Krzysztof Urbański graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1996. Since then, his career is devoted to mergers and acquisitions. He spent his first 8 years at the corporate finance advisory arm of mBank (Commerzbank Group) and the next 3 years at Societe Generale. He became Mergers and Acquisitions Director of Orange Polska in 2007 and restructured its capital group. The largest transactions he realized are: the acquisition of Eurobank and the disposals of Emitel and of Wirtualna Polska.

Zsigmond Bodnár Founder FaceKom

Zsigmond is a 30-year-old businessman, charismatic entrepreneur, passionate visionary and loving dad of two children. He started his studies at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, and he decided to continue at Stanford University where he acquired theoretical and practical knowledge of startups.

FaceKom Client Identification and Digital Signature software targets service providers and key players of the financial sector. The solution received widespread coverage in the relevant press after its launch in June 2017 and its market entry has generated tremendous domestic and international interest. FaceKom won the prestigious Technology Solution of the Year award from the Hungarian Marketing Association in 2017.   

Today, FaceKom software bundle is successfully used by the 9 largest financial institutions of Hungary and looks to repeat this success across Europe.

Jakub Lerner Associated Partner, Co-Head CEE Corporate/M&A Department Noerr

Jakub Lerner has extensive experience in advising international and Polish clients from a wide range of industries on share and asset acquisitions, mergers, leveraged and management buyouts and other forms of corporate restructurings as well as capital market transactions. Jakub’s practice focuses on M&A, complex commercial transactions, joint ventures, private equity & venture capital and capital markets. He also advises in complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions and cross-border joint ventures and offers added value to our clients due to his multiple qualifications: as Polish-qualified legal advisor, English-qualified solicitor and US-qualified attorney. Jakub is also recognised for his corporate/M&A and private equity work in Poland by renowned international legal publications.

Volodymyr Yakubovskyy Partner Nobles

Volodymyr Yakubovskyy is a partner with Nobles. Volodymyr has a trusted reputation for representing and advising international companies in mergers and acquisitions and other cross-border investment and financing matters with reference to Ukraine and other countries in the CIS. He also regularly advises companies on sophisticated business projects, with a particular focus on corporate, M&A and banking and finance transactions. Volodymyr’s areas of a particular expertise includes such industries like retail, e-commerce, telecommunications, IT, media, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions / insurance.

Alexander Weigelt Partner Nobles

Alexander Weigelt is a partner with Nobles. Alexander is specialized in corporate, compliance and real estate matters and in regulated industries. He advises international companies regarding their investments in Ukraine, in particular in complex construction projects and in the energy and aviation sectors. Alexander’s clients include Ukrainian business groups investing in technology companies in the EU with a focus on technology transfer. In addition, he advises sponsors in PPP construction projects in Central Europe, with a particular focus on road projects.

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Matiss Ansviesulis Co-Founder and CEO Creamfinance

Matiss Ansviesulis is a Co-Founder and the CEO of the fastest growing European Fintech Creamfinance, providing personal finance products in emerging markets. After completing studies at Lancaster University’s Management School and working as a business analyst for JP Morgan in London, he founded Creamfinance in 2012 based on a vision to implement an innovative Smart data-driven consumer finance company that would focus on machine-learning capabilities to quickly evaluate and score. Having started business from nothing, within 5 years he managed to grow the company to €50M revenue business with nearly  400 employees working across 8 geographies

Peter Oszkó Managing Partner Oxo Group

Péter Oszkó is the Managing Partner of OXO Group. Previously he gained his experiences as the country leader of Deloitte Hungary and several business units in former Yugoslav countries. Served as the Finance Minister of Hungary of the technocrat government, formed in April 2009. Upon his return to the business sector, he took the leadership of the VC asset management subsidiary of OTP Group and launched two new venture capital funds besides the existing one. In May 2014 he created the early stage investment and accelerator OXO Group in cooperation with other angel investors and institutional LPs.

He has worked with and invested in firms from various areas, including the energy, biotechnology, telecommunications and financial sector.

Judith Gliniekci General Counsel CEE Equity Partners

Since 2014, Judith Gliniecki is General Counsel at CEE Equity Partners, the investment advisor to the China-CEE Funds I and II. Her role as GC has a transactional focus, on deal negotiation and execution.

Judi has been based in Poland since the mid-1990’s and was the head of the M&A practice in the Warsaw office of an international law prior to joining CEE Equity Partners.

Judi is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. She previously served as a Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission.

Qin Dezhi CEE & Nordic European Legal Department Huawei

10 years plus career as corporate legal counsel, legal director in 2 different regions, North Africa and CEE. Manage all transaction related risks, build comprehensive compliance system and also involved in several big litigations.

Jacek Chwedoruk Managing Director, Head of Poland and Co-Head of CEE Rothschild Global Advisory

He has over 20 years of experience in investment banking in Poland and CEE gained in numerous privatizations, M&A and ECM transactions and private placements. He specializes in advisory to financial sector. Jacek Chwedoruk supervised the privatisation of the first Polish companies including the first five companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He is a founding member of Polish Institute of Directors and a member of the Polish Business Roundtable. He joined Rothschild & Co in 1992.

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Paweł Padusiński Partner Mid Europa Partners

Pawel Padusinski is a Partner at Mid Europa Partners  and the Co-Head of its Warsaw office. Pawel has more than 12 years of private  equity experience. Prior to joining the team in 2005, he worked for the  corporate finance department at PwC in Warsaw. While at Mid Europa, he was  involved in various deals in healthcare (Luxmed, Diagnostyka, Alpha Medical),  retail & FMCG (Zabka, Hortex), technology (Allegro), TMT (Bite),  manufacturing (Norican) and TIC (JS Hamilton).

Pawel holds an M.A. in Finance & Banking and M.A.  in Strategic Management with Honours from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Riccardo Basile Principal Permira

Riccardo is a Principal and a member of the Portfolio Group. He has worked on a number of transactions including Allegro Group, Magento and Tricor.

Prior to joining Permira, Riccardo was a director at AlixPartners in London for five years, where he delivered a number of operational turnaround programmes mostly in retail, consumer goods, transport & logistics and industrial products. Before that, he worked for PwC in London for five years where he focused on delivering supply chain transformation programmes. Riccardo had previously held line management roles in industry.

Leszek Muzyczyszyn Senior Partner Innova Capital

Mr. Muzyczyszyn joined Innova in 2008. He spent the previous three years as a Director of Darby Private Equity running the Polish office. His responsibilities included mezzanine financings and private equity investments across multiple sectors and countries in CEE. Prior to joining Darby, he spent over eight years in total with Allianz Specialized Investments, where he was part of a team managing the Emerging Europe Fund.

Mr. Muzyczyszyn’s chief responsibilities include leading the Portfolio function which oversees the development process for Innova’s investments. He is also engaged in coordinating the financing & debt raising for new investments and for portfolio companies. He has co-led investments in Meritum Bank, Expander Advisors and Bakalland/Delecta.

Mr. Muzyczyszyn holds a Master’s Degree (Distinction) in Law from the University of Warsaw and an MBA from Cass Business School in London. Leszek is a President of the Polish Private Equity Association.

Małgorzata Bobrowska-Jarząbek Partner Resource Partners

Małgorzata Bobrowska-Jarząbek is a co-founder and Investment Director at Resource Partners. Earlier, she was Associate at The Carlyle Group where she worked on transactions in consumer goods, retail and manufacturing and Project Director in International Expansion department of the largest Polish insurance company, PZU.

Before moving to financial services, Ms. Bobrowska-Jarząbek was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Chicago and Warsaw, where she focused on advising clients, among others, in consumer goods, retail and manufacturing.

Małgorzata received MBA from Kellogg School of Management as well as M.Sc. in International Management from CEMS (Community of European Management Schools) M.Sc. in Finance and Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics.

Kaido Veske Founding Partner Livonia Partners

Kaido Veske co-founded Livonia Partners in 2012. He started his career in London and then New York working for investment bank Bear Stearns. Later he spent 3 years with Irving Place Capital, a $2.7 billion mid-market private equity fund, focusing on general industry and consumer investments. He is currently investing Livonia first $100 million fund raised in 2015. Kaido holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Wojciech Domanski Director C2C

Wojciech is a Director in Coast2Coast’s Warsaw office. He brings over 14 years of experience in private equity and finance. Before Coast2Coast, he was a Partner at ICENTIS Capital, a middle-market investment firm in Poland. Wojciech joined ICENTIS from MidOcean Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm in the United States. Prior to that, he raised debt financing in leveraged finance groups of JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, both in New York. Wojciech graduated cum laude in field (Economics) from Harvard College and is a graduate of United World College – USA.

Robert Manz Managing Partner Enterprise Investors

Robert is a Managing Partner of Enterprise Investors, a leading private equity fund management company in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). EI has raised nine funds with aggregate capital of €2.5 billion, has invested in 140 companies in the CEE region, and has exited more than 125 companies, including over 30 public market listings. Having joined Enterprise Investors at the firm’s start in 1990, Robert is one of the longest-active professionals in CEE private equity, with more than 27 years of investment experience. He has been active in development of the PE industry in CEE as the founding president of the founding of the Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (PSIK) and as Chairman of Invest Europe’s CEE Task Force since 2003.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Artur Tomala Managing Director, Head of Warsaw Goldman Sachs

Artur heads the Polish investment banking effort at Goldman Sachs and is the director of Goldman Sachs International, Warsaw Branch. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2006. In his role, he has originated and led several of the landmark transactions in the Polish/CEE market across products (M&A, ECM and DCM) and various industries. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Artur worked at Lehman Brothers and ABN AMRO. He earned an MBA from IESE Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

Ondřej Vičar Partner Genesis Capital

Ondřej joined Genesis Capital in 2007 from the position of Account Manager with Ogilvy Public Relations Prague where he specialized in financial sector clients. He began his cooperation with Genesis Capital as a turnaround manager in one of the portfolio companies Vltava.cz. Since then, he has been involved in GTH Catering, AZ KLIMA, Servodata, JRC Czech, HSW Signall and 3070 projects.

Brian Wardrop Managing Partner ARX Equity Partners

Brian Wardrop has been originating, executing, monitoring and exiting private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe ("CEE") since 1997.

Mr. Wardrop is Managing Partner of ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”), which is an established private equity firm targeting middle-sized companies in the select countries of the CEE region. The firm has completed more than 25 investments and has been operating in the CEE region since the late 1990s. ARX recently completed the first close of its fourth managed fund (ARX CEE IV).

Mr. Wardrop has led ARX investments in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

Prior to joining ARX, Mr. Wardrop was a Principal and head of the Prague office with Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe). During his tenure at Baring Communications Equity, Mr. Wardrop played key roles in several telecommunications and media sector investments throughout the CEE region.

Mr. Wardrop holds a Master’s degree from Boston University and a Bachelor’s degree from Bishop’s University. Mr. Wardrop is also a graduate of the Owner/President Program at Harvard Business School.

Simon Bodjanski Senior Relationship Management Director TMF Group

Simon Bodjanski has 15+ years of experience in corporate finance, corporate structuring, transaction and asset management build mainly upon the Alternative Investment Funds industry. His professional track record is built on various positions: previously as CEO of Sqope SA, a Private Equity backed RegTech company active in forensic KYC/AML/EDD services for the global finance industry; prior to this role he was a Managing Director at CITCO REIF Luxembourg where he ran the European Real Estate and Private Equity service platform; as Head of International Business Development at Intesa SanPaolo Bank Luxembourg, covering the corporate and financial engineering division. Simon holds Master degrees in Business Administration, Finance and speaks several languages. He is an active board member of various investment funds.

Illia Neizvestny Senior Associate Arendt

Illia Neizvestny is a Senior Associate in the Tax Law practice of Arendt & Medernach where he specialises in the field of national and international tax law with a focus on the tax aspects of unregulated and regulated investment structures for private equity, commercial and private wealth clients. He furthermore focuses on the German, Eastern European and Eurasian markets (including Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine amongst other countries).

Illia is a member of the Koblenz Bar (Germany) and has been admitted by the Luxembourg Bar to practice in Luxembourg under his German professional title. He is also a member of the German Lawyers’ Association.

Prior to joining Arendt & Medernach, he worked in the legal team of the investment funds department of a Luxembourg subsidiary of one of the biggest German banks and as an international tax manager within the Luxembourg and Moscow offices of one of the Big Four firms where he led the Russia and CIS Desk in the Luxembourg office.

He studied in Trier and Speyer and holds the German first and second state exam in law. At the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer he completed the studies and obtained a certificate in European and International Business Law writing a paper on “The new Council regulation on merger control: challenges and issues of the new orientation of the competition law rules applicable to merger control at the level of the concerned undertakings and national competition authorities.

Karolina Stawowska Partner Wolf Theiss

Karolina Stawowska heads the local Tax team in Warsaw. She is a tax and business adviser with over 20 years of professional experience acting for corporate clients, private individuals, and private equity and venture capital funds. Karolina has worked on the restructuring of capital groups, development of tax strategies for acquisitions and sales of companies, and investment financing. She also has extensive experience in tax proceedings and conducting tax litigation in administrative courts. Prior to joining Wolf Theiss, Karolina worked at other prominent international law firms and at a Big Four accounting and consulting firm in Warsaw. She is a member of the National Bar of Tax Advisors.

Krzysztof Kulig Senior Partner Innova Capital

Krzysztof is a Senior Partner and a co-owner at Innova Capital, a leading mid-market private equity firm in Central Europe. He has over 17 years of experience in private equity and capital markets.

At Innova Capital, Krzysztof is responsible for developing investments in financial services and B2B services across the region as well as maintaining relationships with the company’s business partners and LPs and fundraising process for the Fund. Krzysztof has strong experience in European private equity and a proven track record of active engagements in numerous transactions throughout the region.

Krzysztof led or oversaw investments in Polcard, Meritum, Expander, Provus, PEKAES and PeP. He has also sat on the non-executive boards of Neomedic, WP, PEKAES and PeP.

Before joining Innova, he served a position of Vice – President & Managing Director in Euronet Services Poland. He previously worked as a Principal Consultant and Head of the e-business and professional services operations in Heidrick & Struggles.

Krzysztof holds an MBA from the University of Calgary in Canada and graduated from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. Since 2018 he’s been a member of the Polish Business Roundtable (PBR).

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Magdalena Magnuszewska Partner Innova Capital

Magda started her career at Innova Capital in 2004. Since then, she has gained experience in the private equity market, taking part in numerous projects, particularly in the field of TMT and related services.

Her focus has been on investments in new technologies and online markets. Magda’s latest transaction in this sector was Innova’s investment in the Inelo & OCRK, the Polish company offering top quality software for analysis and management of drivers’ work time and is a developer of telematics solutions offered to the transportation industry. She has also been a team leader and mentored new talent at the fund.

Magda Magnuszewska has been involved in the following Innova investments: Mercor, Meritum Bank, Libet, GTS/Benestra, Emitel, WP, NetSprint Group, and the Inelo & OCRK.

Mrs. Magnuszewska graduated from Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management with Honors. She holds a master degree in Finance and Banking.

Kinga Stanislawska Managing Partner Experior Venture Fund

Kinga is Managing Partner and Founder of Experior Venture Fund, responsible for Fund’s operations, including deal sourcing, value creation and mentoring in investments, supervision of exits from investments, obtaining debt financing for portfolio companies as well as for relations with the Fund’s private investors and KFK.

Kinga has been working in investments and finance for the past 17 years. Her experience encompasses direct equity investments (private equity and mezzanine)  as well as investment banking (M&A, capital raising in the form of private and public equity, financing) and investment supervision. Today she sits on the boards of XTRF Management Systems, Tourmedica, iTaxi, Luna Lang, WeGirls, Custom (Tylko), Perfect Dashboard and Cosmose.

Prior to EVF, she was Global Head of TMT at Raiffeisen Investment in Vienna from 2007 to 2009. She started her career in banking at Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup, London) and followed on to become a Manager in Equity Capital Markets team of ING Barings, with responsibility for the EMEA region. In 2001-2007 she was a Principal Banker at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London and Warsaw), where she led equity investment and structured financing projects across the TMT and infrastructure sectors. She was responsible for supervising selected assets of EBRD’s equity portfolio.

Kinga is the Vice President of the Polish PE Funds Association (PSIK). She is member of the European Innovation Council - High Level Group. She is active in supporting women led companies – Kinga is a mentor in Vital Voices and Foundation for Women Entrepreneurship.

Kinga Nowakowska Member of the Board, Chief Operating Officer Capital Park

From 1997, for 11 years, she was the General Director of Call Center Poland, which under her leadership has become one of the largest outsourcing and multi-lingual customer service centers in Eastern Europe;

Since 2007, she has been the Operating Director of the Capital Park Group;

Since 2009 she has also been the General Director of the special-purpose vehicle ArtN Sp. z o. o., belonging to the Capital Park Group, whose aim is to implement a prestigious, multi-functional revitalization project in the place of the former Norblin Factory in Warsaw;

Education: Sorbonne University at the Faculty of Law in Paris, with the specialization of International Business Law.

Maciej Ćwikiewicz CEO PFR Ventures

Maciej Ćwikiewicz has over 15 years of experience in private equity and strategic advisory.

Between 2009 and 2014 he was an Investment Director at ARX Equity Partners (a private equity fund investing in medium-sized enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe), where he focused on industrial and service sectors in Poland.

In the strategic advisory, Maciej Ćwikiewicz worked, among others, for McKinsey & Co, Kolaja & Partners (now Alvarez & Marsal) or PwC. He advised primarily private equity funds during commercial due diligence or the performance improvement programs. He advised also entrepreneurs-owners of Polish manufacturing companies such as Kross, POCH, or Dr Irena Eris. On selected projects he acted as an interim manager, such as Chief Restructuring Officer for RUCH, Kross, or Sanitec Budfarfor.
Maciej Ćwikiewicz gained international experience in the United States, where in 2000-2001 he worked as an Analyst in Aviation Research at Portland International Airport, and also in Indonesia where he worked at Elnusa in 2002.

Maciej Ćwikiewicz graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics, Finance and Banking in 2000 and obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009.

Andrea Ferancová Bartoňová Founding Partner, Chair of the Board Espira Investments

Andrea has over 20 years’ experience in emerging market finance. Prior to ESPIRA, Andrea was a co-owner of Wood & Company, a leading Central European investment bank and brokerage. Andrea was instrumental in growing Wood & Company’s business since its early days, where she started in 1995 in the Equities Division. After a management buy-out in 2000, she became a co-owner as well as the Head of Equities. Under Andreas’s leadership, Wood & Company’s market share in the Czech Equity market grew from 5% to the market leading position of 30%, which the firm still holds today. She also pioneered electronic trading access in Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Istanbul and Dubai, among others. Andrea was the key driver in Wood & Company’s expansion into 11 CEE markets as well as in establishing its London office.

Andrea was numerous times ranked among TOP 25 business women in the Czech Republic by Hospodářské noviny and Forbes surveys and acts as a jury member for a prestigious award Via Bona Slovakia. Andrea is also a Board Member of the Charter 77 Foundation, the largest NGO in the Czech Republic, which supports disadvantaged people and groups.

Andrea graduated from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Economics, Prague.

Tomasz Stasiak Partner Wolf Theiss

Tomasz Stasiak is a Partner and the head of the Real Estate and Construction practice group of Wolf Theiss in Poland. He has 19 years of experience on the Polish real estate market, acting for international investors and developers and participating in a number of landmark transactions. He has been involved in all stages of property projects, from purchasing land, through commissioning contractors and consultants and arranging for funding and leasing, to sale of completed projects. Prior to joining Wolf Theiss, Tomasz worked at other prominent international law firms in Warsaw and Kyiv  He is admitted to the Warsaw Bar of Legal Advisers.

Robert Knorr Co-Managing Partner Mid Europa Partners

Robert Knorr is a  Co-Managing Partner of Mid Europa Partners, a leading buyout investor focused  on the growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Mid Europa has raised and  managed €4.6bn of funds since inception in 1999, and has successfully completed  36 investments in 18 countries in the region to date.

Robert has been with Mid  Europa since the inception of the firm in 1999. He serves as a member of Mid  Europa’s Investment Committee, co-chair’s the firm’s Management Committee and  heads Mid Europa’s Retail and Consumer practice. Mid Europa has recently  announced the acquisition of Hortex, one of the leading branded consumer  players in Poland. Moreover, Mid Europa completed the acquisition of Profi, the  leading grocery retail in Romania and, together with Cinven and Permira, the  acquisition of Allegro, the leading online marketplace in Poland. In February  2017, Mid Europa announced exit from its successful convenience retail  investment in Poland, Zabka. Robert is on the board of directors of Allegro,  Profi, Moji Brendovi Group, Hortex and Waberer’s boards. 

Prior to joining Mid Europa, Robert worked with Bankers  Trust and Deutsche Bank in London and Milan. Robert holds a B.A. in Economics  and Business from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and a Masters in Finance  from London Business School.

Krzysztof Krawczyk Head of Poland CVC Capital Partners

Krzysztof Krawczyk is a Head of Warsaw office at CVC Capital Partners, one of the world’s leading private equity and investment advisory firms. He is also a board member of CVC's two Polish portfolio companies, PKP Energetyka and Zabka.

Krzysztof has over 20 years of successful track record in European private equity and he served on the boards of numerous private and publicly-listed companies in telecom, media, manufacturing, logistics and healthcare sectors throughout CEE region.

Prior to joining CVC, Krzysztof was Managing Partner at Innova Capital, a leading mid market private equity firm in Central Europe. Krzysztof also worked at Pioneer Investment, a Poland-based private equity fund, and Daiwa Institute of Research, an advisory arm of Japanese investment bank Daiwa. He is a Vice President and Treasurer of Polish Private Equity Association and co-founded and co-chaired its LBO Committee in the past.

Krzysztof holds a degree (with Honors) in Finance & Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also an alumnus of Executive Program at Harvard Business School. Krzysztof has been awarded a PE Person of the Year for 2014 by members of Polish Private Equity Association.

Piotr Nocen Managing Partner Resource Partners

Piotr Noceń is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Resource Partners. Prior, he was Director at The Carlyle Group and Investment Director and Partner at 3TS Capital Partners where he led and co-led 3 investments in telecom, media and financial services.

Before joining 3TS Capital Partners in 2001, from 1999 to 2000, Mr. Noceń was Executive in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Financial Advisory Services department in Warsaw, as part of the Central European team focusing on merger and acquisition lead advisory projects. He began his career in 1997 as Junior Equity Analyst at Deutsche Bank Research (formerly Deutsche Morgan Grenfell).

Piotr earned his M.Sc. in Finance and Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics and has also completed post-graduate studies in International Economics at the same University.

Krzysztof Konopiński Partner Private Equity Managers / MCI Capital

Krzysztof Konopiński is a Partner at Private Equity Managers / MCI Capital, one of the CEE’s leading private equity firm. He is also a Vice President of the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. 

Krzysztof has over 13-years experience in corporate finance, banking, financial modeling and transaction structuring, supported with several years of entrepreneurial experience. Involved in numerous private equity investments in financial services, fintech, agriculture, healthcare and e-commerce throughout CEE region.

He started his career at KPMG, on a team responsible for audits of banks and financial institutions. From 2004 to 2010, he was actively involved in developing mBank. Krzysztof also worked in KGHM and PKO BP capital group.

Krzysztof holds a degree in Finance & Management from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He is the Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Dariusz Prończuk Managing Partner Enterprise Investors

Dariusz Prończuk specializes in the financial services, IT and construction materials sectors. He has led 20 investments at EI, including those in AVG Technologies, Comp Rzeszów (now Asseco Poland), Kruk, Lukas, Magellan and Skarbiec Holding. Before joining EI, Dariusz worked in consulting and was vice president of the investment bank Hejka Michna.

Nicole Tovstiga Reporter Unquote

Nicole Tovstiga joined Unquote in 2017 as a reporter, focusing on the private equity market in the Nordic and CEE regions. She previously worked for various publications covering energy, commodities and wealth management.

Nicole graduated from SOAS with an MA in Social Anthropology in 2016. She also has an MSc in Business Analysis from Reading University and a BA in English Literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Nicholas Lunn Executive Director, Transactional Risks, Mergers & Acquisitions, FINEX Global Willis Towers Watson

Nick is an Executive Director at Willis Towers Watson where he is responsible for M&A advice on W&I insurance placements. Nick joined Willis Towers Watson in January 2017 from Ambridge Europe where he was UK Underwriting Manager. Nick also previously worked as an M&A underwriter for Pembroke and inhouse corporate counsel at EDF Energy. Nick is a solicitor admitted to practice law in England and Wales. He trained and qualified as a corporate M&A lawyer at Dentons London where he advised on numerous private and public cross border M&A deals, joint ventures and IPOs. Nick left Dentons in 2012 as a Senior Associate having also spent time on international secondments in Rome, Paris and Dubai as well as client secondments to the London Stock Exchange plc and Total UK Limited.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.

Łukasz Wierdak Investment Partner MCI Capital

He has a 10-year professional experience in private equity and investment banking in Warsaw and London. He has worked for such renowned institutions as Citigroup, Penta Investments, and CAG, and presently is working for MCI Capital/Private Equity Managers. During his professional career he has been involved in over 20 investment projects, both on the buy-side and the sell-side (as the owner or an advisor). The major transactions that he has taken part in are as follows: the take-over of 100% of the shares of Mobiltek/Dotpay and 51% of the shares of eCard, the investment in and then – the disposal of non-controlling interest in Netia, the preparation and the disposal of the shares of Mediasoft Polska (eBroker) and other projects attended by such companies as Bakalland, MK Żary, Promedica24 and the Iglokrak Group. He manages Helix Ventures Partners fund and is in charge of investment projects at the MCI.EuroVentures 1.0 fund.

Krzysztof Urbański Director - M&A Orange Polska

Krzysztof Urbański graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1996. Since then, his career is devoted to mergers and acquisitions. He spent his first 8 years at the corporate finance advisory arm of mBank (Commerzbank Group) and the next 3 years at Societe Generale. He became Mergers and Acquisitions Director of Orange Polska in 2007 and restructured its capital group. The largest transactions he realized are: the acquisition of Eurobank and the disposals of Emitel and of Wirtualna Polska.

Zsigmond Bodnár Founder FaceKom

Zsigmond is a 30-year-old businessman, charismatic entrepreneur, passionate visionary and loving dad of two children. He started his studies at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, and he decided to continue at Stanford University where he acquired theoretical and practical knowledge of startups.

FaceKom Client Identification and Digital Signature software targets service providers and key players of the financial sector. The solution received widespread coverage in the relevant press after its launch in June 2017 and its market entry has generated tremendous domestic and international interest. FaceKom won the prestigious Technology Solution of the Year award from the Hungarian Marketing Association in 2017.   

Today, FaceKom software bundle is successfully used by the 9 largest financial institutions of Hungary and looks to repeat this success across Europe.

Jakub Lerner Associated Partner, Co-Head CEE Corporate/M&A Department Noerr

Jakub Lerner has extensive experience in advising international and Polish clients from a wide range of industries on share and asset acquisitions, mergers, leveraged and management buyouts and other forms of corporate restructurings as well as capital market transactions. Jakub’s practice focuses on M&A, complex commercial transactions, joint ventures, private equity & venture capital and capital markets. He also advises in complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions and cross-border joint ventures and offers added value to our clients due to his multiple qualifications: as Polish-qualified legal advisor, English-qualified solicitor and US-qualified attorney. Jakub is also recognised for his corporate/M&A and private equity work in Poland by renowned international legal publications.

Volodymyr Yakubovskyy Partner Nobles

Volodymyr Yakubovskyy is a partner with Nobles. Volodymyr has a trusted reputation for representing and advising international companies in mergers and acquisitions and other cross-border investment and financing matters with reference to Ukraine and other countries in the CIS. He also regularly advises companies on sophisticated business projects, with a particular focus on corporate, M&A and banking and finance transactions. Volodymyr’s areas of a particular expertise includes such industries like retail, e-commerce, telecommunications, IT, media, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions / insurance.

Alexander Weigelt Partner Nobles

Alexander Weigelt is a partner with Nobles. Alexander is specialized in corporate, compliance and real estate matters and in regulated industries. He advises international companies regarding their investments in Ukraine, in particular in complex construction projects and in the energy and aviation sectors. Alexander’s clients include Ukrainian business groups investing in technology companies in the EU with a focus on technology transfer. In addition, he advises sponsors in PPP construction projects in Central Europe, with a particular focus on road projects.

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Matiss Ansviesulis Co-Founder and CEO Creamfinance

Matiss Ansviesulis is a Co-Founder and the CEO of the fastest growing European Fintech Creamfinance, providing personal finance products in emerging markets. After completing studies at Lancaster University’s Management School and working as a business analyst for JP Morgan in London, he founded Creamfinance in 2012 based on a vision to implement an innovative Smart data-driven consumer finance company that would focus on machine-learning capabilities to quickly evaluate and score. Having started business from nothing, within 5 years he managed to grow the company to €50M revenue business with nearly  400 employees working across 8 geographies

Peter Oszkó Managing Partner Oxo Group

Péter Oszkó is the Managing Partner of OXO Group. Previously he gained his experiences as the country leader of Deloitte Hungary and several business units in former Yugoslav countries. Served as the Finance Minister of Hungary of the technocrat government, formed in April 2009. Upon his return to the business sector, he took the leadership of the VC asset management subsidiary of OTP Group and launched two new venture capital funds besides the existing one. In May 2014 he created the early stage investment and accelerator OXO Group in cooperation with other angel investors and institutional LPs.

He has worked with and invested in firms from various areas, including the energy, biotechnology, telecommunications and financial sector.

Judith Gliniekci General Counsel CEE Equity Partners

Since 2014, Judith Gliniecki is General Counsel at CEE Equity Partners, the investment advisor to the China-CEE Funds I and II. Her role as GC has a transactional focus, on deal negotiation and execution.

Judi has been based in Poland since the mid-1990’s and was the head of the M&A practice in the Warsaw office of an international law prior to joining CEE Equity Partners.

Judi is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. She previously served as a Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission.

Qin Dezhi CEE & Nordic European Legal Department Huawei

10 years plus career as corporate legal counsel, legal director in 2 different regions, North Africa and CEE. Manage all transaction related risks, build comprehensive compliance system and also involved in several big litigations.

Jacek Chwedoruk Managing Director, Head of Poland and Co-Head of CEE Rothschild Global Advisory

He has over 20 years of experience in investment banking in Poland and CEE gained in numerous privatizations, M&A and ECM transactions and private placements. He specializes in advisory to financial sector. Jacek Chwedoruk supervised the privatisation of the first Polish companies including the first five companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He is a founding member of Polish Institute of Directors and a member of the Polish Business Roundtable. He joined Rothschild & Co in 1992.

Catherine Ford Editor-at-Large Acuris

Catherine Ford is the Editor-at-Large for the events division of Acuris. She is a consultant editor to event programmes, and engaged in the development of timely editorial content for global corporate finance, M&A and capital markets related conferences and events. She routinely moderates discussion panels at conferences across the region. She has worked for ACuris since early 2002, holding a number of senior editorial roles in the company’s European, US and Asia-Pacific head offices.

Paweł Padusiński Partner Mid Europa Partners

Pawel Padusinski is a Partner at Mid Europa Partners  and the Co-Head of its Warsaw office. Pawel has more than 12 years of private  equity experience. Prior to joining the team in 2005, he worked for the  corporate finance department at PwC in Warsaw. While at Mid Europa, he was  involved in various deals in healthcare (Luxmed, Diagnostyka, Alpha Medical),  retail & FMCG (Zabka, Hortex), technology (Allegro), TMT (Bite),  manufacturing (Norican) and TIC (JS Hamilton).

Pawel holds an M.A. in Finance & Banking and M.A.  in Strategic Management with Honours from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Riccardo Basile Principal Permira

Riccardo is a Principal and a member of the Portfolio Group. He has worked on a number of transactions including Allegro Group, Magento and Tricor.

Prior to joining Permira, Riccardo was a director at AlixPartners in London for five years, where he delivered a number of operational turnaround programmes mostly in retail, consumer goods, transport & logistics and industrial products. Before that, he worked for PwC in London for five years where he focused on delivering supply chain transformation programmes. Riccardo had previously held line management roles in industry.

Leszek Muzyczyszyn Senior Partner Innova Capital

Mr. Muzyczyszyn joined Innova in 2008. He spent the previous three years as a Director of Darby Private Equity running the Polish office. His responsibilities included mezzanine financings and private equity investments across multiple sectors and countries in CEE. Prior to joining Darby, he spent over eight years in total with Allianz Specialized Investments, where he was part of a team managing the Emerging Europe Fund.

Mr. Muzyczyszyn’s chief responsibilities include leading the Portfolio function which oversees the development process for Innova’s investments. He is also engaged in coordinating the financing & debt raising for new investments and for portfolio companies. He has co-led investments in Meritum Bank, Expander Advisors and Bakalland/Delecta.

Mr. Muzyczyszyn holds a Master’s Degree (Distinction) in Law from the University of Warsaw and an MBA from Cass Business School in London. Leszek is a President of the Polish Private Equity Association.

Małgorzata Bobrowska-Jarząbek Partner Resource Partners

Małgorzata Bobrowska-Jarząbek is a co-founder and Investment Director at Resource Partners. Earlier, she was Associate at The Carlyle Group where she worked on transactions in consumer goods, retail and manufacturing and Project Director in International Expansion department of the largest Polish insurance company, PZU.

Before moving to financial services, Ms. Bobrowska-Jarząbek was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Chicago and Warsaw, where she focused on advising clients, among others, in consumer goods, retail and manufacturing.

Małgorzata received MBA from Kellogg School of Management as well as M.Sc. in International Management from CEMS (Community of European Management Schools) M.Sc. in Finance and Banking from the Warsaw School of Economics.

Kaido Veske Founding Partner Livonia Partners

Kaido Veske co-founded Livonia Partners in 2012. He started his career in London and then New York working for investment bank Bear Stearns. Later he spent 3 years with Irving Place Capital, a $2.7 billion mid-market private equity fund, focusing on general industry and consumer investments. He is currently investing Livonia first $100 million fund raised in 2015. Kaido holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Wojciech Domanski Director C2C

Wojciech is a Director in Coast2Coast’s Warsaw office. He brings over 14 years of experience in private equity and finance. Before Coast2Coast, he was a Partner at ICENTIS Capital, a middle-market investment firm in Poland. Wojciech joined ICENTIS from MidOcean Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm in the United States. Prior to that, he raised debt financing in leveraged finance groups of JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, both in New York. Wojciech graduated cum laude in field (Economics) from Harvard College and is a graduate of United World College – USA.

Robert Manz Managing Partner Enterprise Investors

Robert is a Managing Partner of Enterprise Investors, a leading private equity fund management company in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). EI has raised nine funds with aggregate capital of €2.5 billion, has invested in 140 companies in the CEE region, and has exited more than 125 companies, including over 30 public market listings. Having joined Enterprise Investors at the firm’s start in 1990, Robert is one of the longest-active professionals in CEE private equity, with more than 27 years of investment experience. He has been active in development of the PE industry in CEE as the founding president of the founding of the Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (PSIK) and as Chairman of Invest Europe’s CEE Task Force since 2003.

Ronald Given Co-Managing Partner Wolf Theiss

Ron Given is the Co-Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss office in Warsaw. He previously served the firm as the head of the Croatia office and as a resident senior partner in the Czech Republic and Ukraine offices. He joined Wolf Theiss in 2008 after a long career as a corporate and banking partner with the international law firm Mayer Brown. He also served for several years as the general counsel of a NASDAQ-listed, Bermuda-based international insurance holding company.