Rafał Dutkiewicz


Rafał Dutkiewicz is a Polish politician and entrepreneur who served as the Mayor of Wrocław, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland from 2002 to 2018.

Career till 2002

In the late 1970s and early 1980s he engaged in the organization of the Christian Culture Weeks in Wrocław and held the chair of the Adam Mickiewicz Scholarship Association. He was also actively involved in the Scouts movement as a member of ZHP General Council.
In 1982 he earned the Master of Science in applied mathematics from the Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology at the Wrocław University of Technology. He also studied at the Department of Christian Philosophy of the Catholic University of Lublin, and in 1985 he obtained his doctoral degree in formal logics under the supervision of Professor Ludwik Borkowski.
During the martial law in Poland, he was the member of the underground structures of the NSZZ Solidarność in Wrocław. In 1989 he was appointed the Secretary of the Civic Committee and in 1990 elected its Chairman.
He worked as a research assistant at Lublin Catholic University, at Wrocław University and a fellow of the Katolisher Akademisher Ausländer-Dienst in Freiburg.
In the 1990 s he founded the Polish branch of the Signium International headhunting company.
A co-founder of ESKA Radio in Wrocław.

Four consecutive terms as the Mayor of Wrocław (2002-2018)

In 2002, with the support of incumbent Mayor of Wrocław, Bogdan Zdrojewski, and the PO party, Dutkiewicz won the first direct mayoral elections in Wrocław.
In 2006, he successfully stood as an independent and having secured 84.53 % of Wrocław citizens votes he ensured a landslide victory for himself in the first round.His result was the second best in the country.
In 2010 he one more won the mayoral elections in the first round again, with approx. 72% of the vote, and has remained in office for a third term. In the same year President Lech Kaczyński appointed him a member of the National Developement Council.
In 2014, he ran again in the mayoral elections and won in the second round defeating PIS candidate Mirosława Stachowiak-Różecka. The run-off turnout reached almost 55% of eligible votes.
Rafał Dutkiewicz's 12 years of service as the Mayor of Wrocław ended on 19 November 2018.

Business initiatives

From the very beginning of his first term, one of the main goals Dutkiewicz had set was attracting domestic and foreign capital to Wrocław. As a result, the city saw the highest number of investments in its post-war history with the Wrocław Agglomeration benefiting from over 40 thousand jobs created by foreign investors and more than 120 thousand jobs offered by local businesses. These investments have become a pillar of the city's knowledge-based economy and start-ups choosing the Wrocław Technology Park as their operating basis.
During R.Dutkiewicz's tenures, Wrocław’s GDP per capita has doubled. Unemployment rate continued to keep the lowering tendency: from 8% in 2006 to 2,8% in 2016.
According to the recent statistics Wrocław is ranked the third fastest growing city with Dublin and Prague at the head of the list of 200 European cities with populations above 250 thousand.

Wrocław key infrastructure projects and innovation initiatives (2002-2018)

Dutkiewicz's mayoralty was a period of an infrastructure boom in the city with such major projects as:
- an extension of the Wrocław Airport with a new terminal
- the National Forum of Music and HYDROPOLIS
- launching of Nowe Żerniki, a model housing estate drawing inspiration from the Bauhaus movement
- the renovation of the Centennial Hall with a new multimedia fountain, Wrocław ZOO with Afrykarium and the CAPITOL music theatre
- the restoration of the White Stork Synagogue and the Four Denominations District
- endorsement of the Wrocław Research Centre EIT+, which finally has joined the European Institute of Technology by means of so-called EIT KIK, focusing on climate and strategic materials.
- as the first European city Wrocław hosted Knowledge Hub Academia Europea, institution gathering 5,000 European scientists and over 50 Nobel Prize laureates

Culture and Sports

During his majoral term Dutkiewicz endorsed and led a range of activities aimed at promoting Wrocław as a hub of culture, a meeting place for a political debate and a destination for sport fans. After an initial setback to the city's plans to host EXPO 2010, the major and his team successfully organized and held many international events such as: the Weimar Triangle Summit Meeting, the European Culture Congress and the Global Forum – a prestigious meeting of politicians and diplomats, co-organized with the Atlantic Council; FIBA EuroBasket and Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championship.
Wrocław was also one of the host cities of UEFA Euro 2012 Football Championship, the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship and the 2017 World Games - a competition in 37 non-Olympic sport disciplines.
The city was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2016, a title shared with San Sebastian, hosting over 4,000 events e.g. European Film Awards Ceremony or Theatrical Olympics.
In 2016, Wrocław became the first Polish city to have won the title of UNESCO World Book Capital.
Other cultural initiatives launched during Dutkiewicz's mayoral term included the International Film Festival Era Nowe Horyzonty, the ANGELUS Literary Award, the SILESIUS Wrocław Poetic Award and the re-established JAZZ nad Odrą Festival.

Community and social welfare projects

Wrocław Centre for Social Development and the Wrocław With No Barriers programme were important social initiatives developed during the four terms of Dutkiewicz's mayoralty. With the goal of promoting democratic engagement, enabling community-driven initiatives and fostering inter-cultural dialogue the city launched the Civic Budget.

Recent activities

In April 2019, on invitation of the prestigious Bosch Foundation, Dutkiewicz began his residency as a fellow at the Richard von Weizsäcker Academy and moved to work from Berlin. His main focus was urban development, local democracy and European integration.
His recent engagements and contributions include:
- working with the Deutscher Staedtetag and the Democracy Study Centre in Kiev.
- liaising with the Zukunft Berlin Foundation as a co-organizer of the conference commemorating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
- collaborating with the “EU-Japan Fest’’ foundation in organizing a conference on the European Capital of Culture.
In November 2019, Rafał Dutkiewicz followed into the footsteps of Władysław Bartoszewski and Bronisław Komorowski as the third Polish speaker to deliver a speech in Bundestag.
In April 2020 he was admitted a Senior Fellow in the Democracy Study Centre in Kiev.

Memberships

- member of Wrocław University Council
- honorary senator of the Catholic University of Lviv
- honorary member of Academia Europea for all merits to the development of science
- honorary member of the Atlantic Council think-tank

Selected awards

- Józef Tischner Prize awarded by the Publishing Company ZNAK for book,,Nowe Horyzonty
- title of The Man of the Year'' awarded by FORBES
- Grzegorz Palka Prize awarded by Liga Krajowa
- triple NEWSWEEK award for the 1st score in the mayors'ranking
- honorary citizen of Gmina Długołęka and his hometown - Mikstat
- in November 2019 as the third Pole in history Dutkiewicz delivered a speech in Bundestag during national celebrations of Volkstrauertag -The National Day of Mourning. In the proceeding years speeches were delivered by President of France Emmanuel Macron and Presidents of Germany: Joachim Gauck and Frank Steinmaier.

Languages:

Fluent German, English, Russian