Wojciech Kostrzewa


Wojciech Kostrzewa is a Polish manager and entrepreneur, CEO of Billon and president of the Polish Business Roundtable, an organization of owners and key managers of the largest Polish companies and international enterprises operating in Poland.

Education and academic activity

Wojciech Kostrzewa graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Kiel in 1987. He also studied law at the University of Warsaw in 1979–1981. In 1981, together with four other students from Austria, Hungary, and West Germany, he founded the European Law Students' Association. In 1984–1991, he worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Kiel and later became a researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He published several academic papers on economics and finance.

Professional career

In 1989–1991, Wojciech Kostrzewa served as an economic advisor to the Polish Finance Minister, Leszek Balcerowicz. In 1990–1995, he was CEO of the Polish Development Bank. In 1996, he became deputy CEO, and in 1998 President and CEO of BRE Bank, where he worked until 2004. In 2002–2004, he was also regional director of Commerzbank, responsible for its operations in Central and Eastern Europe. At that time, he was reported to be the only Pole who occupied a high managerial position at a foreign private bank. In 2005–2018, he was President and CEO of ITI Group and long-term chairman of the supervisory board of TVN, one of the biggest Polish private TV broadcasters in the period of his presidency. In December 2018, he became CEO of the Polish-British fintech company Billon, a FCA and PFSA registered e-money institution, which develops a technology to store and transfer regulated currencies and other data based on a proprietary blockchain. Currently, Wojciech Kostrzewa is also member of the board of directors of the Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail, member of supervisory boards of the Ergo Hestia insurance group's companies, owner and chairman of the Pascal Publishing House, co-founder and chairman of Quedex Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange licensed by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, and owner and chairman of Poland Investments, a consulting M&A company.
In 2004–2007, he was president of the German-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2007–2020, he served as vice president of the Polish Confederation Lewiatan, in May 2020 he joined the organization's General Council a Polish nationwide employers' organization. In 2015, he was elected vice president, and in 2019 president of the Polish Business Roundtable.

Honors