Jakub Skiba Appointed Acting President at the PGZ Group. Management Dismissed.

According to the information released within the statement issued by the PGZ, the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting has made changes to the composition of the company’s Supervisory Board. Later, the new board has dismissed the management board and entrusted President Skiba with the duties.

The shareholders’ meeting (PGZ’s shares are owned by the Treasury, represented by the Polish Ministry of Defence, as well as by two state entities: Polish Defence Holding and Industrial Development Agency) has removed Piotr Sulewski (Chairman), Konstancja Puławska (Vice-Chairman) and Karol Tatara (Secretary) from the Supervisory Board. The following new members have now been appointed: Bogdan Borkowski, Wojciech Dąbrowski, Paweł Olejnik and Jakub Skiba.

Dąbrowski (who shall not be mistaken for the first President of the Group) has become the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The composition of the said organ also includes Grzegorz Domański, who remained within the Board’s composition.

Following the above event, the Supervisory Board has dismissed the whole Management Board of the PGZ company: Błażej Wojnicz and members of the management board: Robert Gut, Adam Lesiński, Maciej Lew-Mirski and Szczepan Ruman.

Jakub Skiba, previously a member of the supervisory board, has been delegated to become the President.

– The supervisory board has also adopted a resolution on announcement of a competitive process, the goal of which would be to select the President of the Board at the PGZ S.A. – the release reads.

Jakub Skiba is a close associate of the new head at the Polish Ministry of Defence, Mariusz Błaszczak, who is yet another person close to Błaszczak assuming an important position within the defence sector. When Błaszczak was the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Skiba was acting as the Deputy Minister (starting from November 2015 until October 2017). Then he was delegated to temporarily work as the President at the Polish Security Printing Works. He resigned from that position on Thursday. The Ministry informed that the Supervisory Board of the Works will soon select the person who is going to take over the duties of the President.

At the Polish Security Printing Works Skiba replaced Piotr Woyciechowski, a close associate of the former head of the Polish MoD, Antoni Macierewicz. Woyciechowski was forced to leave after information surfaced in the media suggesting that he was the person to eavesdrop/record the trade unionists.

Skiba, starting from 2005, was the general director at the Ministry of Interior and Administration, and then he was transferred to the PM’s Office, headed by Błaszczak at the time. In 2017 he became a Board Member at the National Bank of Poland. He was also a member of the Board at the National School of Public Administration and at the Council on Refugees.

Between 1993 and 1997 he was working at the Supreme Audit Office, Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, and as the First Secretary at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the UN. Between 1997 and 1999 he was acting as the Director of the Office of the Head of the PM’s Office, while between 1999 and 2001 he worked as the General Director at the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS).

Skiba, who is 57 years old now, has a PhD degree in Economics, obtained at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH). He is a History Graduate (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and National School of Public Administration – KSAP).

PGZ is one of the most expansive defence companies in Europe. It gathers 60 separate companies together, in the domains of defence, shipbuilding and new technologies. The annual income is as high as PLN 5 billion.