PZU
 

About Polish House

PZU deeply believes in the Polish economy and would like to be considered a vital element of Polish economic diplomacy. As one of the largest financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, PZU is an example of a new type of company, leading the way in innovation and investment in the region – in the insurance, banking and healthcare sectors.
 
Polish House – the venue created by PZU Group in Davos for the 2019 World Economic Forum – is aimed to promote business, professional, human and wellbeing aspects of Poland among global decision makers, that makes it a perfect place to operate – where both people and the environment are friendly and safe, where business is open to innovation and new challenges.

 

Venue Map

 

Events

Cocktail Reception

21.01.2019, 7:00 PM

treść

Quo Vadis Digital Europe?

22.01.2019, 3:00 PM

Quo Vadis Digital Europe?

  • Fight for global leadership in digital space - where is Europe vs USA and China? 
  • How good is Europe in developing Global Digital Champions? 
  • European Digital VC/PE landscape – is it competitive? How to support it?
  • Dynamics of Digital Innovation and development in Europe: UK, Nordics, Germany, France, CEE, Israel.

Agenda

3:00 - 3:15 PM Intro presentation: European tech ecosystem / compare & contrast to US and China
3:15 - 3:30 PM Moderators and panellists introduction
3:30 - 4:30 PM Panel discussion 

 

Moderators

Tomasz Czechowicz

MCI Capital Founder and Managing Partner

A digital entrepreneur since 1985. For the past 20 years, PE investor, founder and Group Managing Partner @ MCI.

In 2001 the World Economic Forum awarded Tomasz with the title of Global Leader for Tomorrow.

MCI, founded in 1999, is one of the most dynamic private equity groups in Europe focused on digital transformation. Currently, with the use of Private Equity / Venture Capital funds, MCI implements early stage, growth stage and expansion/buy-out stage investments in CEE Region, Germany and Austria (DACH) and UK.

MCI leads digital transformation by helping to build regional and global champions. The Group specializes in: e-commerce, mobile, digital media and entertainment, fintech, big data, digital health and digital enablers.

 

Arek Wylęgalski

Venture Partner, firstminute capital; Advisor, MCI Growth & Buyout Funds

Arek is a Venture Partner at firstminute focusing on blockchain and fintech. Prior he was a Partner at an AI-focused seed fund, and an investor at Index Ventures. He led or worked on investments in: Revolut, Wayve, Culture Amp, Dubsmash, Prodigy, Property Partner and others. He joined Index after Avenue Capital, a $15bn AUM hedge fund. Arek started his career in investment banking, trading credit for Barclays Capital and then in M&A advisory. He speaks, mostly about blockchain, and is an active contributor to the start-up scene in London. He is a long-time mentor and an investment forum member at Seedcamp. Arek is also an advisor to MCI Growth and Buyout funds.

 

Panelists

Anna Fang

Partner & CEO ZhenFund, China

Anna Fang is the CEO and Partner of ZhenFund and oversees the fund's investments, portfolio management and operations. Anna's investments include RED (Xiaohongshu), VIPKID, Mia, Yitu Technology, Mobvoi, Club Factory, ZaoZuo, Perfect Diary, Deep Glint and Horizon Robotics.

Prior to ZhenFund, Anna worked at GE China in Corporate Business Development. Anna started her career as an investment banker at JPMorgan New York office.

Anna was named a Young Global Leader (YGL) by World Economic Forum in 2016 and “Early Stage Investor of the Year” in 2016 by Zero2IPO Group.

Anna was also selected onto the Forbes’ Midas Brink List in 2016. Anna received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University in Economics and her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

 

Adam Kostyál

Senior Vice President, Head of Listings – EMEA, Nasdaq

Adam Kostyál is Senior Vice President of Listing Services, Europe. In addition to Nasdaq Nordic Exchanges, where there are more than 800 companies listed, Adam is also responsible for the more than 120 European companies that are either primarily listed or dual listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the U.S.

Adam has been with Nasdaq for the past 10 years. He started his career at OMX as a Sales Director, and then became Head of the Strategic Initiative Groups in 2006. Most recently, Adam was Vice President of Market Technology Sales responsible for sales, account management, and business development for the Eastern and Western Europe.

 

Brent Hoberman CBE

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman firstminute capital, Founders Factory, Founders Forum,
United Kingdom

Brent Hoberman is chairman and co-founder of Founders Factory, an ambitious corporate backed incubator/accelerator based in London, and also of Founders Forum, a series of intimate annual global events for the leading entrepreneurs of today and the rising stars of tomorrow. Brent is co-founder and chairman of Karakuri.tech, the world’s leading provider of robotics, AI and automation systems for the $4tn restaurant and food services industry. He is also a co-founder and was founding chairman of Smartup, Grip &made.com, a leading European direct-from-factory consumer homewares retailer.

Most recently, Brent co-founded firstminute capital, a London-based pan-European seed fund, backed by some of the world's top entrepreneurs. Brent co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998, was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. Technology businesses he has co-founded have raised over $640m.

Brent sits on the Advisory board for LetterOne Technology (a $16bn investment fund), the Oxford Foundry and the UK Government Digital Advisory Board. He is a board member of The Economist, a YGL and one of the Prime Minister's Business Trade Ambassadors. Brent was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List.

 

Francis Leung

Chairman CVC Capital Partners, China

Francis Leung was a prominent investment banker in Asia with nearly 30 years of experience in investment banking. He has helped and advised many companies on corporate finance practices including initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other fund raising exercises. Francis pioneered the listing of Mainland Chinese companies, initially in the form of “Red Chips” and subsequently H-shares, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He is hence often referred to as the “Father of Red Chips”.

Francis is a senior advisor to CVC Capital Partners. He also serves as the Chairman of the Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies and is a member of the 12th National Committee of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Francis was the Chairman of Citigroup Global Markets, Asia from July 2001 to June 2006. Prior to joining Citigroup Global Markets, he was the Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of BNP Paribas Peregrine, which was formed in January 1998 as a result of the merger of Peregrine Group’s Greater China equity and corporate finance team and BNP’s investment banking arm in Asia. The Peregrine Group was co-founded by Francis in 1988, where he led the equity capital market and corporate finance business focusing on the Greater China region. He began his career with Wardley Limited (now named HSBC Investment Bank Asia Holdings Limited) as an executive trainee in December 1980, and then spent three years with Citicorp International Limited from May 1985 to September 1988, initially as a Director and later also Vice President.

Francis has been an active angel and VC investor. His investment interests span from artificial intelligence, ecommerce, fintech, real estate tech, new media, travel tech, biotech to agrtech, among other areas. His geographical focus includes Greater China, Israel and the United States. Francis aims at discovering disruptive technologies and business models that are managed by entrepreneurs and management teams that exemplify exceptional execution capabilities. He often offers great strategic value to his investees by providing them with insightful financial advice and introducing them to business partners within his unparalleled business network. Francis’ ability to connect overseas companies with the Greater China markets and his business contacts have great significance to his overseas investments.”

 

FT-PZU Spotlight on Global Access to Healthcare

22.01.2019, 7:30 PM

FT-PZU Spotlight on Global Access to Healthcare

According to the World Economic Forum the world will be home to nearly 9.7 billion people by 2050, putting unprecedented stress on healthcare resources. 

As the technology is on the verge of creating a transition, a number of breakthrough innovations have been designed to reduce costs and make healthcare services more accessible to all – from telemedicine to artificial intelligence-assisted medical consultants. Barriers like geographical distance and low resources, which have long prevented millions of people from getting the care they need, are much easier to overcome in the digital age.

How to make healthcare services more accessible to people, especially less privileged patients? How to improve the efficiency of national healthcare systems around the world? What are the key advantages of partnership between public, private and technology?

The Financial Times in cooperation with PZU present Spotlight on Global Access to Healthcare. Moderated by David Crow, FT Banking Editor, the exclusive evening reception will bring together healthcare and technology pioneers to share world-wide collaborative approaches on how best to create robust and inclusive healthcare systems.

Register Now on FT-PZU Spotlight on Global Access to Healthcare event webpage. 

 

Agenda

7:30 PM Registration and Cocktail Reception
8:00 PM Opening Remarks
8:05 PM Welcome from PZU
8:10 PM Fireside Chat: Building Future-Forward Healthcare for All
 

What steps are currently being taken to improve the efficiency and access of national healthcare systems?

What can we learn from front-runners in developing and industrialized countries about Universal Health Coverage, including policy development, public and private sector partnerships and political commitment and allocation of state resources for health?

9:00 PM Closing Remarks

 

Moderator and Speakers

David Crow

Banking Editor, Financial Times

David Crow became Banking Editor of the Financial Times, based in London, in October 2018. He was previously the FT’s Senior US Business Correspondent, based in New York and covering primarily pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he worked on the FT's main news desk in London, where he edited the front page of the print edition. Before joining the FT he was Managing Editor of City AM, the London financial newspaper. Mr Crow has an MA in English Literature from the University of Glasgow.

 

Paweł Surówka

Chief Executive Officer, PZU

As CEO of PZU SA, Poland’s biggest insurance company with operations in five countries, he heads Central Eastern Europe’s biggest financial group. He is also Chairman of Pekao SA, Poland’s second biggest bank. Under his leadership, PZU has engaged in an ambitious new digital strategy which aims to transform one of Poland’s oldest and most established companies. 

Before joining PZU in 2016, he was head of corporate and investment banking in Germany of PKO Bank Polski, Poland’s biggest bank, in which capacity he set up PKO’s Frankfurt branch, the first polish corporate bank outside of Poland. He started his career with Merrill Lynch Bank of America in Paris where he was responsible for the biggest private and institutional clients from CEE. Though most of his career is linked to financial services, he spent two years in the automotive industry, following the call of his former client, the Boryszew Group, one of Poland’s biggest stock-listed industrial groups, to run the restructuring of its German automotive division as Member  the Management Board.

He is a CFA Charterholder, holds a Master in advanced studies of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales (Paris), a Master of the Sorbonne Pantheon Paris I University, as well as BA in Philosophy of Hochschule fur Philosophie in Munich. 

Having lived, studied and worked in Poland, Germany and France he is fluent in four languages. 

He has been named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2019 Harvard Business Review ranked him one of the most effective managers of stock listed companies in Poland. 

 

 

Andrew Thompson

CEO, Proteus Digital Health

Andrew Thompson is Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Proteus Digital Health. His vision for Digital Medicines is focused on expanding global access to care, dramatically increasing the value delivered by drugs, and creating a more sustainable model for innovation in pharmaceuticals that leverages the power of silicon, software and mobile devices.

Thompson is a World Economic Forum Advisor, and a member of the selection committee for the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers. He also serves on the California Governor’s Health IT Security Advisory Board and is a member of the Fortune CEO initiative and Wall Street Journal's CEO Advisory Counsel.

Passionate about bringing digital innovation to education, he is Co-Founder and Board Member of Summit Schools, a leading Charter School organization with an acclaimed track record and unique digital platform, featured in the Davis Guggenheim movie “Waiting for Superman”. He works in digital humanities innovation as a Member of the Stanford University Libraries Board and with Cambridge University. He is a Co-Founder of Parker Library Online, a leading destination for digital medieval studies.

Thompson has been active as a venture capital investor and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for 30 years, completing several Fortune 100 M&A transactions and IPOs, and is a named author on 51 issued patents. He holds master’s degrees in Engineering (Cambridge), Education (Stanford) and Business (Stanford GSB).

 

Githinji Gitahi

Group Chief Executive Officer, Amref Health Africa

Dr Githinji Gitahi joined Amref Health Africa as the Group Chief Executive Officer in June 2015. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the the largest African-led international organization on the continent and reaches more than 11 million people each year through 150 health-focused projects across 35 countries.

Until his appointment to Amref Health Africa, Dr Gitahi was the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, Smile Train International, Prior to that, Dr Gitahi was Managing Director for Monitor Publications in Uganda as well as General Manager for Marketing and Circulation in East Africa for the Nation Media Group. He held progressively senior positions at GlaxoSmithKline and also worked at the Avenue Group and in the insurance industry.

Dr Gitahi is Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization initiative for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). He is also member of the Private Sector Advisory Board of Africa CDC and of the World Health Organization’s Community Health Worker Hub. He is member of the Board of Directors of The Standard Group and holds Board member positions across Amref Health Africa offices in Africa.

Dr Gitahi has a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Nairobi, a Master’s in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing, from United States International University and is completing a Certificate for Strategic Perspectives and Non-profit Management at Harvard University.

 

Roman Pałac

Chief Executive Officer, PZU Życie SA

CEO of PZU Życie, Poland's biggest Life Insurance. Graduated in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH). Attained Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School. Gained extensive experience working for Polish and foreign financial institutions. In 2003-2007, Mr. Pałac worked as Project Manager for the World Bank. From 2009 to 2016, he was a Principal at The Boston Consulting Group.

 

Stephen Klasko

President of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO, Jefferson Health

Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, President of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health, was named 2nd to Modern Healthcare’s 2018 list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. Dr. Stephen Klasko is a transformative leader and advocate for a revolution in our systems of health care and higher education. His 2018 book is titled, Bless This Mess: A Picture Story of Healthcare in America - an account of how the USA was elected to the Intergalactic Council of Cool Health Systems by 2035. As President and CEO of Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health since 2013, he has steered one of the nation’s fastest growing academic health institutions based on his vision of re-imagining health care and higher education.

 

Peter Lee

Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Healthcare

Dr. Peter Lee is Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Healthcare. He leads an organization that works on technologies for better and more efficient healthcare, with a special focus on artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Dr. Lee has extensive experience in managing the process of going from basic research to commercial impact. Past illustrative examples include the deep neural networks for simultaneous language translation in Skype, next-generation IoT technologies, and innovative silicon and post-silicon computer architectures for Microsoft’s cloud. He also has a history of advancing more “out of the box” technical efforts, such as experimental under-sea datacenters, augmented-reality experiences for HoloLens and VR devices, digital storage in DNA, and social chatbots such as XiaoIce and Tay. Previously, as an Office Director at DARPA, he led efforts that created operational capabilities in advanced machine learning, crowdsourcing, and big-data analytics, such as the DARPA Network Challenge and Nexus 7. He was formerly the Head of Carnegie Mellon University’s computer science department. As a thought leader, he has spoken and written widely on technology trends and policies, spanning the fields of computing technology, healthcare, and innovation ecosystem. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. He served on President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He has led studies for the National Academies on the impact of federal research investments on economic growth and testified before the US House Science and Technology Committee and the US Senate Commerce Committee.

 

Our Partners

 

The Poland Night

23.01.2019, 7:00 PM

treść

Rise of Digital Challengers in Central Europe

24.01.2019, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Rise of Digital Challengers in Central Europe

We believe the digitalisation, as one of the fundamentals of Industrial Revolution 4.0, together with constant increase of global competition will in forthcoming decades change the current picture of economi power distribution. Whta we still do not know is how exactly the future landscape of global economy will look like, whether there will be leaders of digital age and what is also very important what role the CEE region countries will play.

We are looking forward to discuss how the Central and Eastern European countries can work together to position themselves as leaders of digitalisation in order to increase their role in global economy and to drive future growth ef economy as well ensure jobs, and prosperity for their people.

 

Moderator and Speakers 

Kent Walker

Google SVP Global Affairs & Chief Legal Officer

Mr. Walker is responsible for managing Google's global legal team and advising its board and management on legal issues and corporate governance matters. He has extensive knowledge of global technology legal matters, including security and privacy, and corporate governance.

 

James Manyika

Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute

Leads research on global economic and technology trends and serves many of the world's leading high tech companies on growth, innovation, and strategy.

 

Michał Krupiński

CEO, Pekao

Michał Krupiński, currently serves as the CEO of Bank Pekao, 2nd largest universal bank and a leading corporate and investment bank in Poland. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Krupiński held number of senior managerial roles in leading financial institutions. Most recently, as CEO of PZU Group, region’s largest financial group, he repositioned the firm for growth and strengthened its presence in banking. Previously, since 2011, Mr. Krupiński was Head of Global Banking and Markets for Central and Eastern Europe at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, responsible for M&A projects, financings and capital advisory.

Mr. Krupiński has also a broad-based public sector experience. Between 2008-2011 he was Alternate Executive Director at Board of Directors of the World Bank Group in Washington. Prior to this, he served as Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Treasury.

Mr. Krupiński graduated from Warsaw School of Economics, KU Leuven and has MBA degree from Columbia University. In 2012 he was named Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum.

 

Paweł Surówka

Chief Executive Officer, PZU

As CEO of PZU SA, Poland’s biggest insurance company with operations in five countries, he heads Central Eastern Europe’s biggest financial group. He is also Chairman of Pekao SA, Poland’s second biggest bank. Under his leadership, PZU has engaged in an ambitious new digital strategy which aims to transform one of Poland’s oldest and most established companiesp

Before joining PZU in 2016, he was head of corporate and investment banking in Germany of PKO Bank Polski, Poland’s biggest bank, in which capacity he set up PKO’s Frankfurt branch, the first polish corporate bank outside of Poland. He started his career with Merrill Lynch Bank of America in Paris where he was responsible for the biggest private and institutional clients from CEE. Though most of his career is linked to financial services, he spent two years in the automotive industry, following the call of his former client, the Boryszew Group, one of Poland’s biggest stock-listed industrial groups, to run the restructuring of its German automotive division as Member the Management Board.

He is a CFA Charterholder, holds a Master in advanced studies of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales (Paris), a Master of the Sorbonne Pantheon Paris I University, as well as BA in Philosophy of Hochschule fur Philosophie in Munich.

Having lived, studied and worked in Poland, Germany and France he is fluent in four languages

He has been named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2019 Harvard Business Review ranked him one of the most effective managers of stock listed companies in Poland.

 

Roman Pałac

Chief Executive Officer, PZU Życie SA

CEO of PZU Życie, Poland's biggest Life Insurance. Graduated in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH). Attained Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School. Gained extensive experience working for Polish and foreign financial institutions. In 2003-2007, Mr. Pałac worked as Project Manager for the World Bank. From 2009 to 2016, he was a Principal at The Boston Consulting Group.

News

Wednesday 23.01

The use of modern technologies in the development of widely accessible healthcare

One of the most important issues raised during this year's World Economic Forum in Davos was the growing need for systemic changes that would ensure universal access to high-quality health care. It is a global challenge that is becoming a crucial social problem, faced not only by developing countries, but increasingly also by the developed countries. Can the dynamic development of modern technologies constitute a solution to this problem? Prominent world experts attending the event, which was organised by PZU and the Financial Times Live at the Polish House in Davos, attempted to answer this question.

READ MORE

Monday 21.01

FT-PZU Spotlight on Global Access to Healthcare

The world’s population will reach almost 10 billion by the middle of this century. One of the challenges we face today is access to high-quality universal healthcare. This will be one of the issues discussed at the event to be held by PZU and the Financial Times on January 22nd in Davos. 

READ MORE

The Poland Night

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