When Piotr Chudzik returned to Warsaw in 1993 after two years studying in Canada, Poland’s post-communist privatization programme was just getting under way.
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Western investment banks were desperately looking for bright young locals to help them navigate the new market and Chudzik fit the bill perfectly.
“They wanted people who had some exposure to western countries and weren’t tainted by the communist past,” he says.
He was snapped up by UK merchant bank Hambros, which was overseeing the sale of Poland’s pulp and paper assets.
“We were responsible for privatizing all the companies in the sector,” he says. “There was no internal capital, so we were trying to sell everything to foreign investors.”
Chudzik has high praise for the reformers who, under the aegis of economist-turned-politician Leszek Balcerowicz, led Poland’s early economic transition.
