Kevin J. Allen is currently serving as Coordinator of Refugee Action for Ukraine and Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Republic of Poland.

In recent years, Mr. Allen has held managerial and diplomatic positions at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, led UNHCR's response to the Rohingya refugee exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh, and served as UNHCR Representative in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal and in the Republic of Tajikistan.

Previous UNHCR assignments in which Mr. Allen was involved included work in refugee camps 
refugees on the border of Kenya and Somalia, managing refugee protection operations in Afghanistan,
managing the emergency response to the floods in Pakistan, and leading the legal, advocacy and refugee protection efforts in Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, el Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize. In addition, Mr. Allen has coordinated from Japan on projects of emergency preparedness with national governments, UN partners and non-governmental organizations  in the Asia-Pacific region. He began his service with the United Nations in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in Kosovo.

Before joining the UN, Mr. Allen served in the United States Marine Corps, and then worked as a volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. He later worked as an attorney with the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC. Mr. Allen holds a doctorate in law from Georgetown University, completed postgraduate studies in international relations at the University of Chile and a bachelor's degree in the history of diplomacy at the University of Boulder, Colorado

Member of the European Parliament, Member of the Parliament of Finland (2015-2024), Minister of Education in the governments of Antti Rinny and Sanna Marin (2019-2023), Chair of the Left Alliance (since 2016), Chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in the European Parliament, Deputy Member in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament.

PhD in political science and administration, assistant professor at the Department of Labor System and Labor Market at the University of Warsaw, long-time employee of government and local administration. Director of the Labor Market Department at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, member of the Supervisory Board of the Social Insurance Institution, Scientific Councils of NASK and the Central Institute for Labor Protection, member of the Board of the Network of Heads of Public Employment Services of the European Union.

Legal advisor, social activist, long-time local government official, Member of Parliament and passionate about new technologies.

Doctor of law, expert witness, and author and co-author of numerous legal publications in the field of criminology. Legal knowledge and management experience were his entry point into business. In a large Polish corporation, he was responsible, among other things, for organizing the company's legal services. He built shared service centers. He was an expert in one of the renowned consulting firms.

During his dozen years of working for his hometown of Tychy, he was, among other things, a councilman and vice-mayor for land use. He also served as Deputy Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship from 2016 to 2018.

He is a member of the Sejm of the Polish Republic for the ninth and tenth terms.

In his spare time, he sails. He is passionate about new technologies and good books.

Privately - a father of two sons.

Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at “Booksy,” one of the fastest growing startups internationally. The Booksy app operates in more than 25 countries around the world including the US, Europe including France, Spain, England and Poland, as well as Brazil and South Africa. It is used by more than 40 million users and currently ranks No. 1 in the lifestyle category in 11 countries worldwide. Previously, he co-founded “iTaxi,” Poland's first cab ordering app, and software house “SensiSoft.”

Awarded “Most Innovative Web Site Of All Time” by the Huffington Post USA, winner of the American Design Awards and Golden Drum. Winner of the International Center for Biocybernetics competition for work in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics.

He supports projects that have a positive social impact, including, as a business angel, investing in Smartschool, an adaptive AI tutor that equalizes educational opportunities for young people in the US, and ForActive, an app for the sports & wellness industry that supports users in personal development and healthy living.

Appointed by the European Commission as Digital EU Ambassador. President of the Lem Institute. Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the Warsaw School of Banking. Dean of the Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Warsaw School of Banking from 2019 to 2021. From 2017 to 2019, Director of the Data Management Department at the Ministry of Digitization responsible for the innovation sector and implementation of Personal Data Protection Regulation (RODO) into the Polish legal order. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at Jagiellonian University in Krakow.  He also studied at Stockholm University and J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He graduated with honors from the European Academy of Diplomacy. In 2017, he won a special award for his contribution to data protection reform in the Lawyers Leaders of Tomorrow competition of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and Wolters Kluwer Publishing House. In 2018, he was ranked 23rd in the ranking of the 50 most influential lawyers in Poland by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, and in 2019 he moved up to 15th in the same ranking, becoming recognized as the “face of RODO in Poland.” He is the author of the technology series on the Good Morning TVN program, Onet's editorial podcast and Komputer Świat's “Technicznie Rzecz Biorąc.”

Lawyer, financier, Europeanist, Executive MBA graduate. Initiator and director of the National Contact Point for EU Financial Instruments. Director of the ZBP Public Programs Team and member of the Business Finance Committee of the European Banking Federation. Member of the monitoring committees of the Cohesion Policy and Rural Development Program programs, coordinator of agribusiness and infrastructure financing teams. Representative of the banking sector in the Steering Committee to the Minister of Finance, member of the Council of the PPP Center Foundation. Legislative expert, lecturer, author of publications, repeatedly awarded by business and state circles.

Rafal Modrzewski is CEO and co-founder of ICEYE, which operates the world's largest constellation of SAR satellites. The company provides reliable Earth observation data in a timely manner to customers, offering natural disaster solutions to companies and governments, among others. ICEYE is the first company to successfully miniaturize a SAR satellite, making it possible to launch more of them and reliably image any location on Earth - every few hours, every day. With its growing constellation of SAR satellites, ICEYE offers its partners a set of unprecedented capabilities for collecting satellite imagery, enabling faster, more frequent and cheaper access to any area of interest.

Director General of DG EMPL (Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) at the European Commission, former Director General of DG REFORM (Directorate General for Structural Reform Support) at the European Commission. He was also Director and Head of Unit at the Directorate General for Financial Services at the European Commission. He also previously served as President of the Italian Financial Market Supervisory Authority (CONSOB). He is a lecturer at Bocconi University and Solvay Business School. He was named Bocconi University's Graduate of the Year in 2023.

Polish politician, Deputy Mayor of Jaworzno, Senator of the fifth term (2004-2005), Member of the Sejm of the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth terms (2005-2014, from 2019), from 2014-2018 Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship.

Lieutenant General of the Polish Army, certified officer of armored and mechanized troops. He began his service in the Polish Army in 1976. From 2006-09 he served as commander of the Land Forces.

From 1976-1980 he graduated from the Higher School of Armored Forces Officers in Poznan. Graduate of the Polish Army General Staff Academy and Postgraduate Operational-Strategic Studies at the National Defense Academy in Warsaw.Completed the 2006 Survey of Topics in Strategic-Level Defense Resources Management at the Defense Resources Management Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School,Monterey,California(USA).

He took his first duty position - commander of a tank platoon - in the 16th Dnow-Lusitanian Medium Tank Regiment in Slupsk. In 1982 he became commander of a tank company in this military unit, and two years later he was sent to the General Staff Academy. After graduating from it in 1987, he remained in Warsaw, where he was an aspirant in the Operational Board of the Main Board of Combat Training of the Polish Army. He then served in the 20th Armored Division in the positions of Chief of Staff of the 68th Tank Regiment in Budowa and Chief of Staff of the 33rd Mechanized Regiment in Zlocieniec. In 1991, he took command of the 32 Bautzen Mechanized Regiment in Kolobrzeg. From 1993 to 1996 he held the position of Chief of Staff of the 1st Warsaw Mechanized Division in Legionowo, after which he was assigned to the Land Forces Command in Warsaw, where he was Deputy Chief of Combat Training. In 1997 he completed Postgraduate Operational and Strategic Studies at the National Defense Academy.

From 1998 to 2001, he commanded the 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division in Elblag. Subsequently, he held the following positions: chief of the Headquarters of Armored and Mechanized Forces - deputy chief of Land Forces Training, chief of the Board of Doctrine and Training of the Armed Forces General Operations Board P3 at the General Staff, Polish Army in Warsaw, and chief of the G3 Land Operations Board - deputy chief of the Land Forces Staff. In 2003, he was appointed commander of the 11th Lubuska Armored Cavalry Division in Żagań. From February to July 2005, he commanded the Multinational Division Center-South as part of the 4th shift of the Polish Military Contingent Iraq. On October 3, 2006, he became commander of the Land Forces, which he commanded until September 2009.

She was born in Łódź. She is a graduate of XXVI High School. She graduated in environmental engineering from the Faculty of Construction and Architecture at the Technical University of Lodz. After graduation she built Łódź housing estates - Retkinia and Radogoszcz - and ran a clothing company. For six years she served as director of the office of the Lodz Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In 2006, she became a councilor of the City Council, later becoming vice mayor of Lodz. Education, sports and EU funds were under her authority. In autumn 2007, she was elected deputy to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland from the Civic Platform list. She served as deputy chairman of the Special Committee “Friendly State” for matters related to the reduction of bureaucracy.
On December 13, 2010, Hanna Zdanowska was sworn in as Mayor of Łódź after winning the local elections. She was elected for a second term by Lodz residents already in the first round of elections on November 16, 2014. She took the oath of office again on December 1, 2014. 
On October 21, 2018, the citizens of Łódź entrusted her with the post of Mayor of Łódź for the third time. Hanna Zdanowska received more than 215,000 votes (more than 70 percent) in the first round. She was sworn in for another term on November 21, 2018, during the first session of the eighth term of the City Council of Lodz.
On April 7, 2024, Hanna Zdanowska was elected Mayor of Lodz for the fourth time, receiving more than 143,000 votes (more than 59 percent) in the first round. 
Mayor Hanna Zdanowska has been a member of the European Committee of the Regions (ECR) since December 2019. In the current term of the EKR, she sits on the ENVE Committee - Environment, Climate Change and Energy, the SEDEC Committee - Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture. He is also a member of the EKR Green Deal Going Local Working Group, an EKR Climate Pact Ambassador and a National Ambassador for the Covenant of Mayors.
 

The actor made his professional stage debut at the National Theater in Warsaw in 2002 in the play Frogs by Aristophanes, directed by Zbigniew Zamachowski. He has also appeared at the Variety Theater, including Made in China (2002), Electronic City (2003), Stitching (2004) and Macbeth (2005). He has starred in many Television Theater productions, including Hamlet (2004) and Theorban (2009).


On the television screen, he made his debut in the series For better of worse (2002). In subsequent years, he appeared in popular series such as Samo życie, Examination of Life, Pitbull, Time of Honor and Firemen. He also appeared in theatrical films such as In Darkness (2011), Karbala (2015), I Am a Murderer (2016) and Chrzciny (2020).


In 2016, he won the first edition of Asia Express. In recent years, he became famous for his role as Inspector Adam Raven in the series Raven. Szepty słychać po zmroku and Jakub Szapiro in The King , based on the novel by Szczepan Twardoch.



For the 26th Cinema at the Border in Cieszyn photo by Rafal Soliński