Chairwoman of the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

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.

European Commission, Director General of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

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.

Chief Specialist at the Department of Trade and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Graduate of the University of Gdansk in foreign trade, with many years of experience in the public and private sectors, including leadership positions in regional economic organizations. He has held positions as trade counselor in Chile, consul and chargé d'affaires in Peru and Nigeria. Since 2018, he has been the chief specialist in the Department of Trade and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Development and Technology, responsible for Poland's economic cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries.

PhD Member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the Honorary Committee of the 12th European Congress of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Polish politician, professor of technical sciences, former Prime Minister of Poland and long-time Member of the European Parliament. He was President of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2012 and previously served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001. He has been associated with the Solidarity opposition and involved in environmental issues, especially energy and energy transition.

Ministry of Development and Technology

Head of the Department of International Organizations and Procurement at the Ministry of Development and Technology, associated for years with economic promotion and activities to support the internationalization of enterprises. Employee and manager of the foreign missions of the former Ministry of Economy (BRH, WEH, WPHI) operating in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, East Timor and the Philippines. Co-founder of the Malaysian-Polish Business Council. Participated in the work of the Steering Committee of the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce in Kuala Lumpur and the Advisory Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce in Manila. Polish representative in the EU Council Working Groups on Raw Materials and also in the International Research Groups on Non-Ferrous Metals (Copper, Lead, Zinc), where he serves as Chairman of the Copper Study Group (ICSG) and Vice Chairman of the Statistical and Program Committee of the Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG), Orientalist. Collaborates with academic institutions (e.g. Jagiellonian University, University of Warsaw and the Academy of Military Art) on the topics of economic promotion, cross-cultural business, internationalization of enterprises and expansion into non-European markets.
Author of publications on Asian markets. Graduate of the Executive MBA program of the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Provides training in the field of foreign expansion of enterprises through cooperation with international organizations.

Science promoter, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Innovation at WSB Merito Warsaw University.

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.”

Mentor, Business Coach, Author of the book "#Bez Kija w Tyłku”

Mentor with 18 years of experience in connecting emotions to business, specializing in supporting people with DDD/DDA syndrome in professional settings. She works on removing so-called “emotional anchors,” helping to understand and transform emotions into a tool for empathetic leadership.

Her approach supports the development of harmonious working relationships, enables the change of limiting beliefs and prevents the escalation of conflicts. She teaches Empathic Confrontation and boundary-setting, both with oneself and others. Reaches out to unmet needs in conflict situations, making it easier to find inclusive solutions.

Recognized as a “LinkedIn Champion” by Forbes Woman Poland, she has her own story of business transformation. She believes that emotions can be a catalyst for effective and conscious leadership.

Vice-President of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions

PhD in law, graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Since 2009 he has been associated with the Department of Labor Law and Social Policy at this Faculty. Member of the Labor Law and Social Policy Research Team of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia, mediator cooperating with the Silesian Arbitration and Mediation Center of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia. Author of publications on labor law and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal “Z Problematyki Prawa Pracy i Polityki Socjalnej”. Vice President of the University Council of the Polish National Association of Teachers of Science and Technology (ZNP) at the University of Silesia in Katowice and spokesperson and coordinator for legal affairs of the Council for Higher Education and Science of the Polish National Association of Teachers of Science and Technology (ZNP).

LinkedIn Poland Women Leader

Co-founder and Leader of LinkedIn Poland Women. Passionate about foreign languages and a lover of the Dutch language and culture.

She promotes the topics of mental health, resilience and well-being by hosting the podcast “Stawiam na Naturę”, where you can hear conversations with authorities from the world of psychology, psychodietetics and neuroscience.

For years she has been associated with the editorial board of Nature Magazine. As a self-advocate for ADHD and an ambassador for neurodiverse people in the workplace, she conducts training in neuroinclusive communication.

For years she has specialized in establishing international business partnerships. She is currently involved in the HR industry. Close to her thinking are the words: “Diversity opens the human imagination to what is possible.”

CEO and founder of consulting and training company Empify Social Impact

Corporate and social communications expert with more than 20 years of experience gained in international communications consulting and public relations firms; specializes in developing communications strategies, building leaders' images and supporting companies in their transformation towards sustainability, especially in the social area.

People Country Lead – Poland and CEE w SD Worx Poland

She has been professionally involved in the field of human resource management for nearly 20 years. She has built international HR shared service teams, supporting employees of global organizations. She has had the pleasure of implementing and training teams and leaders of various levels.

She has been working with SD Worx since the brand appeared on the Polish market in 2021. Enthusiast of digitalization and modern technologies in HR and beyond.

Lieutenant General of the Polish Army

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.

Undersecretary of State in Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy

He was born in 1988 and raised in Warsaw. He is a Doctor of Laws, university professor, and legal adviser at the District Chamber of Legal Advisers in Warsaw. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw. He deals with administrative law and proceedings, judicial control of administration, constitutional law and social security law. He has authored nearly 90 publications in this field: monographs, commentaries, articles and glosses.

He obtained his postdoctoral degree based on his "Proceedings on Pension Benefits" thesis.

He has been a member of numerous expert teams dealing with social security: Committee for Interpretations, Positions and Clarifications at the President of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), Inter-Ministerial Team for the Development of a Disability and Incapacity Judgement System, Team for Optimisation of Pension Decisions at the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), Team for Comprehensive Rehabilitation. He also cooperated with the Institute of Labour and Social Affairs.

He prepared dozens of bills submitted by the Coalition Parliamentary Club of the Left in the 9th term of the Polish Sejm, including the flagship projects of the 'Safe Senior Citizen' (Bezpieczny senior) package: a law introducing a widow's pension, changes to the funeral allowance or a project facilitating the acquisition of a minimum pension by those working under junk contracts.

On the recommendation of the Left from 2019 to 2023, a judge of the State Court. Since 2016, he has co-led the social democratic think-tank Ignacy Daszyński Centre.

Manager for foreign investment Invest Region Leipzig GmbH

She has lived in the north of Germany in Bremen (Land Bremen) for more than thirty years. 
After completing her master's degree at the Universität Bremen (Direction: Cultural History of Central and Eastern Europe, Sociology), she went into business for herself. 
Before that, from 1981 to 1989, she stayed in the former Yugoslavia in Zagreb, where she completed her studies (Direction: South Slavic Languages and Literatures at Filozofskom Fakultetu 
Zagreb).  After becoming a graduate, she began working as a translator and tourist guide. This time period became a unique opportunity for her to confront not only the 
with Balkan multiculturalism.
Since 2005, as the founder of a consulting company in Germany (Urszula Wöltjen. Deutsch - Polnisches Consulting), she has taken action in the sphere of Polish-German economic and business contacts. At the same time, from 2011 to 2016, she served as a plenipotentiary of the Łódź Special Economic Zone S.A. for attracting investors 
from the German-speaking region of Europe. 
Since 2017, she has served as an official representative of the German company Invest Region Leipzig GmbH in Poland.
As an advisor with many years of experience in the German market as well as the Polish market in the field of foreign investment, he supports the internationalization of entrepreneurship on both sides of the Oder River.  
Her knowledge of Polish, German, Serbian and Croatian are the instruments that enable her to operate professionally in the international arena.

Chief Labor Inspector

Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Łódź and Postgraduate Studies in European Law at the University of Łódź.

He is qualified as an occupational health and safety specialist and holds pedagogical qualifications. He completed postgraduate studies in occupational safety and health at the Technical University of Łódź and postgraduate pedagogical studies at the Higher School of Economics and Humanities in Łódź.

For many years he has specialized in practical issues of labor law. This is fostered by his nearly 20 years of work experience in the State Labor Inspectorate, where - in addition to performing supervisory and control functions as a first-level adm. authority - he carried out activities as a public prosecutor and attorney for employees before courts of first and second instance. He was a practicing legal counsel for many years.

He taught postgraduate courses in occupational health and safety at the Higher School of Economics and Humanities in Skierniewice. He also served as a municipal consumer ombudsman in Skierniewice. He is the author of articles on labor law and occupational health and safety published in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Rzeczpospolita and INFOR.pl.
As director of the Labor Law Department at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, a position he held from 2021 to 2024, he was among the most influential lawyers in Poland - in the prestigious ranking organized by “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” in 2022 he was ranked 23rd, and a year later he was promoted to 16th place. 
As of June 15, 2024, he was appointed by the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, to the position of Chief Labor Inspector.
 

Mayor of the City of Łódź, Member of the European Committee of the Regions

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.
 

Founder and President of the Management Board of BetaMed S.A.

President of the “ Śląskie Anioły” Foundation

Director of the Center for Environmental Protection in the Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals

He completed his master's and doctoral studies at the Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Environmental and Energy Engineering. During his Ph.D. studies and subsequent academic work, he held a research internship and worked as a Visiting Researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A graduate of the 2017-18 Fulbright Junior Research Award, he also honed his experience and skills at Curtin University (Perh, Australia), where he carried out his research project under the SONATINA competition. He has authored and co-authored 21 publications of national and international scope as well as development and implementation papers. In his research, he focuses on environmental problems, especially in the context of the activities of the mining industry and metal processing. Since 2024, he has also been a member of the State Water Management Council, which performs advisory functions to the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Plant geneticist, Prof. of the University of Silesia, Associate Dean for Science Promotion and Internationalization

Leader of the Plant Genetics and Functional Genomics Team at the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Silesia. Together with her team, she conducts research on the identification of key genetic regulators of plant responses to drought using translational and functional genomics. She developed her research interests during fellowships and scientific visits to France, Germany, Scotland, the United States, among others. A graduate of the Fulbright STEM Impact Award 2023-24, she directs scientific projects funded by the National Science Center and from EU funds such as the SusCrop Horizon2020 program. Her commitment to the dissemination of science includes publications and prestigious scientific symposia, but she attaches equal importance to the popularization of science. She actively mentors master's and doctoral students. Scientific work is her passion. 

Doctor of Medical Sciences, Prof. ŚUM, FEBO

Born in Upper Silesia, he comes from Upper Silesia. He completed his medical studies at the Medical University of Wrocław and the E.K. Universität in Tübingen. His research on the blood-brain barrier at the University of Kentucky earned him a PhD defended at the Silesian Medical University in 2015. A year later, he began ophthalmology training, graduating in 2020. The following year, he received a postdoctoral degree and passed the European Ophthalmological Society (EBO) exam. Since 2011, he has been an investigator in a number of Phase I to IV clinical trials. He received a Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship and was a research fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School. He was the recipient of the 2020-21 Fulbright Senior Award at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and the EuRetina Fellowship at Ghent University. Prof. Wylęgała's main area of research is ophthalmic imaging, both anterior and posterior. He has co-authored, several books, dozens of articles and one patent application.

Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut)

Currently, she is stationed as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at NASK - National Research Institute in Warsaw. Previously, she was a lecturer and researcher at Yale University, where she earned a PhD in computer science. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Military University of Technology in Poland. Her research focuses on computer security and distributed systems, with a particular emphasis on user privacy and building secure systems. She is currently researching blockchain technology, public key infrastructure and formal proofs of security protocols. She has co-authored publications at prestigious conferences such as ACM CCS, IEEE S&P, IACR CRYPTO. She actively collaborates with academic institutions in Europe and the US. Her research is funded by the US National Science Foundation. Honored for her teaching and mentoring achievements, she actively supports increasing women's participation in computer science and works with Trinity College's Center for Entrepreneurship to develop academic and leadership programs for women. 

PhD student in the Department of Economic Law at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow UJ

Graduated summa cum laude with a law degree from the Jagiellonian University and a Fulbright Junior Research Award 2022-23. Ambassador of the Fulbright Program in 2023-25. Manager of a National Science Center grant at the University of Warsaw. Graduated with honors from the UJ School of American Law (Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC). Founder and board member of the Semper Augustus Foundation- an educational think tank in the field of corporate law. He pursued a Fulbright Scholarship in 2023 at Columbia Law School in New York. He was also previously a recipient of an international SYLFF grant. He has completed foreign fellowships at the University of Cambridge, Melbourne Law School in Australia, Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, among others.