Entrepreneurs

Irena Mrozek

In advertising since 2006. As a copywriter she created campaigns for biggest polish brands. She fought with drivers who park on handicapped spots on Akcja Reakcja blog and created Bloggers’ Code. She ran Reklamufka on Lookr.tv and wrote a book on social media. As a blogger she describes campaigns from all over the world on Zjadamy Reklamy blog. At the moment she works as a Creative Director and Head of the social media department in one of the polish oldest and biggest interactive agencies – Artegence, where she works for such companies as AXN, Allegro, mBank or EFL.

Tomasz Kolinko

Tomasz is a serial entrepreneur. He got himself covered in Techcrunch and Fast Company, he mingled in the valley, he pitched at Seedcamp, and talked with enough investors to become certain that he’s a bootstrapper at heart. A past president and founder of Speaking Elephants – one of the Warsaw Toastmasters public speaking clubs.

Thomas Ruland

Thomas is CFO & COO at cloudControl, Europe’s leading Platform as a Service provider. cloudControl supercharges developers to create better apps faster. Together with his long-term friends he founded cloudControl in 2009 after he left the investment banking business at UBS. Thomas is nerd at heart, posseses some core excel skills and loves entrepreneurship. Talk to him about running a company, pitching investors, the Berlin startup scene or hiring developers.

Arkadiusz Hajduk

Arkadiusz has an extensive experience in concept and product development, project management, human resources management, customer support, business development, operations management and many other aspects of running a business.

Currently, Arkadiusz is running Huge Thing – a business acceleration program for high potential teams with global ambitions. Simultaneously, he serves as an investment manager at Speed Up Venture Capital Group where he works with potential investments and portfolio startups.

Arkadiusz is actively involved in a number of entrepreneurial initiatives like Poznan Startup Weekend, Startup Sprint and P-Team.

Previously Arkadiusz spent few years in a number of web startups, including one of the leading European social lending platforms smava, where he was serving a number of different roles, also co-founder.

Emilia Ostapowicz

Emilia studied computer science and economics at the University of Bialystok and the University of Oldenburg in Germany. Emilia is very passionate about working in the area of financial analysis, planning, budgeting and forecasting, especially for start-up companies. She prepare an applications for European Union fund and write a blog: Startup w liczbach.

Patryk Filipiak

Attorney and partner in FilipiakBabicz Legal Office. Awarded by the Regional Attorneys’ Council in Poznań for the best result achieved in the attorney’s examination in 2010. In the same year, he passed the liquidator licence examination. Member of the Chair of Civil Procedure at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Currently, finished a Ph.D. dissertation. He is also dealing with the issue of bankruptcy law, in particular international bankruptcy law. Graduate of this university, awarded with the Chancellor’s medal for outstanding educational results. Graduate of one-year studies in law at the University of Trier and the German Law School at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He is the author of dozen or so publications concerning bankruptcy law, commercial insurance law and civil procedure, as well as co-author of the commentary to the directive no. 1346/2000 on bankruptcy proceedings. Member of international bankruptcy association INSOL EUROPE. Cooperates with the Allerhand Institute and the Polish School of the Judiciary and Prosecution Service, where he runs trainings for judges in bankruptcy proceedings. In his professional practice, he specializes in the issues of bankruptcy and restructuring law, commercial companies, M&A, and handling civil (commercial) court litigations. He has served many commercial companies, including public and energy companies (project of constructing the biggest in Europe conventional power plant with the coal mine and wind farm projects). Has managed legal teams preparing and handling acquisitions of companies, has given advice on debuts on New Connect. Has a lot of experience in intellectual property and data protection law. Member of supervisory boards Polish joint stock companies (S.A.) Speaks English fluently and German.

Piotr Długi

Michał Babicz

Attorney and managing partner in FilipiakBabicz Legal Office. Completed legal training in Wielkopolska Chamber of Attorneys, graduated from Chair of Law and Administration of the  Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Graduate of one-year studies at the University of Florence in Italy. Author of several publications in the area of civil law. Speaks English fluently, also speaks Italian.

In his professional practice, he specialises in regulating the legal status of real properties and securing the investment processes related with real properties. Also interested in new technologies, intellectual property and unfair competition law.

Rafael Pires

Curious tech guy, with a recently found passion for design, exploring the entrepreneurship world! Cofounder of Startup Pirates, an acceleration program for entrepreneurs in the making that aims to help entrepreneurial communities to growth. He started to work for a consulting company focused on Software Quality, before finishing his Master degree in Computer Engineering and now is focused on Startup Pirates full time. He’s also enthusiastic about sharing ideas and experiences, wich leads him to participate and organize events all the time. Also taking a Master’s Degree in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship.

Tomasz Czapliński

Tomasz is a managing director at LMS Invest, seed investment fund from Poznan. Recently Tomasz was managing several startups. Prior to that he was working as a strategy consultant for both SMEs and large corporations. Tomasz graduated in Capital Investments and Financial Strategies from Poznan University of Economics. His focus is on business modeling, financial forecasting and valuations. In his free time Tomasz develops his programming skills and enjoys cabarets.

Wojciech Wrzaskała

Co-owner and one of board members at Symetria e-business agency (http://www.symetria.pl), one of the oldest e-companies in Greater Poland.

Person with many business contacts and big experience on the Polish Internet market, with particular reference to the knowledge in the development of the e-business.

Michał Olszewski

Board member and investment manager in LMS Invest. Over seven years of experience in largest Polish online companies – Agora SA and Grupa Allegro. Developed and managed large-scale web platforms with user generated content: blogging service, message board ecosystem, social swappig website etc. Self-proclaimed social media expert. Involved in projects connecting world of startups with big corporations. Mentor at Mini SeedCamp and StartupFest, organizer of Poznan Startup Weekend, Startup Sprint and P-Team. Slowblogger with a journalistic background.

Rafał Szafraniec

Licensed tax consultant and Senior Manager at KPMG. He specializes in advising Polish and international companies in the field of tax-effective business structures. He advises entrepreneurs – at startup stage, but also companies at later stages (acquisitions and IPOs). Rafal has experience in working with new technologies sector.

Rafal conducted already workshops for young entrepreneurs and startups at Startup School and Aula Polska in Warsaw.

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Bartłomiej Gola

The Managing Partner of SpeedUp Group, an entrepreneur and innovator. Co-creator of over a dozen technological startups. He studied at the Poznan University of Economics. After graduation he worked within the marketing field where he worked through all career levels up to the Managing Partner in the BTL Group (shareholder and co-creator) and TEQUILA\ Poland. He was the creator and Managing Director of the first Polish advertisement holding company INDIGITY SA. He is also an author of many publications in the field of marketing and business strategies. For many years he has been the Director of the Stowarzyszenie Marketingu Bezpośredniego (Polish Direct Marketing Association).

Maciej Stradomski

He is a Professor of Finance at the Poznań University of Economics in Chair of Investments and Capital Markets. His operational experience includes funding advisory and supporting of growth – notably for startup companies. Maciej undertook many projects in different kinds of business. He actively supported efforts to improve startups expansion. Maciej had privilege to assist many entrepreneurs in developing their firms and he participated in the process of turning the idea into a stable company.

Jan Lewanowicz

An exceptionally experienced manager from the professional services sector (ex-COO in HP, AE in Hewitt Ass.). He is now the CEO of Rekomend.me - startup building awesome social recruitment tools. His involvement in internet business started in 2000, when he was part of the “wonder team” building Gazeta.pl portal. He enjoys talking about theatre, boxing and social changes. Board member of Fundacja Inicjatyw Spolecznych “Plan C”. Lives in Krakow.

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Aleksandra Kubicka

Brand PR Manager at Allegro Group Poland, responsible for communication of group’s polish and international classifieds portals and mobile applications.