PKP Cargo's Board of Directors Undergoes Major Shakeup: Meet the New Leadership

PKP CARGO is the target of dramatic personnel changes. The entire board of directors has been dismissed. Who are the new faces of the Polish rail freight carrier?

At Wednesday's meeting, the supervisory board of Poland's national rail freight carrier PKP CARGO dismissed its management board. The dismissal concerns the previously so-called suspended chairman of the board, Dariusz Seliga, and Marek Olkiewicz, who has also been suspended as a member of the board of directors for operations. Maciej Jankiewicz, the member of the Board of Directors for Finance, who was temporarily entrusted with the management of PKP CARGO, was also dismissed. He was in charge of presenting the 2023 financial report to the shareholders.

At the same time, the Supervisory Board authorized three members of the government-appointed board to manage the company until 25 July 2024. These are Marcin Wojewódka, who is CEO and chairman of the board of directors; Monika Starecka, who, as a member of the board, will be in charge of finance; and Paweł Miłek, who, as a member of the board, will be responsible for the business.

Marcin Wojewódka is a lawyer and doctor of economics, who has his own law firm, "Wojewódka i Wspólnicy". He is a respected expert in labor law, corporate restructuring, and social security. His main task will be to try to organize relations with trade unions in a difficult economic situation. A priority for this year will be to introduce comprehensive corrective measures to improve the efficiency of trade, operations, and fleet maintenance. He must also audit PKP CARGO's investment plans to rationalize them and adapt the corporate profile to current market needs.

The management change coincided with the long-awaited official results for 2023, which PKP CARGO presented on 24 April, a month later than the binding deadline for shareholders. The company transported 82.7 million tonnes of freight, down 17.9 million tonnes year-on-year. Net profit was PLN 82.1 million, which is approximately PLN 65 million less than in 2022. Given the general situation in the transport market, the results for 2023 are not bad. Despite the market downturn, revenues from customer contracts reached PLN 5,491 million, up 2% year-on-year. EBITDA reached PLN 1,083.1 million, up 1.6% year-on-year.

Source: PKP CARGO; Wojewodka.pl