Post-Election Leadership Overhaul Continues: Poland's CPK Board Sees New Faces

The results of the parliamentary elections in Poland have thrown many managerial positions into disarray. Now, they have also affected the management of Poland's high-speed railway company, CPK.

The state-owned joint-stock company, which is responsible for the preparation and construction of Poland's high-speed railways, the new Solidarity airport, and accompanying transport investments, has also gained a new chairman and a new member of the supervisory board following a change of management and government commissioner. Formally, according to the statutes, they were proposed and appointed by the Government Commissioner, Maciej Lasek.

The new Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Zbigniew Szafrański, has been professionally connected with railways since 1983. Among other positions, he was a member of the Management Board - Technical Director of PKP Energetyka S.A., which is responsible for traction power and the distribution of electricity to transport operators. He was also a member of the Board of Directors - Director for Strategy and Development of PKP S.A. From 2009 to 2012, he was President of the Infrastructure Division of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. At the international level, he represented Polish railways in many organizations, among others, as Chairman of the Railway Systems Forum of the International Union of Railways (UIC) in Paris and Chairman of the Infrastructure Group of the European Railway Organization (CER) in Brussels.

Over the past seven years, he has worked externally as a consultant on several projects and has spent a lifetime in the public arena advocating for the future of railways back when it was not a popular discipline. He founded the independent Old Tram Lovers Club during the years of the Polish state of emergency after 1981 and is currently an active member of the Association of Polish Railway Managers and Experts. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Lodz, specializing in electric traction. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology and management studies at the Faculty of Management of the University of Warsaw. He was called to the Supervisory Board of CPK in February 2024 and is now its Chairman.

Mikołaj Goss has been appointed as a new member of the Supervisory Board. A graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, he holds a doctorate in law from Leon Koźmiński University. Specialized in project consulting, he has extensive professional experience gained in Polish and international companies, mainly in the construction, energy, and insurance sectors. He has been a long-term lecturer at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he lectures, among others, on commercial law, real estate law, geological and mining law. He is the author of several articles and collective works in the field of administrative and economic law, including the co-author of the latest commentary on the Construction Law.