Current Report No. 33/2022: Appointment of Supervisory Board members
The Management Board of KRUK S.A. (the “Company”) announces that on April 14th 2022 the Company’s Annual General Meeting appointed, effective the same date, the following persons to serve on the Company’s Supervisory Board: Katarzyna Beuch, Ewa Radkowska-Świętoń, Izabela Felczak-Poturnicka, Piotr Szczepiórkowski and Beata Stelmach.
Below are presented the biographical notes of the new Supervisory Board members.
Katarzyna Beuch
Katarzyna Beuch is a manager with experience in auditing, finance and reporting of listed companies, management control, and accounting. She has served as CFO of Benefit Systems S.A. since 2020. Previously she was Director of Controlling and Economic Analysis at KGHM S.A. (2016–2018), and she headed the Accounting Department of Santander Consumer Bank S.A. (2014–2016). From 2006 to 2012 she worked for Getin Holding S.A., gaining a breadth of experience in corporate integration and restructuring as well as in mergers, acquisitions and demergers during the Getin Holding Group’s rapid expansion and eventually being promoted to CFO (in 2009). She began her professional career with the Assets and Liabilities Management Department of Bank Zachodni (currently Santander Bank Polska Bank Polska), and then she worked at Ernst & Young Audyt for almost ten years. Ms Beuch is a graduate of the Management and Computer Science Faculty of the Wrocław University of Economics and Business (graduated in 1993), and in 1995 she completed a post-graduate programme in financial risk, assets and liabilities management run by USAID and the University of South Carolina at the Warsaw Institute of Banking. She has held ACCA qualifications since 2000 (FCCA since 2005). Ms Beuch has authored publications on the application of International Financial Reporting Standards. She sits on the supervisory boards of the WSE-listed companies ATM Grupa S.A., WP Holding S.A. and Kruk S.A. She has served as Chair of the Audit Committee of KRUK S.A. since April 2013.
Ewa Radkowska-Świętoń
Ewa Radkowska-Świętoń is an independent member of the Supervisory Board and Audit Committee at Kruk S.A. and an independent member of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the Audit Committee at Ipopema Securities S.A. She is also a member of the Capital Market Benchmarks Supervisory Committee at GPW Benchmark S.A. and a member of the Risk Committee at KDPW_CCP S.A. She serves as President of the Association of Independent Supervisory Board Members and an expert at the Institute for Sustainable Development and Environment at Lazarski University. Previously, she was President of the Management Board of Skarbiec Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A. and Vice President and then President of the Management Board of Skarbiec Holding S.A., a WSE-listed company. In 2008–2017, she served as a member of the Management Board and then as Vice President of Nationale Nederlanden Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A., where she was responsible for investments and corporate governance of the largest Polish open-end pension fund with more that PLN 70bn worth of assets under management. She worked as a fund manager at Aviva Investors Polska S.A. and ING TFI S.A. (currently NN Investment Partners) and as an equity analyst at the Equity Transactions Centre of Bank Handlowy S.A. She is a graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics. She is certified as CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and FRM (Financial Risk Manager).
Izabela Felczak-Poturnicka
Izabela Felczak-Poturnicka received her Master’s degree in Economics with honours from the Faculty of International Trade and Global Economics of the Lazarski University of Commerce and Law in Warsaw in 2004. She completed doctoral studies in Management and Finance and a postgraduate programme in company valuation methods at the Warsaw School of Economics. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Information and Research Centre of the Public Finance and Tax Law of Central and Eastern European Countries at the Faculty of Law of the University of Białystok. She is a licensed internal auditor of ISO 9001 quality management systems. She worked with the OECD on the OECD-Southeast Asia Corporate Governance Initiative and other projects. She authored and co-authored academic papers in economics. Her fields of expertise are corporate governance and capital markets. She has 17 years’ experience in corporate governance, with a primary focus on state-owned companies, capital market transactions and other fields. Currently she is Managing Director of Corporate Affairs at the PZU Group. Prior to that, she served as Head of the Ownership Supervision Department of the Ministry of State Assets. From 2018 to 2019 she was Deputy Director at the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister. From January 2017 she served as counsel to the minister responsible for coordinating the work of the Ownership Policy Team at the Ministry of Energy. From 2005 to 2016 she worked at the Ministry of State Treasury. Her key assignments included the exercise of ownership supervision of strategic companies and execution of capital market transactions, including the IPOs of WSE S.A., JSW S.A., ENERGA S.A. and PHN S.A. on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. She has 15 years’ experience working on corporate supervisory boards. She is Chair of the Supervisory Board of Polski Holding Nieruchomości S.A. and a member of the Supervisory Board of PZU Zdrowie S.A. She has served on the supervisory boards of PKN ORLEN S.A., Enea S.A. (as Chair of the Supervisory Board), Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa S.A., ZEW Niedzica S.A., MERAZET S.A., Z.Ch. ZACHEM S.A. and MERITUM BANK ICB S.A.
Piotr Szczepiórkowski
Piotr Szczepiórkowski is an expert in pension systems, asset management and capital markets. A graduate of the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology, he worked for the Ministry of Finance and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. During his professional career he completed a training programme and successfully passed all the 14 exams to obtain the ACCA qualification and the Executive Management Development courses organised by CEDEP (Fontainebleau), Columbia University and Wharton School of Business. He holds an investment adviser licence and is a member of the Polish Association of Actuaries and CFA Society Poland (CFA Charterholder). For many years, he worked for the Commercial Union Polska Group (now Aviva Polska), first in the Finance Department of Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń na Życie as an accountant, Deputy Finance Director, Deputy Investment Director, and then at Commercial Union PTE as Chief Investment Officer and Vice President of the Management Board. Since 2001, he has been President of the Management Board of PTE. In 2008–2016, he was Vice President of the Management Board of Aviva Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń na Życie. At present, Mr. Szczepiórkowski sits on the supervisory boards of the following WSE-listed companies: FM Forte S.A., Decora S.A., ZEW Kogeneracja S.A., Octava S.A., Ipopema TFI S.A. (where he also chairs the Audit Committee) and Polski Gaz Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń Wzajemnych na Życie (as Deputy Chairman). On the Supervisory Board of KRUK S.A. appointed for the term starting in 2019, he was a member of the Audit Committee and the Remuneration and Nomination Committee.
Beata Stelmach
Beata Stelmach is a graduate of the Faculty of Finance and Statistics of Warsaw School of Economics (formerly SGPiS), she holds an MBA from INSEAD, as well as MBA from Calgary University. For many years associated with the capital and financial markets – since the economic transformation had started she worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then as a consultant at the World Bank she participated in programs for the development of the capital markets in other countries. For many years she served as the President of SEG (Association of Listed Companies in Poland), being a big promoter of corporate governance. She also performed managerial functions in financial organizations including Intrum Justitia TFI SA, MCI Capital TFI SA. She had (or has) been serving as a supervisory board member of banks (BPH SA, HSBC Bank Polska SA, Millennium SA). She also has gained managerial experience in other industries: in the years 2001 – 2005 she was a board member of Prokom Software SA; in 2013 she took the position of CEO and General Director (Poland and the Baltics) at General Electric. In the period 2018 – 2020 she was SVP of Leonardo Helicopters and the President of PZL Świdnik SA. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Undersecretary of State at the MoFA, being responsible for global economic policy and promotion of Poland. Ms. Beata was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for the outstanding contribution to the foreign service and work achievements undertaken for the benefit of the country and diplomatic activity. She has been involved in a number of social initiatives, including economic education of the youngest. For years, she has been engaged in various initiatives to support and help women develop their professional careers.
Following the decision of the Annual General Meeting to appoint the above persons as Supervisory Board members and the submission of representations on the appointment of supervisory staff by the authorised shareholder, referred to in Current Report No. 29/2022 of April 11th 2022, the composition of the Supervisory Board of KRUK S.A. of the new term of office is as follows:
1. Piotr Stępniak
2. Krzysztof Kawalec
3. Katarzyna Beuch
4. Ewa Radkowska-Świętoń
5. Izabela Felczak-Poturnicka
6. Piotr Szczepiórkowski
7. Beata Stelmach
The Company further announces that the appointed persons are not engaged in any business activities competing with the Company’s business, nor are they partners in any partnership under civil law or other type of partnership competing with the Company’s business, or members of the governing body of any company or other legal entity competing with the Company’s business, and are not entered in the Register of Insolvent Debtors maintained pursuant to the Act on the National Court Register of August 20th 1997.
Detailed legal basis: Par. 5.5 of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of March 29th 2018 on current and periodic information to be published by issuers of securities […].