BIOGRAPHY

I was born on March 16, 1941 at Nozdrzec, Galicia, in what was then the General Government run by the German Nazi Third Reich.

My father Stanis³aw was a landowner. My grandfather, Valentine Toczek, was a member of the Seym (Parliament) of the Republic of Poland for two terms, in the period 1919-1928.

In 1958 I graduated from the Lycee in Dynów. In the years 1958-1961 I studied German language and literature (Germanistik) at the Faculty of Philology and History of the University of Wroclaw.

In the years 1961-1966 I studied foreign trade and international economic relations at the Department of Foreign Trade at the Central School of Planning and Statistics (SGPiS, currently SGH), where I obtained a master's degree in economic sciences. In 1966 I started working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in the Department of International Organizations.

In the same year I was sent for postgraduate studies of diplomacy and international law and affairs at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria, which I graduated in 1968. After returning to Poland I resumed my work in the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In 1969 I was seconded to work in the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations - FAO - in Rome. I worked there at first as a training officer, then as an economist. Upon completion of my term of duty in 1975 I returned to Poland and resumed my work at the MFA, this time in the Department of Studies and Programming.

While working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I was collaborating with the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), with the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) as a lecturer of the Central Committee and with the Second Board of the General Staff of the Polish People's Army.

Besides working in the MFA I lectured at the Planning Course for Foreigners at the SGPiS, was a member of the Poland 2000 Future Study Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and of the Institute of Regional Economics and Planning, University of Warsaw. I reviewed, I published, I lectured, I advised.

In 1978 I defended at the Warsaw School my doctoral thesis on the world food problem. In the same year I was granted the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship in the USA.

In 1981 the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) awarded me a prize for my book "The World Food Dilemma". In 1985 I was appointed country representative of FAO in Laos, where I supervised the work of experts and activity of projects in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, forestry, fisheries and rural development.

After returning to Poland in 1990 I resigned from my job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and began to work as a consultant - economist. From 1993-1995 I worked as a consultant in the project of EU (European Union) and EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) in the Project Preparation Unit (PPU) in the Belarus Ministry of Agriculture to prepare investment projects in agriculture and food processing. In 1996 I moved to Ukraine to work as a consultant - resident credit adviser of EU, EBRD and French bank CCF to run a credit line for small and medium-sized businesses in the Ukrainian bank Privatbank in Dnipropetrovsk.

In 1995-96 I worked as a short-term consultant on behalf of the British Know How Fund, CCF bank and consulting firms Coopers Lybrand, Carl Bro, Deloitte Touche in Belarus and Ukraine.

In 1996-1999 I was appointed a resident representative in Poland of KBC Bank of Belgium. In 2000-01 I was financial adviser of the President of Polish Power Grid Company (PSE, now PGE) through my consultancy firm Exportal. In the years 2000-07, on behalf of KBC, I was a member of the Supervisory Board of Kredyt Bank SA. In the years 2003-09, on behalf of Electrabel (Belgium) and then the arm GDF Suez (France), I was a member of the Supervisory Board of Po³aniec GDF Suez power station. In 2006-07 I was - on behalf of KBC a Supervisory Board member of the insurance company Warta SA.

In 2007 -09 (along with the likes of former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and former Czech President Vaclav Havel) I was a member of the Advisory Committee for Central Europe of KBC Bank of Belgium.

In the years 2000-05 I was a consultant and member of the National Council of Caritas Poland and a member of its awards jury Ubi Caritas. In 2002-04 I was a member of the Allocation Committee of Caritas Europe in Brussels responsible for assisting Caritas offices in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine (Greek Catholics). In 2000 I prepared for Caritas Internationalis a project to assist victims of the attack of harsh winter in Mongolia.

Since 1990, I was intermittently self-employed, and my firm Exportal has been dealing with consultancy and IT, notably with provision of dedicated servers.

I have a library consisting of approximately 7,000 volumes - in my apartment in Warsaw and in the country house in Suchowizna.

I am married, have two children and four grandchildren.

I am a practicing Catholic Christian.