Ryszard Jerzy Petru (born 6 July 1972, in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, Poland) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

politician. He served as an assistant to several members of parliament in the 1990s. He has worked as an economist for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

and several Polish banks. Since 2011, he has been the chairman of the Association of Polish Economists. He is the author of several books, including two children's books on economics. In 2015, Petru founded a liberal political party

.Modern Modern ( pl, Nowoczesna, styled as ".Nowoczesna") is a centrist political party in Poland. It is currently led by Adam Szłapka. It was formed in 2015 as "ModernPL" although due to controversy it had to change the name to ".Modern" later that ...

(.Nowoczesna). The party received 7.6% of votes in the

2015 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015 for the eighth term of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which ran from 12 November 2015 until 2019. The election was won by the largest opposition par ...

. Petru was elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

from Warsaw (19) district.

Career

Education and early career (1990s–2001)

Ryszard Petru studied at the Faculty of Computer Science and Management of the

Wrocław University of Technology Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, and graduated from the

Warsaw School of Economics SGH Warsaw School of Economics ( pl, Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie, ''SGH'' During the second year of his studies at the WSE, he became an assistant of the Democratic Union MP

Władysław Frasyniuk Władysław Frasyniuk (born 25 November 1954 in Wrocław) is a Polish politician, former activist of Solidarity trade union, and former chairman of the Partia Demokratyczna - demokraci.pl political party. He served as a member of the Sejm (Pol ...

. On the recommendation of his lecturer

Leszek Balcerowicz Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister of ...

, Petru began working for the Center for Social and Economic Research. In 1995, he became Balcerowicz's assistant. Between 1997 and 2000, when Leszek Balcerowicz was the

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

and the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

, Petru served as his advisor, working as a consultant in the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Pension System Reform. In 1998, he started working as a teacher at the Warsaw School of Economics. He was a member of the Freedom Union at that time, being one of their candidates in the

2001 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections was held in Poland on 23 September 2001 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1491 The election concluded with an overwhe ...

, earning 4646 votes in the Warsaw suburbs district.

Banking and corporate career (2001–2014)

From 2001 to 2004, Petru worked as an economist for the Polish and Hungarian affairs at the

, dealing with the reform of public finances, regional policy and investment climate. Then, until 2008, he held a position of the chief economist at the

Bank BPH Bank BPH (Bank Przemysłowo-Handlowy) was a Polish universal bank. Until 2008, it was majority owned by UniCredit. In 2008, GE Money Bank took over 89% of shares and on 31 December 2009, Bank BPH merged with GE Money Bank Polska. At its peak, the b ...

. He then worked at the BRE Bank (later rebranded to

mBank mBank SA (formerly BRE Bank), set up in 1986, and originally BRE – Bank Rozwoju Eksportu (Export Development Bank), is Poland's fourth largest universal banking group in terms of total assets and loans, and fifth by deposits at the end of Septe ...

) as the director for the bank's strategy and chief economist, and as a managing director at

PKO BP Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna (also known as ''PKO Bank Polski S.A.'', ''PKO BP S.A.'') is Poland's largest bank founded in 1919. It provides services to individual and business clients. The core business activity of ...

. Between 2011 and 2014, he was a partner at

, responsible for the area of Polish small and medium-size private companies. Since May 13, 2011 he has been the Chairman of the non-profit organization Association of Polish Economists. He also occasionally cooperated with Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum), founded by

, as a speaker at their meetings and seminars. In 2013, he appeared as an expert in seven episodes of a Religia.tv show ''Morality and Ethics in the Time of Crisis'', where current events from the world of finance and economics were discussed. In the same year, he became an economic advisor to the Marshal of the

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbrz ...

. Between 2008 and 2013, Ryszard Petru was an informal advisor to Polish Prime Minister

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic Pla ...

, acting as the intermediary between Tusk and the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

. A document signed and sent from the United States Embassy in Warsaw by (now former) U.S. Ambassador

Victor Ashe The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

, detailing his meeting with Petru, was published by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

in March 2009. From February to March 2014, Petru was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the

Polish State Railways (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure ...

. In the same year, he became the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the

Solaris Bus & Coach Solaris Bus & Coach is a Polish producer of public transport vehicles (buses, trolleybuses and trams), with its headquarters in Bolechowo-Osiedle near Poznań. It is a subsidiary of Spanish CAF. Solaris owns four production sites: its main fact ...

enterprise. He has been an author of publications on economics, including the book ''The End of the Free Market? The Origins of the Crisis'' (2014), written with journalist Łukasz Lipiński. He worked as an expert and co-author with Grzegorz Kasdepke on two children's books explaining the ins and outs of economics, published by the National Centre of Culture.

Political career with Modern (2015–2018)

In May 2015, Petru created the 'Modern PL' ('NowoczesnaPL') foundation in

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...

, and then the association with the same name, and declared forming a political movement around them. Among people involved in that process were: an activist and former businessman Wadim Tyszkiewicz (Mayor of

Nowa Sól Nowa Sól is a city on the Oder River in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It is the capital of Nowa Sól County and had a population of 38,763 (2019). History The first settlement in the region of modern Nowa Sól dates to the 14th century, wh ...

), and Paweł Rabiej. In August 2015, the movement's name was changed to

(.Nowoczesna). The party represents a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

ideology. As the leader of the party, Petru severely criticized the

Civic Platform Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk. It w ...

government and the

Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...

party, labelling them as untrustworthy and unreliable. In October 2015, Modern received 7.6% of votes in the Polish parliamentary election. Running from the first position on the party's election list in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Petru was elected to

, receiving the third best result in the country (129,088 votes), behind

Ewa Kopacz Ewa Bożena Kopacz (; given name, née Lis; born 3 December 1956) is a Polish politician who has served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously was Marshal of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014, the first woman to hold th ...

(230,894 votes) and

Jarosław Kaczyński Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (; born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician who is currently serving as leader of the Law and Justice party (known by its Polish acronym PiS), which he co-founded in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, ...

(202,424 votes). In 2018 he left Modern and he founded new political association - Petru's Plan.

Private life

Since 1997, he has been married to Małgorzata. They have two daughters.

Controversy

As a teenager, Petru had lived in the Soviet Union for two years. He resided in

Dubna Dubna ( rus, Дубна́, p=dʊbˈna) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of ''naukograd'' (i.e. town of science), being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research center and one o ...

, Moscow Oblast, where his father and mother worked for the

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research cen ...

(JINR, Russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ). The fact that the institute was controlled by the GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye,

Main Intelligence Directorate Main Intelligence Directorate may refer to: * Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine), the military intelligence service of Ukraine * GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́� ...

), the main military foreign-intelligence service of the Soviet Union, has caused controversy in Poland decades later.

References

External links

*
Official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petru, Ryszard Jerzy 1972 births Living people Members of the Polish Sejm 2015–2019 Modern (political party) politicians Polish economists Polish male writers Politicians from Wrocław Polish Roman Catholics