Welcome to UCL Leaders 2023!

See the website of UCL Leaders 2021

The 2021 edition of UCL Leaders was unlike any of its predecessors. In light of the social restrictions, for the first time since its establishment, the conference took place fully online. Organising a virtual conference of such scope while retaining the key factors which made its face-to-face precursors stand out—both in terms of presentation and content—was the greatest challenge we have overcome thus far. Determined to make the best out of the circumstances, our team adapted to the “New Normal”. With over 1000 participants from 29 different countries, the 2021 edition of UCL Leaders was the most widely attended in our history.

The conference took place on the 5th and 6th of March. Two keynote speeches were delivered by prominent Polish politicians: Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the Former President of Poland, and Marek Belka, the Former Prime Minister of Poland. What best reflected our interdisciplinarity, however, was the outstanding number of panels that were held. In a single day, 27 guests, ranging from CEOs and politicians to women’s rights activists and film producers, spoke on 6 different panels. We had the pleasure of hosting speakers whose contributions shape their spheres of influence, such as Rafał Brzoska, Marta Lempart, Adam Bodnar, Bartosz Bielenia, and Jan P. Matuszyński. The topics of discussion ranged from e-commerce and post-COVID innovation in business and law practice to political campaigning against the backdrop of social media, and the renaissance of Polish cinematography and gender equality.

The main sponsors of UCL Leaders 2021 included Trigon, an independent Polish financial group, Incredible Inspirations, a platform for non-business initiatives of Sebastian Kulczyk, CVC capital partners, a leading private equity company, Dentons, one of the largest global law firms, and Group One, a Polish communication group. Amplifying our unprecedented outreach were the patrons of UCL Leaders 2021: the newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza and Kwartalnik Filmowy, the online platform Wirtualna Polska, and the radio broadcasters, RMF FM and Radio Kampus.

See the website of UCL Leaders 2020

The fourth edition of UCL Leaders conference took place on 17 and 18 of January. This year’s conference was governed by two underling concepts: interdisciplinarity and sustainability. The event started with the Keynote talk on the position of Poland in European politics, moderated by our hon -ourable guests, founder of Polityka Insight, Wawrzyniec Smoczynski and Ambassador Jan Truszczynski, former Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We then invited our audience to listen to experts Agata Gostynska Jakubowska, Jędrzej Malko, Beata Maciejewska and politician Ryszard Petru, discussing the effect of liberal democracy on the state of the economy during the Economics & Politics Panel. The debate was moderated by editor-in-chief of ‘Newsweek Polska’, Michal Kobosko. We introduced the Sustainability and Climate Change Panel, focusing on the question whether economic growth and environmental sustainability are mutually exclusive, with guest appearance of speakers Zbigniew Prokopowicz, Rafal Rudzki, Kamil Wyszkowski and Boleslaw Rok, moderated by polish journalist Stanislaw Skarżynski. During this year’s Science and Technology panel, in a conversation about the algorithms controlling our lives and entrusting our privacy with the machines, participated great experts Krzysztof Izdebski, Kira Kempinska and Katarzyna Anioł-Wielgus. The panel was moderated by Mariusz Herma, editor-in-chief of Fiszki Polityki. We also had the pleasure to host Filip Pągowski, Marta Najbert-Sykulska and Magdalena Lemańska, discussing design and fashion as a fusion of art and commerce during Arts & Culture Panel, moderated by Fashion Industry Expert Ula Wiszowata. We were honoured to introduce the Commissioner for Human Rights, Adam Bodnar, as our special event’s speaker. The main sponsor of this year’s edition was the largest e-commerce marketplace – Amazon and we were delighted to partner with notable institutions such as Polska Rada Biznesu, Polish Chambers of Commerce Abroad and Polonium Foundation. The media coverage was provided among others by Wirtualna Polska and money.pl. After the conference we invited our guests to take part in the violin concert and unforgettable ball at Kimpton Fitzroy London, followed by After Party.

In 2019 UCL LEADERS Poland in a Global World went to another level. The third edition of the conference was 2 days event taking place on 18 and 19 of January. We introduced a special Women Empowerment Panel with a key topic „Polish Female Leaders” with a guest appearance of modern female icons: Roksana Ciurysek-Gedir Vice-President of the Management Board at Bank PEKAO, Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer Sociologist and a Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science. The moderator of the conversation was a Polish business writer and entrepreneur Olga Kozierowska.

The economic panel moderated by a journalist Michał Kobosko and was focused on the question „Europe after Brexit. Are we able to stay united without the United Kingdom?”. In conversation took part experts: Jacek Olechowski the Vice-President of the Polish Business Roundtable, Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform and Olga Grygier-Siddons from PwC. A photographer Chris Niedenthal, and film director Joanna Kos-Krauze joined Cultural panel discussing the theme „Culture as Poland’s soft power: how to build the country’s brand on the world stage of arts”. We returned with Sci-Tech panel conversation contemplating the issue of „Marketing and management in the digital age. How does technology give a new business an advantage over traditional enterprice? ” hosted by Tomasz Woźniak the Founder and CEO of Future Mind.

The main sponsor of 2019 LEADERS: Poland in a Global World become the largest e-commerce marketplace Amazon that decided to prepare a workshop for our participants. Another workshop was organised by our Silver Sponsor Boston Consulting Group. We proudly partnered again with Trans Atlantic Futures Leader Forum, Polska Rada Biznesu and Polish Chambers of Commerce Abroad. The media coverage was provided by media platforms Wirtualna Polska and money.pl. The UCL leaders 2018 returned to UCL’s Darvin Building and our guest could attend the exclusive ball in Ognisko Kensington.

We launched our debut UCL Leaders Poland in Global World conference on 14th of January 2017. We introduced our idea of thematic panes focusing on Politics, Economy and Culture. The key topics of discussions were „The future of Europe after Brexit”, „New Silk Road and what impact it will have on the economy of Central and Eastern Europe” and „Impact of Polish culture in the process of globalization”. The panels featured our brilliant and influential guests. On the economic panel, among others we were honoured with the presence of current Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, Bartłomiej Dmitruk is the Senior Country Officer of Haitong Bank in Poland, Adam Uszpolewicz is CEO of Aviva or Przemyslaw Gdański Vice President of the Management Board of mBank. For political discussion, we were proud to guest Arkady Rzegocki, Polish Ambassador in Great Britain, Marek Belka former Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Sports Minister of Poland and Lucyna Stańczak-Wuczyńska director of the EU banks, in the Financial Institutions Group at European Bank of Reconstruction. The Cultural panel graced: Polish art historian and critic Anda Rottenberg, Krzysztof Zanussi Polish theatre and film director and Jerzy Limon managing director of the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre. The panels were hosted by our fantastic moderators, journlist and media manager Marek Kobosko and Aleksandra Sakowska Research Associate at the Shakespeare Institute. Our strategic partner was EY Poland, we were proudly sponsored by ING BANK and partnered with mBank and AVIVA. Embassy of Poland in the United Kingdom took the honorary patronage over UCL LEADERS 2017. The conference took place in rooms of UCL’s Darvins Building and was ended with a spectacular cocktail party at Ognisko Polskie in Kensington.