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UCL Leaders 2024 is the 8th edition of the conference. Over the years we have facilitated connections and led the way in interdisciplinary debates over the future of Poland in a global world. Details regarding our previous editions can be found below.

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UCL LEADERS 2023

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See the website of UCL Leaders 2023

 

UCL LEADERS 2023

 

Project Leaders: Olga Drygała, Kaja Pośnik

 

Marketing Team: Zuzanna Tobiasz (Head), Helena Illing, Hanna Skubis

 

Events Team:
– Conference: Yuvraj Jadeja (Head), Saloni Agarwal, Grzegorz Koc
– Ball: Karolina Jędraszek (Head), Laura Sarinova, Maja Nachyła
– Workshops: Łucja Różańska (Head), Maria Stabińska

 

Speakers Team:
– Art: Patrycja Jasiurska (Head), Ioanna Giakoumopoulou
– Business: Maciej Nabiałczyk (Head), Giada Bassoli, Jacek Wejchert
– Politics: Łukasz Kaźmierczak (Head), Jakub Bryjak, Daliya Galimova
– Technology: Zhanna Oganesova (Head), Julia Woźniak, Alexander Safi

 

Sponsorships Team: Alicja Zakrzewska (Head), Maja Kozłowska

 

Partnerships Team: Mya Patel (Head), Mateusz Tomkiewicz

 

Legal Team: Miriam Jansen (Head), Jakub Pieczonka

 

IT Expert: Andrzej Szablewski

 

Watch the livestream of UCL Leaders 2023

UCL LEADERS 2022

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See the website of UCL Leaders 2022

 

Discover the 6th edition of the UCL Leaders conference, which made a long-awaited comeback to being held in person in March 2022.

 

On the first day of the conference, attendees had the chance to attend workshops with BNP Paribas, CVC, EY, Amazon and Her Impact. The second day of the conference commenced with paying respect to the continuing war in Ukraine initiated by our host, the VP and CEO of Wysokie Obcasy Foundation, Zuzanna Lewandowska, before opening the panel discussions. The introduction was extended by a speech given by Irina Tymczyszyn, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Ukrainian-British City Club, in which she further responded to the matter.

 

Considering the time during which the conference was held, the Politics Panel’s discussion revolved around the war in Ukraine. We had the opportunity to hear from prominent figures within the field, including a Member of the Polish Sejm and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, as well as MEP Rasa Jukneviciene, the former Minister of National Defense of Lithuania. The Business Panel focused on the topic of sustainability in industrial practices. Among the speakers that contributed to the discussion were: Sir Vince Cable, Artur Radziwiłł, Sally Bridgeland, Mary-Jay East, and Rafał Libera. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the Technology and Science Panel explored the effects of rapid technological advancements on human behaviour and decision-making. The Art Panel invited speakers from a range of disciplines, such as literature, fine arts, and cinema. The panellists included film directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Jan Komasa, best-selling poet Arch Hades and artists Jan Valik and Arthur Poujois.

 
 

Organisers:

 

Project Leaders: Julia Wojciechowska, Tomasz Faryś
 

Finance & Partnerships Team: James Dawson (Head), Zuzanna Małysz, Jędrzej Niepolski, Olaf Łozowski, Jakub Pala, Yuxuan He
 

Logistics Team: Iga Frąc (Head), Olga Drygała, Kaja Pośnik, Gabriela Sawicka, Ansh Sahay, Urszula Filipowicz, Kamila Jaszczura
 

Marketing Team: Weronika Czubek (Head), Mateusz Kapustka (Head), Ece Gokbayrak, Jaydon Jun Yu Chin, Luiza Sierzputowska , Sumayyah Hosenee, Natalia Zubrzycka, Paulina Fronckiewicz
 

Speakers Team: Mark Tibor Meszarik (Head), Łukasz Kaźmierczak (Head), Ioanna Giakoumopoulou, Wojciech Marczewski, Ignacy Nowina-Witkowski, Łucja Różańska, Julia Spaczyńska, Konrad Wojtowicz, Franek Zawada, Mateusz Zawiła, Zhanna Oganesova, Gabriel Pierzyński

UCL LEADERS 2021

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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.

 
 

Organisers:
 

Leaders: Szymon Olejniczak (Project Leader), Michał Iliev (Treasurer)
 
Finance Team: Adam Wrona (Head), Ania Lewicka, Franciszek Zawada, Łukasz Kaźmierczak, Maksymylian Mucha, Weronika Czubek
 
Logistics Team: Michał Sykulski (Head), Iza Górska, Julia Wojciechowska, Wojtek Marczewski
 
Marketing Team: Milena Wojciechowska (Head), Julia Juchno, Aleksander Jańczuk, Julia Tańska, Aleksandra Lemieszka, Julian Kulikowski, Julia Wojciechowska
 
Panels Teams:
Politics: Alexander Weston (Head), Szymon Wawrzkiewicz
E-Commerce: Kacper Potrzebowski (Head), Jakub Łastowiecki, Zuzanna Kosobudzka
Business: Adam Wrona (Head), Ignacy Nowina-Witkowski
Legal: Jakub Kuśmierz (Head), Julia Godlewska
Equality: Wiktoria Magnuszewska (Head), Wiktoria Gucia, Lena Sikorska
Film: Tomasz Faryś (Head), Anna Głuchowska, Weronika Czubek

UCL LEADERS 2020

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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.
 
 

Organisers:
 

Project Leader: Gosia Majczak
 

Vice-President: Aleksandra Ciepluch
 

Treasurer: Alek Kubiak
 

Logistics Director: Dominika Korcz

Logistics Officer: Mateusz Mielczarek, Agata Sawicka, Filip Rowecki
 

Marketing Director: Jędrzej Filuś

Marketing Officer: Julia Kalinowska, Julia Ciuhak, Michal Staniszewski
 

Creative Directors: Olga Tuleja, Antoni Kostrzewa
 

First Year Representative: Szymon Olejniczak
 

Panels Teams:
Politics & Economics: Kacper Potrzebowski, Szymon Olejniczak
Sustainability: Dominika Korcz, Hanna Twarog
Tech: Alek Kubiak (Head), Michal Gricuk, Filip Dzieciol
Arts: Maria Godlewska (Head), Maja Matuszewska, Gosia Braszka, Marta Grabowska, Sonia Suchecka

UCL LEADERS 2019

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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.
 
 

Organisers:
 

Project Leader: Maria Godlewska
 

Vice-President & Welfare Officer: Jakub Wyszomierski
 

Treasurer: Tomasz Czernuszenko
 

Finance Officer: Aleksandra Kosycarz
 

Head of Speakers Logistics: Eryk Milewczyk
 

Head of Logistics (Ball): Weronika Kuc
 

Marketing & Creative Director: Karolina Kaczmarek
 

Marketing Officer: Wiktoria Wrońska
 

First Year Representative: Gosia Majczak
 

Masters Representative: Dominika Buczyńska
 

Speakers Team Director: Adelaide Di Maggio
 

Speakers Team Officer: Max Matuszewski, Marysia Tymańska, Marcin Chomicki
 

Social Secretary: Gosia Braszka
 

Social Officer: Maciej Mańka

UCL LEADERS 2018

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After the spectacular success of the first UCL LEADERS conference, the second edition took place on 3rd of February 2018. To previous thematic panels formula, we decided to add special Keynote speech. This year we were honoured to guest Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, the former Prime minister of Poland as our Keynote Speaker. Also, we introduced a new Sci-Tech panel with the key topic „Development of polish companies in the era of robotics and artificial intelligence – today and tomorrow”. We were proud to guest experts including Michał Pękał a from docplanner.com, Jan Madey a professor of the University of Warsaw or Harry Gaskell the Chief Innovation Officer and Partner at EY UK. The cultural panel was focused on the theme „What does it mean to be Polish?”. In discussion took part, Dr Stanley Bill, a lecturer in Polish Studies at the University of Cambridge, Dominika Wielowieyska a Polish journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza and a Polish fashion designer Małgorzata Bac zyń ska. Lastly to combined Economy and Politics panel we were honoured to present fan tastic speakers: Iwona Kozera CSE Advisory Leader at EY, Dr Subacchi former director of international economics research at Chatham House and Andrzej Kensbok vice-president at Industrial Development Agency an expert at Fundacja Republikańska. We were extremely honoured that EY decided to be a strategic partner of UCL LEADERS for the second time. Besides, our Silver Partner become Accenture, Goldman Sachs and KGHM. We were partnered by brilliant institutions like Polska Rada Biznesu, Fundacja Republikańska and PLUG Polish Tech Link. The media coverage was provided among others by Forbes, Rzeczpospolita or Do Rzeczy. The conference took place in the space of UCL’s Institute of Child Health. After the conference took place for the first time, a spectacular ball in Ognisko Polskie in Kensington.

 
 

Organisers:
 

Project Leader: Jan Kędzior
 

Vice-President: Alexandra Wojtaszewska
 

Treasurer: Tomasz Czernuszenko
 

Finance Officer: Benedykt Brzozowski, Sophie Neuber, Maciek Wiatrak
 

Logistics Director: Julia Noszczyk
 

Marketing Director: Alexandra Nowak
 

Marketing Officer: Aleksandra Kosycarz
 

Creative Director: Szymon Padlewski
 

First Year Representative: Maria Godlewska
 

Speakers Team Director: Jakub Wyszomierski
 

Speakers Team Officer: Adelaide Di Maggio, Konrad Kędziora, Maciej Mańka,
Max Matuszewski, Karolina Kaczmarek
 

Social Secretary: Zuzanna Urbańska, Marcin Urbański

UCL LEADERS 2017

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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.

 
 
Organisers:
 

Founder & Project Leader: Karol Waluszewski
 

Vice-President: Maja Pankowska
 

Treasurer: Alexander van der Meij
 

Finance Officer: Benedykt Brzozowski, Paweł Kamiński, Paweł Struski
 

Logistics Director: Marcela Krukowska
 

Logistics Officer: Julia Noszczyk
 

Marketing Director: Alexandra Wojtaszewska
 

Marketing Officer: Zuzanna Urbańska
 

Creative Director: Szymon Padlewski
 

First Year Representative: Jan Kędzior
 

Speakers Team Director: Jacek Stachowski
 

Speakers Team Officer: Marcin Chomicki, Tomasz Czernuszenko, Filip
Kurowski, Max Matuszewski, Jakub Wyszomierski