Mateusz Kujawa

Mateusz Kujawa (born August 30, 1946 in Śmieszków ) is a Polish economist and former diplomat. He is known, among other things, for his longstanding representation of the Republic of Poland in Austria and Switzerland . He is also the author of several economic analyzes and a previously unpublished novel.

education and profession

Mateusz Kujawa was born on August 30, 1946 in Śmieszków, the second of five children. His parents, Maria and Kazimierz Kujawa, ran a small farm. After attending elementary school and high school, Kujawa finished the general education liceum in Czarnków in 1964 at the age of 18.

He then attended the Warsaw High School of Planning and Statistics. He attended the Department of Foreign Trade and graduated in 1969 with the title of Magister in Economics. Immediately afterwards he got a job at CHZ Motoimport, for which he was to work for 14 years. This period is jokingly referred to by him today as “selling tractors”. In his career at Motoimport he eventually rose to director. He was also sent abroad twice as part of his work: the first time 1971–1972 to the German Democratic Republic , where it was his job to look after a group of Polish workers who manufactured machines under a government agreement in the GDR, and the second time 1978–1982 to represent the Motoimport company in Czechoslovakia .

After he returned from what was then Czechoslovakia, he briefly continued his work for Motoimport. Shortly thereafter, however, in 1983 he accepted a position on the PZPR committee, for which he wrote analyzes of the deteriorating situation in the Polish economy. Kujawa particularly focused on foreign trade and the financial system.

In 1989, shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain , he moved with his family to Austria , where he represented the Polish Chamber of Commerce. He carried out this work until 1994, when he started his job as a director at ELHA GmbH in Vienna , a company that primarily dealt with the import of goods to Poland. Nevertheless, goods such as coal were also sold in Austria by ELHA GmbH. Mateusz Kujawa only held the position at ELHA for one year. From 1995 to 2002 he was the trade representative in the embassy of the Republic of Poland in Vienna.

In 2002 Kujawa returned to Poland, where he worked as a director at Fundacja Fundusz Współpracy (FFW) until 2005 . The FFW's task was to distribute the aid money that flowed to Poland before Poland joined the EU in 2004. The money came from various programs such as the CPF ("Countries Preaccession Financing"). In 2005 he stopped working at FFW.

A little later he took a job at Nucleagena, a laboratory. He stayed there for a year and became a freelancer in 2006 . In 2009 he went to Switzerland to work at the consulate of the Republic of Poland. When his contract expired in 2013, Mateusz Kujawa ended his professional career and has since retired.

Life

While studying economics, Mateusz Kujawa met Anna Kwiatkowska, who at the same time was studying at the Higher School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw. The couple married on February 1, 1970, and their daughter Aleksandra was born a year later. Son Łukasz followed in 1976. Today Mateusz Kujawa has four grandchildren.

Politics and sport are the interests of the economist, and he describes himself as a passionate correspondence chess player. This can also be attested by his grandson, but with the addition that Mateusz Kujawa is a passionate, but often inferior chess player.

Training & publications

In addition to a master's degree in economics, Kujawa also completed postgraduate studies in political science. In addition to some specialist training courses, what particularly stands out in Kujawa's training is the multitude of languages ​​that he is fluent in. In addition to Polish, English and Russian, German and Czech can also be found in his repertoire. As part of his activities as a foreign trade representative and his membership in the economic committee, Kujawa wrote some analyzes and articles, including a .:

• The cycle "Analysis of Polish Foreign Trade" (1985–1987)
• "Introduction to the Austrian Market" (1990)
• "The Development of European Integration" (1998)

There are also articles and comments in Austrian and Polish daily newspapers and other publications.