XVIII Smart City Forum

He graduated from the Faculty of Navigation at the Gdynia Maritime University. He had been working for the Polish Ocean Lines as a navigation officer on merchant ships for 6 years.
He obtained a degree in Finance and Banking at Poznań University of Economics, postgraduate diploma in Accounting and Finance at Poznań University of Economics and EU Tax Law postgraduate diploma at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. In the years 1994-2005 he worked in the Office of Fiscal Control. In 2005 he obtained the right to practise the profession of a tax advisor and set up a tax consultancy firm. As a lecturer of tax law he cooperated with the Association of Accountants in Poland. In the years 2006-2007 he was a Deputy Mayor of Bydgoszcz responsible for strategy and development of the city, European funds programmes, investor services as well as education and sport. In the years 2007-2010 he served as the Voivode of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship. Since December 2010 Mayor of the City of Bydgoszcz.

Arkadiusz Chęciński, born in 1971 in Sosnowiec, The President of Platforma Obywatelska (name of the political party) in Sosnowiec. University graduate in Public Administration at Humanitas University. For 20 years he has been led the company in the field of quality of the steel products. In 2006 he was elected as a Councillor of the city of Sosnowiec and in December 2010 became a chairman of the City Council. In 2007-2011 he was a chief of parliamentary office of Platforma Obywatelska in Sosnowiec. In October 2011 he became a First Deputy Mayor responsible for the Public Utilities, Housing and Infrastructure. He represented Sosnowiec in Związek Miast Polskich (Polish Cities Association) and Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia. From June 2013 to November 2014 he was Member of Silesian Voivodship Board. On November 30th 2014 he won the elections for the Mayor of Sosnowiec. He received 63,16% (29284) of the votes.
Hobbies: sport, movies, traveling, music

Krystyna Danilecka – Wojewódzka Mayor of Słupsk since 2018, before Deputy Mayor, 5 time councilwomen. She is an experienced manager with abundance of expertise in leading team in professional manner. Her personality and experience makes her especially suited to guide her team in delicate administrative matters.

Konrad Fijołek was born in 1976 in Rzeszów. He is a graduate of the 4th Secondary School of General Education Mikołaj Kopernik in Rzeszów and the Faculty of Sociology of the Pedagogical University in Rzeszów. In 2018, he graduated from Apsley Business School of London with the title of of Executive Master of Business Administration
In the years 1998 – 2021 a councilor of the city of Rzeszów. In 2006–2010, he was the chairman of Rzeszów City Council, and since 2010, the vice-chairman of the Council.
For many years, he has been creating numerous initiatives for the benefit of the residents. In 2015, he established one of the first municipal movements in Rzeszów – “Rzeszów Smart City”. The movement has become, inter alia, promoter of the use of modern technologies in city management.
He is the co-author of the pioneering project of Urban Lab, a municipal laboratory in the center of Rzeszów. An open place for ambitious and creative people who want to improve the quality of life in the city. A team of scientists, people from non-governmental organizations and business help in this. All of this aims to solve local problems and facilitate the life of the local community.
On June 13, 2021, he won the early elections for the Mayor of the City of Rzeszów in the first round.

Jacek Jaśkowiak was born on 10 March 1964 in Poznań. He is a devoted community worker, sports activist, and former businessman. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he also earned his postgraduate studies degree in accountancy, finance and taxation. He was awarded a scholarship from GFPS (Association for Student Exchange in Central and Eastern Europe) to the University of Bielefeld in Germany.
He gained his professional experience in commercial companies in the 1990s. His past employment includes e.g. working for Dr. Jan Kulczyk at Kulczyk Tradex. From 1997 to 2014, he ran his own company, providing accountancy and advisory services to foreign entrepreneurs. Together with business investors, he contributed to creating employment for thousands of people in Poland.
Owing to his public activity, in 2010, he was appointed as a candidate for Mayor of Poznań, representing the urban movement My-Poznaniacy. He ran for the office of the Mayor of Poznań in 2014.

She has held the position of Mayor since 9th December 2014. From 2010 to 2014 she was a member of the Town Council. She graduated from the Faculty of Social Science at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (political science, specialization: local government administration).
She started her professional career in the 1980s as an employee of Ostrów Cultural Center. Then, for 10 years she has worked in the media (radio and local and regional press titles). Since 2000, she has been a self-government employee of the Poviat Starost’s Office in Ostrów Wielkopolski.
On November 30, 2014, in the second round of elections, she was elected Mayor of Ostrów Wielkopolski. She run from her own electoral committee “Przyjazny Ostrów” /Friendly Ostrów/. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Team for Functional Metropolitan and Urban Areas as part of the Joint Commission of the Government and Local Government and the Smart City Forum’s Program Council.
In her local government activity Beta Klimek focuses primarily on developing pro- family policy and on acquiring external funds for investments. Equally important for her is the environmental protection. That is why green and blue projects are successfully implemented in Ostrów Wielkopolski. She is the founder of the municipal maternity grant called “miejskie becikowe”, introduced in 2015 in Ostrów Wielkopolski. She also launched the Senior Citizen Card and the Participatory Budget.
She is among the best polish cities mayors in the N15 ranking published in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022 by “Newsweek”.
In 2021, “for managing the city in the spirit of sustainable development and implementing activities for the development of local government in Poland” she received Złoty Klucz / the Gold Key/, a prestigious award of the magazine “Wprost”. In 2022, she took the 1st place in the ranking “Perły Samorządu” / Pearls of local government/ organized by “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, in the category of the mayor of the cities up to 100 000 of residents.