Pekao hires new CEO

15th January 2010

© Piotr Brichacek Pekao have not had a permanent CEO since November Share:

The Italian owners of Pekao SA have strengthened their control over the operations of Poland's second largest bank by choosing a company insider with experience in both Polish banking and politics to run it.

Pekao announced on Tuesday that Alicja Kornasiewicz would take over the helm of the bank from acting CEO Luigi Lovaglio beginning on February 15.

The bank had been without a permanent head since Jan Krzysztof Bielecki resigned from the top post in late November amid rumours of conflicts between him and UniCredit, the Italian banking group that owns Pekao.

Kornasiewicz is currently responsible for UniCredit's investment banking operations in Eastern and Central Europe and sits on the board of the banking group's Austrian division.

Before the announcement, the names of both Kornasiewicz and Lovaglio, the bank’s vice-president, had been mentioned as likely successors to Bielecki to head Pekao. One factor that may have given the edge to Kornasiewicz was that she, like Bielecki, has experience in politics as well as business.

She began her political career in the Sejm from 1989-91 during the first post-transformation parliament. She later held a key post in the Treasury Ministry in the Buzek government from 1997-2000, which gave her a lead role in the privatization of Pekao in 1998.

After leaving politics in 2000, Kornasiewicz headed the UniCredit CA IB investment bank, which became a leading player in setting up IPOs for the privatization of state companies and in selling government securities.

According to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the selection of Kornasiewicz is part of UniCredit's policy of centralizing decision-making in Milan for the group's various divisions. The loss in autonomy for the Pekao CEO that has resulted from the move was one of the reasons cited for Bielecki's resignation.

The new CEO will be expected to continue the bank’s success in limiting risks while remaining competitive against its biggest rival, PKO BP. “It is most likely that the Italians will want to maintain the status quo – the bank generates a lot of profits with limited risk, which suits investors fine,” IDMSA analyst Michał Sobolewski told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

“Increasing revenues will be the biggest challenge for the bank as the economy regains strength,” he added.

Kornasiewicz graduated with a degree in economics from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1973 and has sat on the boards of numerous banks and other companies over the years, including TPSA, Bank Austria Creditanstaldt, and BPH, and Pekao.