BIO

On October 1st, 2019, Mr. Michał Szaniawski was entrusted by Ms. Jadwiga Emilewicz, the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, with the Presidency of the Polish Space Agency.

Michał Szaniawski graduated from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and from the University of Warsaw. He also completed specialist courses organized by the International Space University in Strasbourg and by Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna, and has several years of experience in managing commercial companies. Over the past few years, he served as Vice President of the Industrial Development Agency and Advisor to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Republic of Poland. During this period, he was responsible for preparing the Space Technologies Support Program for Poland and for negotiations concerning Poland’s accession to the EU initiative regarding the Framework for Space Surveillance and Tracking Support (EU SST). He has been a member of the Council of POLSA since November 2018 and has served as the Acting President since April 2019.

-The last few months featured a series of changes in the Agency and its surroundings – a new law, a new supervisory body, and a new president. Now, POLSA needs, above all, stability. The next ESA Ministerial Council will be the most important event during the last quarter of 2019. We are eager to use the experience from previous years to guide us in looking after the interests of the Polish space sector in the best way possible – stated Michał Szaniawski, President of the Polish Space Agency.