BIO

Jacek Karnowski

Mayor of the City of Sopot, President of the Self-Government Movement YES! For Poland

Born in 1963 in Gdańsk, a resident of Sopot since childhood. Doctor of Economics at the University of Gdańsk. Graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Gdansk University of Technology. Graduate of Postgraduate Studies in Local Government Law at the University of Gdańsk and Management Studies at the University of Gdańsk and Central Connecticut State University.

Since 1990, a councillor and Deputy Mayor of Sopot, and since 1998, Mayor of Sopot. In 1990-98, a councillor of the Sejmik of the Gdańsk Voivodeship. From 2007 to 2011, Vice-Chairman of the Association of Polish Cities and Delegate to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe, currently Member of the Board of the Association of Polish Cities and Co-Chairman of the Team for Structural Issues of the Joint Commission of Government and Local Self-Government and Chairman of the TAK! For Poland. Winner of, inter alia, the Grzegorz Palka Award, known as the local government „Oscar”, and three-time leader of the N15 ranking of mayors of cities of the Newsweek weekly and winner of the Michał Kulesza Award of the Fundament of the Republic of Poland. Extraordinary member of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers, Kashubian-Pomeranian Association, lifeguard and founder of the Sopot WOPR, yacht and motorboat helmsman, ski instructor.