Ryszard Petru

Ryszard Jerzy Petru (born 6 July 1972;[1] Wrocław, Poland)[2] is a Polish politician. He served as an assistant to several members of parliament in the 1990s. He has worked as an economist for the World Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and several Polish banks. Since 2011, he has been the chairman of the Association of Polish Economists. He is the author of several books, including two children's books on economics.

Ryszard Petru
Leader of Modern
In office
31 May 2015 – 25 November 2017
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded byKatarzyna Lubnauer
Member of the Sejm
In office
12 November 2015 – 11 November 2019
ConstituencyWarsaw
Personal details
Born (1972-07-06) 6 July 1972
Wrocław, Poland
NationalityPolish
Political partyModern (2015-2018)
Now! (2018-2019)
Spouse(s)
Małgorzata Petru
(
m. 1997)

Joanna Schmidt (since 2016)
Children2
Alma materWarsaw School of Economics
ProfessionEconomist
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

In 2015, Petru founded a liberal political party .Modern (.Nowoczesna). The party received 7.6% of votes in the 2015 Polish parliamentary election.[3][4] Petru was elected to the Sejm from Warsaw (19) district.

Career

Education and early career (1990s–2001)

Ryszard Petru studied at the Faculty of Computer Science and Management of the Wrocław University of Technology,[5][6] and graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics.[6] During the second year of his studies at the WSE, he became an assistant of the Democratic Union MP Władysław Frasyniuk.[6] On the recommendation of his lecturer Leszek Balcerowicz, Petru began working for the Center for Social and Economic Research. In 1995, he became Balcerowicz's assistant.[6]

Between 1997 and 2000, when Leszek Balcerowicz was the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, Petru served as his advisor,[2] working as a consultant in the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Pension System Reform. In 1998, he started working as a teacher at the Warsaw School of Economics.[6] He was a member of the Freedom Union at that time, being one of their candidates in the 2001 Polish parliamentary election, earning 4646 votes in the Warsaw suburbs district.[7][8]

Banking and corporate career (2001–2014)

From 2001 to 2004, Petru worked as an economist for the Polish and Hungarian affairs at the World Bank,[6] dealing with the reform of public finances, regional policy and investment climate.[9] Then, until 2008, he held a position of the chief economist at the Bank BPH. He then worked at the BRE Bank (later rebranded to mBank) as the director for the bank's strategy and chief economist,[2][9] and as a managing director at PKO BP.[10] Between 2011 and 2014, he was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, responsible for the area of Polish small and medium-size private companies.[10][11]

Since May 13, 2011 he has been the Chairman of the non-profit organization Association of Polish Economists.[12] He also occasionally cooperated with Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum), founded by Leszek Balcerowicz, as a speaker at their meetings and seminars.[13]

In 2013, he appeared as an expert in seven episodes of a Religia.tv show Morality and Ethics in the Time of Crisis, where current events from the world of finance and economics were discussed.[14] In the same year, he became an economic advisor to the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.[11]

Between 2008 and 2013, Ryszard Petru was an informal advisor to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, acting as the intermediary between Tusk and the International Monetary Fund. A document signed and sent from the United States Embassy in Warsaw by (now former) U.S. Ambassador Victor Ashe, detailing his meeting with Petru, was published by WikiLeaks in March 2009.[15]

From February to March 2014, Petru was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Polish State Railways.[16][17] In the same year, he became the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Solaris Bus & Coach enterprise.[18]

He has been an author of publications on economics, including the book The End of the Free Market? The Origins of the Crisis (2014), written with journalist Łukasz Lipiński.[19] He worked as an expert and co-author with Grzegorz Kasdepke on two children's books explaining the ins and outs of economics, published by the National Centre of Culture.[20][21]

Political career with Modern (2015–2018)

In May 2015, Petru created the 'Modern PL' ('NowoczesnaPL') foundation in Rzeszów,[22] and then the association with the same name,[23] and declared forming a political movement around them.[24][25] Among people involved in that process were: an activist and former businessman Wadim Tyszkiewicz (Mayor of Nowa Sól),[26][27] and Paweł Rabiej.[28]

In August 2015, the movement's name was changed to .Modern (.Nowoczesna).[29][30] The party represents a liberal ideology.[31] As the leader of the party, Petru severely criticized the Civic Platform government and the Law and Justice party, labelling them as untrustworthy and unreliable.[32]

In October 2015, Modern received 7.6% of votes in the Polish parliamentary election.[3] Running from the first position on the party's election list in Warsaw, Petru was elected to Sejm, receiving the third best result in the country (129,088 votes), behind Ewa Kopacz (230,894 votes) and Jarosław Kaczyński (202,424 votes).[33][34]

In 2018 he left Modern and he founded new political association - Petru's Plan.[35]

Private life

Since 1997, he has been married to Małgorzata. They have two daughters.[6]

Controversy

As a teenager, Petru had lived in the Soviet Union for two years. He resided in Dubna, Moscow Oblast, where his father and mother worked for the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ). The fact that the Institute was controlled by the GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye, Main Intelligence Directorate), the main military foreign-intelligence service of the Soviet Union, has caused controversy in Poland decades later.[36]

gollark: Hmm, clearly the video data is embedded steganographically.
gollark: It contains the video of Rick Astley singing the famed song "Never Gonna Give You Up" run through an acoustic modem and then recorded.
gollark: This is because all competing processes can be modelled as ropes, by our beeoid visualizers.
gollark: What an exciting "tug of war".
gollark: Better solution: purchase CD and CD writer, burn onto those.

References
  1. "Ryszard Jerzy Petru, Powiązany Z Fundacja Klub Obywatelski, Towarzystwo Ekonomistów Polskich, Fundacja Projekt: Polska" (in Polish). Monitorfirm.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  2. Kryński, Michał. "Ryszard Petru odchodzi z BRE Banku" (in Polish). Bankier.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  3. "PKW: PiS zdobyło 37,58 proc. głosów. Wchodzi pięć partii, lewica poza Sejmem" (in Polish). TVN24. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  4. "PiS triumfuje i rządzi samodzielnie! Gorący, powyborczy poniedziałek [RELACJA NA ŻYWO]" (in Polish). Gazeta.pl. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  5. "Zdjęcie nr 4 w galerii - Nie ma już takich jak pan Tadeusz. Czytelnicy o pierwszym premierze III RP". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). September 19, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  6. Łupak, Sebastian (August 15, 2006). "Bilans trzydziestolatka. Ścisk i krótka piłka" (in Polish). Gazetapraca.pl. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  7. "Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych". Isap.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  8. "Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza: Wybory Parlamentarne 2001" (in Polish). Wybory2001.pkw.gov.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  9. "Petru odchodzi z BRE-Sylwetki". Rzeczpospolita. October 14, 2010. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  10. "Ryszarda Petru - .Nowoczesna" (in Polish). Modern. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  11. "Dolny Śląsk" (in Polish). Umwd.dolnyslask.pl. February 22, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  12. Rada i Komisja Rewizyjna. TEP
  13. "Wiosenna Szkoła Leszka Balcerowicza 2012" (in Polish). Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  14. ""Moralność i etyka czasów kryzysu" - nowy program ks. Kazimierza Sowy w Religia.tv" (in Polish). Wirtualnemedia.pl. February 26, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  15. "Wikileaks: Ryszard Petru był "nieformalnym doradcą premiera Tuska"! Buntuje się przeciwko własnemu dorobkowi u władzy?" (in Polish). wPolityce.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  16. "Ryszard Petru został szefem rady nadzorczej PKP SA". Gazeta Wyborcza. February 13, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  17. "MIR: Ryszard Petru zrezygnował z zasiadania w radzie nadzorczej PKP S.A." (in Polish). Twarzebiznesu.pl. March 19, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  18. "Ryszard Petru na czele Rady Nadzorczej firmy Solaris | Zmiany kadrowe" (in Polish). pulshr.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  19. "Koniec wolnego rynku? Geneza kryzysu - NCK" (in Polish). National Centre of Culture. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  20. "Pestka, drops, cukierek. Liczby Kultury II wydanie (książka+słuchowisko) - NCK" (in Polish). National Centre of Culture. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  21. "Zaskórniaki i inne dziwadła z krainy portfela. Liczby kultury - NCK" (in Polish). National Centre of Culture. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  22. https://web.archive.org/web/20150803210641/http://nowoczesnapl.org/kontakt/. Archived from the original on August 3, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  23. "Kongres założycielski Stowarzyszenia NowoczesnaPL. Petru: mamy dość ciepłej wody w kranie - Wiadomości" (in Polish). Onet.pl. May 31, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  24. "Polska i Świat. NowoczesnaPL rusza po wyborców - Polska i Świat" (in Polish). TVN24. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  25. "Ryszard Petru buduje partię - Radio Merkury Poznań" (in Polish). Radiomerkury.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  26. "Wybrałem Nowoczesna.PL - Wadim Tyszkiewicz - mPolska24" (in Polish). Mpolska24.pl. June 2, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  27. "Wyborcza.pl". Gazeta.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  28. "Gdzie jest Petru i NowoczesnaPL? "Jeździmy po Polsce, budujemy struktury, program już w lipcu"" (in Polish). naTemat.pl. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  29. "Nowoczesna bez "PL", ale z kwadratową kropką. Ugrupowanie Petru zmienia wizerunek" (in Polish). TVN24. August 14, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  30. "Nowoczesna z nowym rzecznikiem, logo i "jedynką"". Newsweek Polska (in Polish). August 14, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  31. "Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck". parties-and-elections.eu. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  32. "Petru krytykuje PO i PiS: Polacy nie powinni się dać nabierać" (in Polish). parlamentarny.pl. September 15, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  33. Wilgocki, Michał; Orłowski, Maciej (October 27, 2015). "Wyniki wyborów 2015. Wyborczy rekordziści. 230 tys. głosów na Kopacz. Za nią Kaczyński i Petru". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  34. "Wybory parlamentarne. Oto lista nazwisk wszystkich 460 posłów" (in Polish). Gazeta.pl. October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  35. "Plan Petru – Wspólny Plan Naprawy Państwa" (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  36. "Petru wychowany pod okiem GRU. Człowiek cienia". niezalezna.pl. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
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