Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz

Born on 4th November 1952, in Warsaw.

She graduated from the Warsaw University Faculty of Law and Administration. After graduating, she was on the academic staff in the Institute of Legal and Administrative Science, in the Department of Comparative Administrative Law and National Economic Management. She was awarded the title of Doctor of Legal Sciences in 1981, and her doctoral thesis was published in 1985. In 1989, she worked as an expert adviser to the Polish Parliament on issues concerning public and business law, and in particular banking law, with its subsequent amendments. In 1993, she submitted a thesis entitled “The central bank – from the centrally administered economy towards the market economy. Legal issues” containing proposals for amendments in the Polish banking law and was awarded a Reader (Docent) degree.

In 1992, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz was appointed President of Narodowy Bank Polski. During her first six-year term of office she strengthened the independence of the central bank and the dynamic development of the banking sector; she also established a clear-cut licensing policy. Two historic reforms of the Polish banking system were implemented in 1995: the re-issue of the zloty with revised face-values and the move to a managed floating exchange-rate for the zloty. In 1998, she was appointed president of the NBP for a second term of office, but resigned in December 2000, after having been appointed Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London.

Author of over 40 academic publications, including monographs, she is also a co-author of a textbook on administrative and business law. Since 1998, she has specialised in banking law, with particular emphasis on the legal basis for the operation of central banks.

She has received numerous awards from prestigious national and international economic and business magazines. The American monthly magazine “Global Finance” four times, in 1994,1997,1998 and in 1999, included her among the world’s best presidents of central banks. In 1997, she was awarded a papal medal “Ecclesiae Populoque Servitium Praestanti”- for Distinguished Service to Church and Nation – and in the same year she was honoured for her support for co-operative banks. In 1998, she received a medal from the NBP for Distinguished Service to the Polish Banking System.

She is married, and has one daughter.