Janusz Krzyżewski

Janusz Krzyżewski was born in Krzemieniec on April 19, 1938.

He is a graduate of Warsaw University Faculty of Law, and has been a counsellor at law since 1976, specialising in financial and banking law. He has worked at the Institute of Labour and Welfare (1963-66), at the Institute of Construction Organisation and Mechanisation (1966-70), and then as a counsellor at law at the Institute of Scientific and Economic Information. In 1987, he began work as a counsellor at law at the PHZ Bumar Foreign Trade Enterprise, subsequently taking up the post of chief specialist at the Legislative Office of the Chancellery of the Polish Senate on January 1, 1990. On January 31, 1992, he was appointed Vice Minister of Privatisation.

In 1992, Janusz Krzyżewski became a member of the Securities Commission, and until 1994 was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ruch SA press distribution company and of PLL LOT Polish Airlines, and chaired the Supervisory Board of Interbank SA (1993-94), then under rehabilitation; following the sale of this bank’s equity, which he performed personally, he became Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of ABN AMRO Polska SA, a post he held until 1996. He completed a course in European banking and insurance law at the University Institute of Luxembourg (1993-94).

Janusz Krzyżewski lectures in banking law and legislation relating to financial instruments at Warsaw University Faculty of Economics and Finance and at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. He also lectures in banking law at several other colleges licensed to confer bachelor’s degrees. He collaborates on academic matters with Warsaw University Faculty of Management. He is the author of over a dozen publications related to banking, finance and securities, and in 1993-95 acted as a negotiator of the Conventions on banking law in private international law developed by the United Nations, subsequently serving as Polish representative in the UNCITRAL working groups; in his scientific work he deals with the issue of risks in financial markets, and legal instruments to reduce such risks;

Janusz Krzyżewski was persecuted and imprisoned for his beliefs in the years 1960-61, and later repeatedly repressed during political developments of broader scope. He is a member of the Christian Democrat movement. He was co-organiser of the Silesian Region of the NSZZ Solidarity trade union, being present during the strikes at the Huta Katowice steel plant from September 8, 1980, onwards. He later acted as adviser to Solidarity and was involved in clandestine work for the union after it was outlawed under martial law. He died tragically on 4 July 2003.