Polish citizen Wojciech Balczun has been selected to chair Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) public joint-stock company by the Nominations Committee of Ukraine`s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, according to Ukraine Today.
Balczun is said to have over 15 years of professional experience, including seven years of top management positions in Polish railway transport as Supervisory Board Chairman at Polish Railways RRB and CEO at PKP Cargo. Under his management ”PKP Cargo practically became a competitor for Deutsche Bahn,” according to Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius, Ukraine Today reported.
Balczun worked as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of LOT Polish Airlines. In 2012, he was granted with `The Top 20 Award` by Bloomberg BusinessWeek Poland for the best managers in the time of crisis category, according to a report.
Balczun is also known as a frontman and guitarist of Polish popular rock band Chemia, the report notes.
Ukraine`s Acting Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelian stated he had had talks with Balczun, and the latter was aware of ”serious challenges that he would face.”
In addition, Omelian ruled out the privatization of Ukrzaliznytsia, adding that only sale of non-core assets of the state-owned company would be considered.
”Ukrzaliznytsia is not put up for sale and will not be sold. The state is to decide what to do with the company`s non-core assets. Currently, such processes are not taking place in Ukrzaliznytsia. At the same time, we tend to support the privatization of all company`s non-strategic assets and reducing the list of strategic ones,” Omelian said.
As reported earlier, Ukrzaliznytsia was turned into a public joint-stock company in December 2015. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade announced a contest to select a new chairman for the company. 31 candidates, including eight foreigners, applied for the position.
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