Managing Geopolitical Risk in a Financial Institution

Bogdan Zawadewicz is the Head of the Geopolitical Risk Analysis Unit at the Polish Development Bank BGK. He graduated from the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Warsaw. Before joining the Bank, he worked at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) and at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, where he was a member of the research group "Frozen and Unfrozen Conflicts”. In addition, he participated in scientific and research internships at such institutions as the London School of Economics IDEAS, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow, the Center for Southeast European Studies in Graz, the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Universities in Niš, Novi Sad, and Bucharest. He was also a scholarship holder of the German DAAD and BAYHOST. 

Piotr Bańbuła is the Head of the Systemic Risk and Macroprudential Policy Division at Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP) and an Associate Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, where he teaches Finance, Macroeconomics, and Portfolio Management. He has worked in central banking for several years, both at NBP and the European Central Bank, focusing on financial markets, reserve management, exchange rates, and financial stability. His research interests include the measurement of risk, systemic risk, household finance, and wealth.

Marcin Pietrzak is an Economist, Risk Management, at Citi where he designs macroeconomic scenarios for stress testing exercises. Prior to joining Citi, Marcin, gained experience at the National Bank of Poland and the International Monetary Fund. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.

Piotr Bujak has been dealing with macroeconomic research and forecasting for 25 years. Since 2016 as head of Economic Research Department and Chief Economist at PKO Bank Polski. Vast experience at international financial institutions: chief economist for Poland at Nordea Markets, head of research team at Raiffeisen Bank Poland and senior economist at Santander Bank Poland. Expert at one of leading economic think-tanks in Poland, the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), with participation in scientific and advisory projects abroad. Warsaw University graduate. Participated in many trainings covering econometric modelling, forecasting and mathematical methods in financial markets (e.g. Swiss Finance Institute and Cambridge Econometrics). Co-author of a few economic books and numerous articles on economy and financial markets. Regularly awarded for accuracy of economic forecasts (Consensus Economics, Focus Economics, Forbes, Parkiet, Rzeczpospolita), including three titles of the Economist of the Year from a major Polish economic and financial newspaper Parkiet for the most accurate macroeconomic and financial market forecasts for Poland during the last four years. 

Piotr Buzala is a Model Validation Lead, Model Risk Management, at Citi where he validates different qualitative stress testing models. Previously Piotr worked as a manager in Product Control overseeing both banking and trading book. Piotr holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Warsaw School of Economics.