Waldemar Maj

Waldemar Maj has close to 20 years of experience in banking, industry, consulting, and government.

He is a Founding Partner of Metropolitan Capital Solutions. He is also Member of the Supervisory Boards of PZU S.A., a public insurance company, where he chaired IPO Committee and chairs Strategy Committee, Ciech S.A, a public chemical company, where he chairs Audit Committee, Bank BGZ S.A., a public commercial bank, where he chaired IPO Committee, and Stock Spirits Group, an Oaktree portfolio company, where he chairs Audit Committee.

In banking, he spent over 10 years in investment and corporate banking in Switzerland (UBS), USA (IFC/World Bank), and Poland. As Vice-President in charge of Corporate Banking and Treasury at Bank BGZ S.A. / Rabobank Group in Warsaw, he led successful turnaround of corporate sales. As President/CEO of DZ Bank Polska S.A. in Warsaw, he led successful operational restructuring of a bank. As Senior Investment Officer at Oil, Gas, and Mining at IFC/World Bank in Washington D.C., he negotiated debt and equity investments in new projects in emerging markets and supervised IFC investments in portfolio companies with total value exceeding $700 mln.

In industry, as Vice-President/CFO of PKN Orlen S.A., an oil refining and marketing company with operations across CEE and Germany, he was responsible for managing liquidity and cooperation with financial institutions. He was also Member of the Supervisory Board of Unipetrol a.s. (a Czech subsidiary) and Member of the Management Board of AB Mazeikiu Nafta (a Lithuanian subsidiary).

In consulting, he worked for McKinsey & Company in Warsaw, engaged in strategic advisory projects in insurance, banking, and telecommunication.

In government, he engaged in the transformation process to market economy and worked as an Adviser to the Minister of Finance, in the early nineties.

Fluent in English, has good command of German, French, and Russian, and basic of Spanish and Dutch. He graduated from Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics at Technical University of Warsaw, holds a Ph.D. in Physics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He is married and has three children, Antonina, Grzegorz, and Tomasz. He was actively involved in the democratic movement in Poland from 1976 until 1989 and has been awarded Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In his free time he runs marathons; completed marathons in New York (2009), Copenhagen (2010), and Tokyo (2011).