There are currently hundreds of quantitative analysts working at various locations across Poland. They all work in the financial services sector pre-dominantly, but not all of them are in the capital city. Some of them work in Wroclaw, Krakow, Poznan, Gdansk and even Lodz. Today we wanted to look at some of the people who are leading quant teams in Poland.
Model validation, stress testing, independent model review are just some of the functions that quant teams perform. And whilst it is encouraging to see so many new quants coming into the market things aren’t always as simple as they appear. See there are many quant heads working amongst the Polish banks and insurance companies. These people rarely work on global equities or international capital markets.
Since the 2000s Poland has seen a rise of shared service centres. Within many of these structures’ quants have been recruited and given tasks supporting global trading floors and risk teams. Most of these quants are taught different processes and skills than those working at local financial institutions. Just think about your risk exposure to Chinese equities or the Japanese Yen. Not things that affect Polish financial institutions much. But in the worlds of HSBC, UBS, and others these things can matter much more.
Who are the Heads of the largest Quant Teams in Poland?
In a recent story we highlighted some of the biggest employers of quant teams in Poland. This included a list of prestigious financial institutions the likes of Standard Chartered, ING, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon and RBS amongst others. This list is only complete if we look at some of the people who have helped and continue to help building this market.
Another interesting fact is how much quants overlap with academia. HSBC in Krakow for instance. But others too. Here is our list of the people leading international quant teams in Poland today:
Standard Chartered
Sebastian Skowronski, Managing Director, Head of Modelling and Platforms, Treasury at Standard Chartered. Slawomir joined ‘StanChart’ in 2008 and worked out of the Singapore offices of the bank until 2022. He is currently on a 2-year assignment to Warsaw to support the development of a Treasury Hub in the Warsaw office.
Tadeusz Peksa, Executive Director, Head of Model Risk Framework and ERM Modelling Cluster Head Poland at Standard Chartered. Tadeusz joined ‘StanChart’ in 2023. Prior to that he was a Senior Chapter Lead at ING Hubs and a Vice President, Model Risk Governance Senior Manager at Citi.
Citi
Magdalena Rozkowicz, Director, Head of Poland Model Risk Management at Citi. Magdalena joined Citi in Warsaw in 2007. She currently works within Model Risk Management but has worked in Valuation Control and Analytics in the past.
Katarzyna Tamborowska, Head of Debt Rating Models, Director at Citi. She joined Citi in 2020 prior to which she was a director in the credit risk departments of Getin Holding and Bank Ochrony Srodowiska. Katarzyna is currently hiring data scientists – risk rating developers to her team.
Credit Suisse
Pawel Kolski, Director and Head of Quantitative Analysis and Technology team at Credit Suisse in Poland. Pawel has worked for Credit Suisse since 2016 in both Wroclaw and Warsaw. In the past he was a Macroeconomist at the Ministry of Finance in Poland.
Goldman Sachs
Natalia Dobrinskaya, Head of EMEA Model Risk Management at Goldman Sachs. Natalia has worked for Goldman Sachs since 2010. In her role she works with model risk teams in both London and Warsaw.
Allianz
Giuseppe Maria Capriani, Managing Director at Allianz Quantitative Analytics. Giuseppe has worked for Allianz since 2014 in Stuttgart then later in Wroclaw. In his role he uses German daily when working with quantitative analysts. Giuseppe is a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA) and a member of the German Association of Actuaries (DAV).
BNY Mellon
Michal Wronka, Group Manager, Model Development at BNY Mellon. Michal joined BNY Mellon in Wroclaw in 2018. Prior to this he had spent time at UBS where he was a valuation methodology controller for interest rate and FX products.
Michal Kowalski, Director, Model Risk at BNY Mellon. Michal joined BNY Mellon in Wroclaw in 2018. Prior to this he had worked for many years at EY where he also worked with modelling and valuation projects. He has extensive experience with FX as well as calculating capital requirements (FRTB)
Michal Wojciechowski, Head of Business and Legal Entity Model Advisory at BNY Mellon. Michal joined BNY Mellon based out of Warsaw. He has worked within the model governance group at BNY Mellon and prior to joining the financial institution he worked for many years at Citi and worked as a member of working group on market risk at the European Banking Authority.
State Street
Būlent Köksal, Head of Model Risk Management Poland at State Street in Krakow. Būlent has been with State Street since 2017. Prior to this he spent time working as a Professor of Economics in Turkey where he is from. Būlent has finished an MA and a PhD at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Piotr Kowalczyk, Regional Head of Model Development at State Street in Krakow. Piotr has been with State Street since 2016 when he started as a model validation manager. He has significant experience from his time at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt where he worked for several years prior to relocating back to Krakow. Piotr is a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)
Nikunj Nagar, Managing Director at State Street Global Advisors in Krakow. He has been with State Street Global Advisors, or SSGA, since 2019, prior to which he worked at State Street in Krakow and Dublin since 2013. Nikunj is a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). Importantly, Nikunj manages a team in Poland who are savvy with all things ETF. Like the SPDR ETFs (Standard & Poor’s Depository Receipt). There are some quantitative analysts working in the SSGA team in Poland too.
UBS
Tomasz Brodzicki, PhD, Director – Risk Modelling and Analytics at UBS in Krakow. Tomasz has worked for UBS since 2022. He is also Principal Business Intelligence Consultant or Chief Economist at ABSL Poland. This is likely due to his previous role as Principal Economist at HIS Markit in Gdansk.
ING Hubs Poland
Aneta Ptak-Chmielewska, Director and Model Risk Management Lead in Risk Hub ING Hubs Poland. Aneta joined ING Hubs as a Chapter Lead in Warsaw in 2020. She has also been a professor at the prestigious Warsaw School of Economics since 2018. Prior to joining ING Hubs, Aneta worked as a director leading the credit risk strategy department at Bank Gospodasrtwa Krajowego.
Zbigniew Matosek, Senior Chapter Lead, ALM Model Validation at ING Hubs Poland. Zbigniew joined ING Hubs in 2021 and is building a team of model validation experts in the area of the Banking Book (ALM/IRRBB). He performs services for ING globally. Prior to joining ING Hubs, Zbigniew worked at EY for more than 11 years in financial risk and data analytics.
HSBC
Philippe De Brouwer, Head of Model Risk in service centre in HSBC Krakow. Philippe has been with HSBC since 2016 prior to which he had roles in RBS and KBC. He is a member of the board of trustees at the University of Science and Technology (AGH) in Krakow. Additionally he is also Honorary Consul at the Belgian Honorary Consulate in Krakow. Philippe is one of the most active leaders of quant teams in Poland, as well as a pioneer in bringing quant roles to Poland.
Miroslaw Fec, Head of Global Risk Analytics Poland at HSBC in Krakow. Miroslaw has been with HSBC since 2003. Prior to this he was with JP Morgan and spent much of his career in New York. Miroslaw is skilled in counterparty default management, equities, mergers & acquisitions, portfolio management, forecasting, and software project management.
The above list does not include every single person leading an international quant team in Poland. The list does cover most of the leaders though.
New Entries
Whilst companies representing the financial services sector may be ramping up their recruitment, there are some other firms who are also ramping up quant teams in Poland. We looked at some of these leaders too.
Lukasz Moss, Head of Financial Services Quant Team at Capgemini in Warsaw. Lukasz joined Capgemini from HSBC in 2023. At HSBC he was a senior manager and director in model validation. He worked at EY and PKO BP in the past.
Who are the Next Generation of Quant Leaders in Poland?
Ewa Marciniak, Lead Vice President, Head of Krakow IMR Market Risk, Model Risk Management at HSBC. She joined HSBC in 2016 and also taught and worked as a research assistant at the University of Science and Technology in Krakow (AGH) until 2019. Ewa has represented HSBC in collaboration with academia since then.
Aleksandra Ostaszewska, Legal Entity Climate Risk Head and Warsaw CSC Risk Site Lead at Citi. Aleksandra has been with Citi since 2011 in various roles focussed on credit risk and more recently climate risk. She is an experienced risk director with strong experience in enterprise risk management, credit risk, and financial risk.
It is not easy to predict who might be the next leader of a quant team in Poland. However, there are some things that can seem clear cut. For instance the ongoing acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS may mean that quants already working at either financial institution may need to be ‘re-allocated’. This in turn would lower the need to recruit new team members. HSBC, one of the largest employers of quants in Poland will continue to grow as risk topics like ESG continue to become more prevalent.
With State Street Global Advisors strengthening its presence in Poland too the sophistication of the local quant market will be challenged. Once there were limited job prospects for quants working in international teams in Poland. Today that appears to be changing. There is more choice than ever before.
Verita HR has been at the forefront of quant recruiting in Poland since 2015. Apart from ensuring our HR project co-ordinators know the market, we also work to ensure they know all of the trends in the market. In 2015 the focus was on model validation. Today, with companies like Allianz entering the market, the focus has become much wider.
Does your recruitment partner monitor the market for any changes? Do you want to talk to the specialists at Verita HR to find out more?
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Do you think someone else should be on this list? Contact us.
See Also:
Where do Quantitative Analysts work in Poland? – Verita HR
How popular is the Python programming language in Poland today? – Verita HR
