Piotr Nowak (born 30 April 1980) is a Polish economist and politician, member of the Polish Council for Strategic Development Projects. He was Minister of Development and Technology in the Second Cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki until resigning in March 2022.
Piotr Nowak graduated from the Faculty of Cybernetics at the Military Technical Academy in Warsaw and School of Economics in Warsaw majoring in Finance and Banking. He is also a graduate of doctoral studies at the School of Economics and an Executive MBA program, run by the Warsaw University of Technology in collaboration with the London Business School, HEC School of Management Paris and NHH in Bergen. Mr. Nowak is a holder of CQF title – Certificate in Quantitative Finance. Graduate of the “International Security” post-graduate program at Stanford University in the US.
Associated with financial markets since 2004: first as a foreign exchange dealer at PKO BP, then from 2005 to 2006 as a trader at CALYON Corporate & Investment Bank, where he was responsible for bonds and derivatives on interest rate in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. From 2006 to 2010 he was vice-president in London hedge fund belonging to the group Swiss Re, where he was dealing with the Global Macro strategy including debt instruments, indices, derivatives and currencies of all emerging markets.
In the period of 2010-2011 he was working as a prop trader at Espirito Santo Investment Bank of Poland, and from 2011 till 2014 at PKO TFI, as deputy director of the department of management of debt securities’ portfolio. At the beginning of 2015 he began working as the expert on economic issues at the President’s Office, then from October to December 2015 he was working in Money Makers TFI SA.
Keynote speech at Strategica 2025: Challenges and Opportunities for Business in Central and Eastern Europe: Lessons from Poland and Regional Perspectives As Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) navigates a rapidly evolving economic and geopolitical landscape, businesses face both unprecedented challenges and significant opportunities. This keynote will explore key trends shaping the region, including financial stability, access to capital, technological innovation, and the impact of global shifts on local markets. Drawing on Poland’s economic transformation as a case study, we will discuss strategic lessons for Romania and the broader region. What factors have driven Poland’s success in attracting investment, fostering innovation, and ensuring financial resilience? How can Romanian businesses leverage these insights to enhance competitiveness and long-term growth? Join us for a forward-looking discussion on the future of business in CEE.
Dr. Rohan Christie-David is the Dean of the College of Business at Texas A&M University. He is an award-winning researcher. Professor Christie-David specializes in banking, financial derivatives, market microstructure, and corporate finance. With over more than 40 articles in elite and high-quality business journals, he was ranked among the “Most Prolific Authors in Finance Literature 1959-2008.” He has published in the Journal of Business, The Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Futures Markets, the Journal of Derivatives, the Review of Futures Markets, and others.
Dr. Christie-David holds an ACIB from The Chartered Institute of Bankers (London), now the Institute of Banking & Finance, London, an MBA (with Distinction) from Wake Forest and a PhD in (Business Administration: Finance) from the University of South Carolina.
Keynote speech at Strategica 2025: Political Heterogeneity, Subjective Optimism, and Stock Market Outcomes We demonstrate that political heterogeneity, proxied by the spread in subjective optimism between Democratic and Republican investors, affects stock market returns and volatility. Our intuition, drawn from the psychology literature on intergroup conflict, leads us to infer that increased political heterogeneity causes investors to become entrenched, not just in their political beliefs, but also in their economic outlook. Consequently, they become resistant to contrary news, and this behavior is linked to lower market volatility and higher market returns. These findings are further underpinned by evidence that shows idiosyncratic volatility, which reflects the level of stock responses to firm-specific information, to decrease as political heterogeneity increases.