Wolfgang Lehmacher is a Global Supply Chain Evangelist. Until recently, he was the Head of Supply Chain and Transport Industries for the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, Lehmacher now works as a non-executive board director and strategy consultant who is an industry and technology evangelist and polymath, offering advice and support to stakeholders across the global supply chain ecosystem, ranging from start-ups, to investors, to Fortune 50 companies. Wolfgang is a keynote speaker and strategic advisor.

Frank Schuhholz is a global expert on logistics, with a focus on the Belt & Road Initiative. Passionate about the pan-European rail freight industry, he has been tracking Chinese activities in Europe since he saw regular container trains coming into Europe from China 10 years ago while working for A.P. Moller Maersk Group. In 2016 he set up FMS Advisers to assist business leaders who believe that rail can play a more important role within their company’s supply chains in the future than it does today. Frank is the inventor and co-organiser of this conference.

Dr. Chen Chen is a China Special Advisor and is a key member of the China Service Group of Baker McKenzie Budapest office. Being native Chinese with a Hungarian law degree, Chen is best positioned to assist Chinese clients in connection with the legal aspects of their investments and operations in Hungary. In co-operation with the Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai offices, Chen also assists Hungarian and other European clients in their business relationships with Chinese companies and their activities in the Chinese markets.

Dr. Christian Kuhn is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the second largest railway in the CIS and a major player in the development of the new Silk Road corridor linking China with Europe and the Middle East. He is also a Member of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of Committee on Strategy and Finance for Ukrzaliznytsia, the State Railway of Ukraine and is also a Member of the Board of Directors of Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (LG), the biggest freight railway in the Baltic countries.

Dr. Lúcio Vinhas de Souza is the Head of the Economics Team for the European Commission. He has been a visiting researcher and visiting fellow at a number of institutions, including the Central Banks of Estonia and Germany, the New Economic School in Moscow and the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics in Brussels. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Master and Bachelor degrees in economics from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Robert Dobrzycki is CEO of Panattoni Europe and oversees operations in Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Germany and the UK. Dobrzycki opened Panattoni CEE operations in 2005 and under his management, Panattoni Europe has achieved the leading position on the Polish market and high brand recognition in CE. In 14 years under his management, Panattoni Europe has developed in Poland over 6m sqm of warehouse space out of existing stock of 16m sqm. Panattoni was recently named largest developer in Europe by PropertyEU for the third year in a row.

Dr. Carsten Hinne is responsible for developing the Eurasian Corridor for DB Cargo as SVP since January 2018 and was appointed as CEO of DB Cargo Eurasia. Previously, Carsten was responsible for Industry Sector Chemicals for DB Cargo as Senior Vice President. Earlier, in 2011, Carsten took on his first P&L responsibility when he was appointed Managing Director to lead the strategic expansion of DB Schenker´s intermodal and rail logistics division in the UK.

Volker Friedrich is the Founder and CEO of GBP International, an independent consulting company founded in 1997 which offers management consulting and project management services across many industry segments in Europe and Asia Pacific, with a network in China, India, Southeast-Asia and Europe. GBP International is based in Malaysia but has offices in cities in Asia Pacific. Berlin and Kuala Lumpur are centres for coordinating activities in Europe and Asia. Prior to founding GBP, Friedrich was a Senior Consultant with Roland Berger & Partner.

Renata Osiecka is the Managing Partner of AXI IMMO. She has many years of experience in real estate management, especially in the warehouse and industrial sector. Ten years ago she created an advisory agency that has grown into today’s AXI IMMO. Osiecka gained her experience working for developers and international real estate agencies. She is a President of SIOR European Chapter and a member of RICS. She advises and represents clients in leasing, renegotiations, disposal, and acquisition of commercial facilities.

József Kossuth is the Senior Cargo Manager for Budapest Airport Zrt, responsible for managing the airport’s cargo business development, sales and marketing. His mission is to optimise the air cargo environment of the airport for cargo business partners and to develop the regional cargo hub role of BUD utilising the large cargo potential in the CEE region. Previously, he worked as Assistant Fuel Manager for Malév Hungarian Airlines, and Sales Manager of Airport Fuel Supply Ltd. subsidiary of (BUD). In addition, he is a Board Member of the Hungarian Logistic Service Centres Association.

Carsten Pottharst is the Managing Director of InterRail Europe GmbH, based in Switzerland. He was previously Sales Director at InterRail, having joined from DB Schenker Automotive. InterRail Europe is a rail service and forwarding provider which focuses on rail transport along three corridors across the states of the former Soviet Union, from Europe to China, from Europe to Russia, Iran and India, and along the Central Asian corridor. It is the General Agent for Chinese Railway subsidiary CRCT and also General Forwarder for KTZE.

Dr. Wulf Meinel is the CEO of Frasers Property Europe and has over 25 years of real estate experience as an investment manager, banker and real estate lawyer. Frasers Property Europe develops, owns and manages light industrial and logistics assets. Previously, Meinel was a Managing Director/Partner at The Carlyle Group, where he realised growth and expansion strategies for Germany, the Nordics and Central Europe, and played a key role in raising over € 3.5bn for Carlyle’s three Real Estate Funds in Europe.

Piotr Malepszak is the Acting President of Solidarity Transport Hub Poland and is responsible for planning, design and construction of the air-and-rail hub. He is a Member of the Board and is in charge of the railway component of the investment. Previously, he was a Member of the Board of Koleje Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesian Railways) and worked with PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe as the Director of the Railway Road Office and the Board's Representative for Railway Revitalisation.

Philip Evans is the Secretary General of the European Freight & Logistics Leaders’ Forum, an international network of senior business leaders from across global supply chains. His knowledge of global markets comes from two decades of working in the sector as Commercial Director of an FMCG export wholesaler, Founder of an international retail franchise and now Founder and Managing Director of Global Food & Drink Brands. He was formerly a corporate finance Partner at Arthur Andersen and Head of its European Retail team.

Patrycja Pendrakowska is President of the Board at the Boym Institute, an independent think tank that brings together experts on issues such as politics, economy and innovation in developing countries, especially contemporary Asia. She is also CEO of Asian Century, a consulting company connecting Europe with Asia, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Warsaw. She graduated with degrees in Sinology, Philosophy, Sociology, and Ethnology at the University of Warsaw.

Rafał Milczarski is the President and CEO for LOT Polish Airlines. In 2017, Milczarski was elected as President of AIRiE (Airlines International Representation in Europe) association and he was also appointed as President of Polish Aviation Group (PGL). He co-founded the Baltic Rail, one of the first private railway carriers of goods in Poland. Together with UK’s Freightliner Group, he founded Freightliner PL. He is also the founder of Freightliner DE – a German subsidiary Freightliner PL and the Association of Independent Railway.

Rafał Milczarski is the President and CEO for LOT Polish Airlines. In 2017, Milczarski was elected as President of AIRiE (Airlines International Representation in Europe) association and he was also appointed as President of Polish Aviation Group (PGL). He co-founded the Baltic Rail, one of the first private railway carriers of goods in Poland. Together with UK’s Freightliner Group, he founded Freightliner PL. He is also the founder of Freightliner DE – a German subsidiary Freightliner PL and the Association of Independent Railway.

Thomas Kowitzki is the Head of China Rail Mutlimodal/Europe at DHL Global Forwarding. With 30 years of experience, he has expertise in International Freight Forwarding and CEP/Parcel/Express. In the context of the further successful development of the Chinarail Service, the group decided in 2017 to bundle the service under DHL Global Forwarding and set up an integrated team, headed by Kowitzki. Today DHL has a dedicated Rail team in place located in Europe and China to ensure smooth operation and expansion of DHL services along the New Silk Road.

Steffen Bobsien is the Chief Executive Officer of DB Cargo Polska, one of the leading freight rail carriers on the Polish market. Previously, as Senior Vice President of DB Cargo, he was responsible for Assets & Technology. In this position he established a holistic European asset and technology management system and created the innovative "amspireLab". He set industry standards by taking innovative approaches to asset management, introducing ECM and making technological improvements to the fleet.

Dr. Andrzej Juchniewicz is the Chief Representative of the PAIH office in Shanghai. PAIH works to increase the inflow of investments to Poland and the outflow of Polish FDI. It also aims to increase Polish exports. The Agency assists entrepreneurs with administrative and legal procedures and helps to develop legal solutions, find suitable locations, reliable partners and suppliers. Foreign Trade Offices of PAIH are responsible for supporting Polish exporters and investors looking for new opportunities.

Michał Grochowski is the Cargo Director at LOT Polish Airlines, where he is responsible for the continuous growth of the LOT Cargo brand and the support of LOT Cargo agents. Before joining LOT, Grochowski was Head of Sales, Air & Ocean, for CEVA Logistics, and prior to that he was Air Freight Developing Manager CE for Switzerland-based logistics & supply chain company Panalpina. He started his career with DB Schenker, where he was Head of VM Aerospace Region East, and was responsible for business development.

The Port of Rijeka in Croatia is the largest concessionaire for shipping and reloading of dry cargo in the Rijeka port basin. The port offers services in maritime traffic, port services and the storage of cargo. It is located on the Kvarner Gulf in the northern Adriatic Sea and is at the southern terminus of the Pan-European transport network corridor, representing a maritime extension of the rail and road routes leading to and from Rijeka. They include modern roads such as the A6 and A7 motorways.

Bartosz Komasa is the Head of Corporate Relations for the Bank of China in Poland. He has been involved in Sino-Polish economic relations since 2002, starting his career at the Economic Section of the Polish Embassy in Beijing, where he assisted Polish enterprises entering the Chinese market. Komasa previously worked for the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, where he was in charge of Chinese investments in Poland. In 2012, he assisted in the establishment of the first Chinese bank in Poland – Bank of China.

Peter Vesterbacka is co-Founder of FinEstBay Area Development Oy. Previously, he served as the Chief Marketing Officer and Mighty Eagle of Rovio Entertainment Oy until summer 2016. He has also worked at the original startup Hewlett-Packard and founded among others Slush and Mobile Monday. Lately, Vesterbacka has focused on education-related ventures, as well as developing the world's longest subsea tunnel connecting Finland and Estonia. He is well known and active in the global startup community.

Kustaa Valtonen is co-Founder of FinEstBay Area Development Oy. He is an experienced sales professional with more than 13 years of experience from HP and Microsoft. During the last seven years, he has worked as a business angel helping a large number of startups to raise funding and grow their businesses. In May 2016, Valtonen started to work on the world's longest subsea railway tunnel connecting Finland and Estonia.

Martin Hubeňák is the Port Representative Central & Eastern Europe for the Antwerp Port Authority. He started his career in 2001 and gained operational experience in supply chain, warehousing and freight forwarding at the logistics company Exel/DHL, DB Schenker as Project Manager and Transpoint International as General Manager. In 2012 moved to one of the main steel producers in Czech Republic, Vitkovice Steel and held the position of Logistics and Production Planning Director.

Adam Czerniak is the Director for Research at Polityka Insight. He specialises in macroeconomics and is a researcher at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH). Previously, he was a banking economist. Before that, he worked with the World Bank, FOR Foundation and held a fellowship from the Ronald Coase Institute. He has authored academic publications on the functioning of the housing market and institutional economics.

Michał Zięba is a Partner at Elżanowski, Cherka & Wąsowski Law Firm. Recently, he was the Director of the Department of Monitoring and Safety in the Office of Rail Transportation and he actively participated in legislative works on the amendments to the Railway Transport Act. He represented Poland during the meetings of the European Railway Agency, including on the meetings of the Administrative Council of the ERA, NSA Network group, and as part of the programme of the European Council when he advised the Ukrainian Ministry of Transportation.

Dariusz Mierkiewicz is the Business Development Manager for Poland for the Port of Koper in Slovenia, where 12 specialised terminals operate in the port area. The container terminal is the largest terminal in the Adriatic, the car terminal is one of the largest in the Mediterranean, and the reefer terminal is one of the most experienced - with over 50 years of activity and development. Cargo volume to and from Poland via the Port of Koper has increased year-on-year.

Christoph Szakowski is a Managing Partner at LogCon East. He has 20 years of experience in top management roles and consultancy assignments in Europe and Asia. He supports large and mid-size logistics providers in Transformations, M&A processes, Executive Search and the implementation of key change management initiatives. At LogCon East, the CEE’s largest boutique advisory firm based in Vienna, he is responsible for projects that make clients more competitive, efficient and profitable in the Emerging Markets, CEE, CIS and DACH.

Łukasz Dziewanowski is the Operational Director for Poland at ESA logistika, a company of the Hitachi Transport System. With his years of experience in the logistics industry, he actively co-creates business strategies, coordinates processes and oversees the implementation of tasks. In the ESA group, which has been operating in Poland for 10 years, he helped create the Freight Forwarding Department as an inseparable element of the supply chain or the initiation of solutions that improve security in logistics, which is the FTL Premium project.

Jakub Jakóbowski is a Senior Fellow at the China-EU Programme at the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), a public think-tank based in Warsaw. He specialises in China's international political economy, as well as CEE-China and EU-China relations. Jakóbowski is the author of the recent report 'The Silk Railroad. The EU-China rail connections: background, actors, interests', as well as a series of publications on the China-CEE 16+1 format cooperation in finance, investment and trade.

Adam Konieczny is Development Director for Poland and Eastern Europe for the Louvre Hotels Group. He is responsible for development in Europe and supervises regional development managers. Previously he was Country Head Poland at Christie & Co. In 2016 Konieczny was involved in the sale of two 4-star hotels in Wrocław and Gdańsk on behalf of an American fund. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Consultant in the hospitality area, at DTZ´s (now Cushman & Wakefield) hospitality department in Warsaw.

Krzysztof Masny is an experienced Senior Logistics & Supply Chain Executive with a proven track record of leading teams, implementing projects to optimise costs and efficiency. He has over 25 years of experience in logistics and supply chain management at various positions and companies (IBM, METRO Group, Castorama) with over 10 years of experience in managing the company as a Managing Director, including regional positions in Europe. He is now an expert for the Polish Supply Management Leaders (PSML) organisation.

Prof. Grzegorz W. Kolodko is the world’s most quoted Polish economist. He is an intellectual and politician, and a key architect of Polish reforms. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, 1994-97 and 2002-03. He is a Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities. He is the Founder and Director of Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research, TIGER at Kozminski University. Kolodko is the author of research papers and numerous books published in 26 languages.

Prof. Jana Pieriegud, Ph.D. is the Head of the Department of Infrastructure and Mobility Studies at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics. She is also an individual expert for a number of institutions such as: the National Centre for Research and Development, European Commission’s Innovation and Network Executive Agency, Austrian Research Promotion Agency. She collaborated with the Horizon 2020 Transport Advisory Group. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Shift2Rail JU, as well as the Research Board for ProKolej Foundation.

Dorota Jagodzińska-Sasson is the Managing Director at Panattoni Europe. Her main responsibilities include the development of warehouse and production investments on the so-called emerging markets ─ in Kielce, Opole, Zielona Góra, Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Lublin and Toruń. Jagodzińska has over 20 years of experience in the industry, both in acquiring new clients and in managing industrial and warehouse properties. Before joining the Panattoni team, she was a member of the management board of all companies in the MLP Group SA.

Artur Mokrzycki is the Head of Capital Markets Europe for Panattoni Europe. He is responsible for investor management and relationships including capital sourcing and structuring for the Panattoni platform across Europe. He has 20 years of experience in real estate investment management. He joined Panattoni Europe from AEW Europe where he was the Managing Director for Central Europe and fund manager of PBW I and PBW II funds. In these roles he was responsible for debt and equity raising, acquisitions and management of a €1.3bn portfolio.

Radosław Pacewicz was nominated by Polish Prime Minister as Vice President of UTK in 2017. In his professional career he concentrated on sectoral market regulation. Prior to UTK, he worked in the UKE, where he was responsible for the analysis of the costs of mobile operators in terms of regulatory obligation, the preparation and implementation of the LRIC bottom -up model. In 2011 he was President of the Counsel; then he was the Director of the Department of Railway Market Regulation. He also served as Director of the Regulation Department.

Andrew Wrobel is the Founding Partner, Content & Strategy at Emerging Europe. Trained as a journalist, he has worked for broadcast and print media for over 15 years. Since the beginning of his career, he has covered business, investment, trade, macro-economy, and political economy. He regularly interviews political and business leaders about economics, business, and politics. He has authored and contributed to international business, investment, and trade-related publications. Wrobel is also a member of IAOP’s European Outsourcing Council.

Richard is Founder & Editor of Poland Today, an English-language media firm based in Warsaw. The company publishes Poland Today magazine and organises conferences in Poland and abroad, including at MIPIM in Cannes. He was previously editor of Eurobuild CEE magazine, where he launched the Eurobuild Awards, and was Managing Director of CEPIF, a CEE real estate fair. Throughout his career, Stephens has organised over 120 international conferences and events, including 10+ trips of international journalists to Poland & CEE countries.