News

PwC elects a new CEO, Olga Grygier-Siddons, and appoints a regional leadership team for Central and Eastern Europe.

PwC has appointed a new regional CEO and leadership team to lead its network of firms across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The appointments take effect on 1 July 2014. PwC’s Central and Eastern European network includes 8000 people in 52 offices across 29 countries (see notes for a full list of countries).

Olga Grygier-Siddons will become Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PwC Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and will continue to be based in Warsaw.   She is taking over from Mike Kubena, who has served as CEO for two 4-year terms, which is the maximum number of terms allowed under PwC CEE’s governance arrangements.  Mrs. Grygier-Siddons was elected CEO by her fellow partners, and will be the first woman and the first local national to serve in this position.  

Olga Grygier-Siddons commented: “This is a great honour and I will strive to increase PwC’s leading position in Central and Eastern Europe.  The business environment in our region is challenging, but offers exciting opportunities.  By combining our local relationships and the power of our network, we are uniquely placed to help our clients make the most of those opportunities while solving their increasingly complex business issues."                                    

Olga Grygier-Siddons was appointed Managing Partner of PwC Poland in 2009.  Under her leadership, the Polish firm grew to 1800 professionals and increased revenue by more than 30%.  The firm also strengthened its market position and made significant investments - opening a law firm, a brokerage office, an office in Łódź and a Shared Service Centre in Katowice.  Prior to that, she led PwC Poland’s Advisory department for 5 years.  Olga has been with PwC since 1991 and has extensive experience in advising governments and international energy and infrastructure companies.   Olga is married with two children. 

In her first duty as CEO-elect, Olga Grygier-Siddons has appointed the regional leadership team to support her in leading and managing the business.  She commented: “After extensive consultation, I have chosen partners who are excellent with their clients, good coaches, and strong team players.  These appointments also reflect PwC’s long-term commitment to developing local professionals into strategic leadership positions.” 

Igor Lotakov will serve as CEE Assurance Leader and will be based in Moscow. In addition to his regional leadership role, he will continue as an audit partner focusing on clients in the energy sector. For the past 3 years, Igor has served as Assurance Leader for Russia. He joined PwC in 1995 as an auditor and served as CEE Oil and Gas leader and Energy, Utilities and Mining sector leader within the Russian Assurance practice. He went on assignment to PwC Houston, where he worked for major oil and gas clients. He is a member of the ACCA and a CFA charterholder.  Igor is married and has two daughters. 

Piotr Romanowski will take over as CEE Advisory Leader and will be based in Warsaw. In parallel, Piotr will continue to serve as relationship partner for several important banking and insurance  clients.  Piotr joined PwC Poland in April 2011.  As CEE Financial Services leader, he has led numerous landmark client projects across the region. Piotr is married and has one daughter. 

David John will continue as CEE Tax and Legal Services (TLS) Leader, a role he has held since July 2013. He will be based in Moscow and will continue to play a leading role on a number of important regional and Russian clients. Before joining the regional leadership, he worked as TLS leader for PwC Russia. David came to CEE on assignment from PwC UK . He served on the Tax Leadership Team for the UK firm and also served as Tax Leader for the Midlands Region in the UK and Markets Leader for the middle market sector.  David is married with one son. 

Paul Stewart will serve as Transformation Leader and will be based in Prague.  He will operate with a wide remit to develop a collaborative culture, while improving market performance. Paul will also lead initiatives to strengthen leadership and talent development across CEE. Paul has served on the Management Board as the Managing Partner for Human Capital since January 2013. He joined PwC in 2003 and since then has worked as the partner in charge of the St Petersburg office, TLS leader in the Czech Republic, CEE TLS Human Capital partner and Global TLS Human Capital partner. Paul is married with two children. 

Paweł Pepliński will continue in the role of COO and will be based in Moscow.  He will focus on efficiency and back-office transformation across the region. Paweł has worked in the regional COO role since January 2013 and also serves as the COO for Russia. Paweł brings a wealth of experience to this role, having worked 28 years in the profession and 19 years with PwC. He was the Assurance leader for Poland and the Baltics, and prior to that was the Consumer and Industrial Products leader in Poland. As a client service partner, he has led audits for a large number of Polish and multinational clients. Paweł is married and has six children. 

Adam Krasoń will succeed Olga Grygier-Siddons as Managing Partner for PwC Poland. Over the past two years Adam Krasoń has led PwC Poland’s Assurance department. Prior to that, he managed the telecommunications, media and entertainment group and was responsible for non-audit Assurance services in CEE.