Michał Olszewski

As a deputy mayor he’s responsible for supervising strategic planning and acquisition of EU funds, policy of regional development, tourism, labor market, development of the wharves of Vistula river, business licensing, housing policy, activities in the field of revitalization, environmental protection, development of green areas and urban forests, infrastructure and waste management.

He’s connected with public administration for 18 years. He started his career in 19976 in the Office of the Committee for European Integration, where he was responsible for strengthening the administrative potential of local governments in the feature of European integration and absorption of pre-accession and structural EU funds. After the Polish accession to the EU he started working in the Ministry of Economy and Labor, then in the Ministry of Regional Development where he was responsible for strengthening the absorptive capacity of local governments in the first programs funded by the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. For his commitment to action facilitating Polish local governments to use the new opportunity to build local development in 2005 he was honored with “Self-government in the service of society” plaque granted by the major local governments corporations in Poland. He was also involved, as the government expert, in projects reinforcing the potential of local and regional administration in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania in the partnership financed from EU funds.

Since 2007, after his resignation from the position of deputy director of the department in the Ministry of Regional Development, he is a worker of the City of Warsaw. In the City he held the position of director of European Funds Department and of director of Services for Investors Department. In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Mayor of Warsaw. Regardless of the work in the City of Warsaw he also conducted research and teaching at public and private universities.

He leads Warsaw Council for Innovation policy and is a member of it’s counterpart at the voivodship level. He also represents EUROCITIES, the largest organization of European cities, in the Smart Cities High Level Working Group in the European Commission.

He is also involved in strengthening of the cooperation of local governments on national level and in metropolitan areas. In the years 2007-2015 he served as head of the Commission of the European Policy and International Cooperation of the Association of Polish Cities. Since 2012 he is co-chairman of the Functional Metropolitan and Urban Areas Team of the Joint Commission of Government and Local Government. He is committed to strengthening cooperation in the Warsaw metropolitan area and the author of several projects supporting the functional connections between the municipalities of the metropolis. Since 2012 he chairs the Steering Committee of the Integrated Territorial Investment of Warsaw Metropolis.

For his contribution to the development of self-governance he was awarded by the President of Poland with the Gold Cross of Merit (2015) and with the Honorary Badge of Merit for the Local Government by the Minister of Administration and Digitization (2015).