KAZIMIERZ KARASINSKI

Before taking the reins at Sunley Polska, Karasinski, a native of Krakow, worked for 15 years in the export department of construction firm Budostal-2. As honorary British consul, Karasinski says his main responsibilities will be to help British firms find opportunities and business partners in Malopolska as well as acting as the ambassador's "eyes and ears" in the Krakow region. Karasinski has traveled extensively, spending 1974-1975 working odd jobs in Sweden. In 1983 while working for Budostal-2 he was sent to Esfahan, Iran, for two years, where the firm was setting up a power station. Karasinski said a favorite memory from his Persian sojourn was being taken to Persopolis and "standing in the spot where Alexander the Great got drunk and decided to burn the palace down." He said he found the Iranian people "very polite and open to foreigners - on the condition that you believe in a God." The travel experience that Karasinski cherishes most, however, is the seven months in 1993 that he lived in Nizny Novgorod, Russia. He went to the formerly closed city to work for Dutch petrochemicals firm KTI. "It was a wonderful time, being one of the first foreigners to visit the city." Karasinski's interests include history, traveling to historical monuments, and bicycling. He dreams of visiting Greece and traveling by train from Moscow to Beijing, "to see the real Russia, with a landscape wide to the horizon." Karasinski said he speaks English, Swedish, Russian and some German and Persian.