Krzysztof Gajór

Chairman of Computer Communication Systems
By : Greg Goodale

   As a student, Krzysztof Gajór, 42, was heading for a career in the dockyards in his home town of Gdańsk. In his third year at the shipbuilding institute at Gdańsk Polytechnic, the strikes organized by the Solidarity movement motivated him to organize an independent students union and get involved in protest action. When he graduated in 1985, the state decided he was overqualified for work in the dockyards and he found himself heading Storem, the polytechnic’s residential development company.

   As soon as the barriers to private enterprise were lifted in 1989, Gajór and a group of friends set up their own company, Demos, to import and assemble computers. After the first year, infighting over profits led two partners to quit the company and Gajór started Profil, which focused on importing branded computers. The capital-starved economic climate meant that after only two years Profil was swallowed by Interams II, the biggest system integrator of the time, and Gajór became general manager of its operations in northern Poland.

   According to Gajór, Interams II folded amid a scandal – the media and eventually the firm’s clients were convinced that its chairman used political connections to win public sector contracts through the back door. “The company came to a halt like a speeding car hitting a concrete wall and fell to bits,” Gajór said. He escaped unscathed and in 1995 became general manager of NCR Polska, then a part of AT&T Global Information Solutions. His responsibilities grew and in 1999 he was heading the company’s banking operations in Central Europe. But Gajór admits that as the company expanded in Poland he increasingly found that corporate management did not give him enough freedom and he departed to join Computer Communications Systems (CCS) earlier this year.

   Past notes:

   1985 – Graduated in shipbuilding from Gdańsk Polytechnic

   1985 – Project manager at Storem

   1989 – Sales and marketing director of Demos

   1990 – Director and owner of Profil

   1992 – Managing director of Interams II for northern Poland

   1995 – General manager of NCR Polska

   2001 – President and CEO of CCS

   Word of advice:

   “To be seen as a reliable partner you have to have a history, and demonstrate that the company is solid and will not disappear.”