Interview by Beata Socha

WBJ: You have built your career at the intersection of finance, insurance, and digital transformation. Which experiences or decisions shaped your path to leadership the most?

Katarzyna Kowalska: I think the key factor was decision-making. Very early in life, I knew I wanted to be a businesswoman. Every decision I made was meant to move me in that direction, but I also stayed open to opportunities life offered me.

I chose to study finance and accounting because I wanted a skill set that would give me a real advantage. Later, when I entered the job market, reality was tougher than I expected. I had graduated with distinction and assumed the market would be waiting for me. It was not.

Then an opportunity came up: a role as a business developer for a large Portuguese company. I had imagined doing that kind of work three to five years later, not immediately after university. But I decided not to overthink it. I took the leap. That was the first real shortcut in my career.

Sounds like a jump into the deep end.

Exactly. I got the job and suddenly I was meeting bank CEOs from Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland, while still in my early twenties. It was a huge challenge, but it taught me a lot.

Later, when I felt I had reached the limit of my impact there, another opportunity knocked. I was offered a management board role at KUKE. I was 29, and it was supposed to be temporary, just for three months, until someone “better qualified” could be found. I accepted immediately.

Many women might have hesitated. We often feel we need to be 200% ready before taking on a new challenge. I certainly was not at 200%. But I decided to prove myself through hard work.

You are not afraid of risk and yet you manage it professionally. How does your risk-loving nature work for you in your professional decision making? 

I remember that on my first day at KUKE, the then-CEO asked me whether I was afraid, because I would be responsible for PLN 14 billion in exposure. It is a good thing I am not, because today it exceeds PLN 55 billion.

But managing risk does not mean being reckless. It means weighing risk properly. In our case, one of the key decisions was to scale the portfolio responsibly. The larger and more diversified the portfolio, the smaller the shocks from individual events. That helped us grow while remaining prepared for turbulence.

If you are overly risk-averse in finance or insurance, it can be destructive to business performance. Rational, balanced risk-taking is essential.

How are Polish companies handling today’s unstable geopolitical environment? Has their approach to risk changed?

In trade itself, I do not yet see a major shift. I say this not only from KUKE’s perspective, but from a broader market view. Even globally, companies have not significantly increased their use of insurance against political or credit risk in trade, despite growing geopolitical tensions.

What I do see is that when companies perceive higher risk, they often move toward shorter payment terms or prepayments instead of insuring trade credit. That gives them more certainty.

Where the change is much more visible is in foreign investment. When companies are investing capital abroad or considering acquisitions, geopolitical risk is being taken much more seriously. We are seeing much stronger interest among Polish companies in insurance for investments in higher-risk markets, including Ukraine.

Looking back, which achievement are you most proud of?

I am proud that I was able to join a company like KUKE and, together with the team, help lead it through major changes. When we started, we were in last place in Poland in trade credit insurance. Today, we are number two in the market competing with foreign-owned players.

Last year, after all these changes, KUKE was named the best export credit agency in the world. I was also selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of a couple of thousand women for a mentoring program. These recognitions matter, but they are really the outcome of what we achieved as a team.

What, in your view, still holds women back from senior leadership roles?

First of all, confidence. Not arrogance, mind you, but insufficient confidence. There is a difference, and it matters.

Second, assertiveness. I see many women taking on more and more responsibilities, often because they find it harder to say no. Other people, men and women alike, can take advantage of that. Learning to say no in a constructive way is important.

Third, too many women worry about what others will think. And often it is not just fear of what the boss will think. It is fear of what colleagues will think: "Why her and not me?" That concern does real damage.

Do you think women in Poland face this more than women elsewhere?

No, I do not think Polish women are uniquely worse at this. But globally, the statistics are still not good.

Recently, I saw a photo from a major entrepreneur-of-the-year competition. It was a black-tie event, and almost everyone in the photo was a man in a tuxedo. I counted four women. Then I checked the history: in 23 editions of that competition, only one woman won.

That is not because women lack achievements. But women are often reluctant to talk about their success or build their personal brand. I struggle with that too. I know I should work more consciously on my own visibility, including on social media.

What needs to change?

I strongly believe in mentoring and women supporting one another. Women who have already achieved a great deal could give more of themselves to help others. 

We also need to stop creating empty buzz. The buzz is useful because it raises awareness, but it cannot stop there. It has to be backed by real, impactful actions. 

Of course, visibility matters. Personal brand matters. Award juries need to know who these women are and what they have achieved. And that means women themselves need to stop hiding their success. 

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