New PKN Orlen president could soon be dismissed

Parkiet sources claim that the post of the president of PKN Orlen may be soon up for grabs again, as the whole selection process is likely to be repeated with a shortlist of candidates set by the supervisory board, instead of an open competition. Parkiet's source believes that there are no binding decisions yet, as these would be made after a meeting of minority shareholder in the company Jan Kulczyk with Treasury Minister Jacek Socha. This means that the time of Jacek Walczykowski as the CEO of the company appears to be running out. "I am not glued to any chair. I am ready for any decision the supervisory board may make. I am continuing the cost cutting program, which should allow savings of zł.450 million in 2004 alone," said Walczykowski. He is not taking any strategic decisions, but only analyzing different development scenarios for the company and continuing work on the projects already underway, such as purchasing new gas stations in Germany and acquisition of Unipetrol, a Czech market leader. (Parkiet, p. 5) M.M.