Stefan Hildt
Managing director of Universal Express
Stefan Hildt, 44, came to Poland in 1991 to help his father set up Universal Express, a courier and moving group. Ten years later, Hildt is still in Poland and the company has become the nation's biggest mover.
Hildt completed a degree in finance at the University of Notre Dame in 1979, followed by an MBA in marketing from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Arizona. An interest in international advertising brought him to U.S. agency Meamco, and Hildt opened the company's office in Jeda, Saudi Arabia, in 1981. When oil prices fell sharply five years later, Hildt moved to Chicago and worked as an art dealer for the family business, Hildt Galeries, which specialized in British and Continental paintings from the turn of the 19th century.
But the life of an art dealer did not offer him enough excitement or contact with people, and when his father returned to his native Poland and founded Universal Express in 1991, Hildt agreed to help with sales. Hildt said Universal Express, with just five staff, coordinated the move of the first expatriate executives to Poland for U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) and U.S. cosmetics firm Johnson & Johnson. In 1994 the company won a contract to arrange the import and export of all U.S. embassy staff in Poland, which Hildt said was one of the company's biggest achievements. A year later the arrival of U.S. oil company Amoco in Poland led Universal Express to open a branch in Kraków, which also coordinated the transfer of GM executives to the company's new plant in Gliwice in 1997. In 2001 Hildt set up Express Relocations, which specializes in executive relocations, home searches and orientation trips. This year also saw the opening of the company's 10th office in Holland.
Past notes:
1979 - Graduated in finance from Notre Dame University
1981 - MBA in marketing from Thunderbird in Arizona
1986 - Art dealer at Hildt Galleries, Chicago
1991 - Set up Universal Express
1997 - Relocated General Motors executives to Gliwice
2001 - Set up Express Relocations
Word of advice:
"Do what you say you're going to do. Deliver."
Greg Goodale
