Tomasz Świgoń

Chairman of TPMed

For Tomasz Świgoń, 47, working as a hospital director in the early 1990s was a formative experience in management.

Świgoń began his professional career with a 14-year stint at Łucznik, an armaments factory in Radom that produced AK-47 rifles but also made sewing machines. He worked on the assembly line while studying industrial management at Radom Polytechnic and after graduating in 1983, Świgoń was promoted to foreman and later production manager.

In 1991, his contacts in the Solidarity trade union led to his appointment as director of Radom Regional Hospital, a job he ranks as his greatest professional challenge. In the early 1990s, Polish hospitals were suffering from serious neglect after the funding and management shortfalls of the communist era. Świgoń's work involved balancing patients' needs for drugs with essential repairs to the crumbling building, while improvising ways to increase efficiency and save money.

After four years on the front line of public healthcare, Świgoń moved to Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) to head the telecom giant's human resources department in Radom. But when TPSA moved TPMed, its new medical subsidiary, from Warsaw to Radom in 1999, Świgoń became the ideal choice for chairman.

Although it was initially set up to treat TPSA's 10,000 Warsaw employees, TPMed opened to the public last year. Świgoń is now working on merging other TPSA medical centers in Poznań and Kraków into TPMed.

Past notes:

1976-1990 - Assembly line worker and later production manager at Łucznik metal plant

1983 - Graduated in industrial management from Radom Polytechnic

1991 - Deputy director of Radom regional hospital

1996 - Director of human resources at TPSA

1999 - Chairman of TPMed

Word of advice:

"I create opportunities to draw out the hidden potential, talent and unique assets of my employees. Good management always takes people into account."

Greg Goodale