Wieslaw Bednarz

President of Konsalnet Group
By : Greg Goodale

   Wieslaw Bednarz, 48, has put the skills he acquired from his 18 years in the Polish intelligence service into building a countrywide group of security companies.

   Bednarz was snapped up by the Foreign Ministry during the Cold War after receiving a degree in economics from the Wroclaw Academy of Economics (AEW), and one in philosophy from Wroclaw University (UW).

   As part of the diplomatic corps, he was posted to Washington D.C. as secretary to the Polish ambassador in 1980 and named Polish consul in New York nine years later.

   Throughout his time in the United States he was involved in espionage as part of the Polish civil intelligence network.

   On his return to Poland, new business opportunities tempted him away from intelligence. He teamed up with post-communist Interior Minister and State Security Chief Jerzy Konieczny to set up Konsalnet. Together the pair began selling corporate intelligence reports and Konieczny's polygraph skills to companies with an interest in their competitors. With revenues obtained from their core business, the partners – soon joined by Vice President Tomasz Banaszewicz – began to expand into on-site security and monitoring systems. The company reached critical mass six years later through a series of takeovers. Bednarz said the centralized management of Konsalnet's interests became too complex and in 2000 the company was restructured into 12 firms. The resulting Konsalnet Group debuted as a joint stock company the same year and has grown from the three members to more than 2,500.

   Past notes:

   1975 – Graduated with degrees in

   economics and philosophy

   1976 – Joined the Foreign Ministry

   1989 – Appointed consul at New York's

   Polish consulate

   1994 – Joined Konsalnet as vice chairman

   2000 – Restructured Konsalnet into Konsalnet Group

   A word of advice:

   "Business is highly complex and often kinetic; it is a grouping of thousands of coincidences, some are successful and some aren't. Nevertheless, I think quality and drive will always be characteristic for those in the lead."