Wiktor Rodziewicz

Director of Centrum Handlowe Targówek

Wiktor Rodziewicz, 28, needed just five years to move from selling residential space to managing one of Warsaw's largest shopping malls.

Rodziewicz studied economics at Warsaw University because he said it allowed him to combine his interests in science and humanities, but in 1995 he interrupted his degree to join the real estate boom. He began by working for Warsaw residential developer Zero Terminal where he sold apartments in the Ochota district of Warsaw, but after a year, a more prestigious opportunity lured him away. Rodziewicz took the post of consultant in the investment department of the Polish Agency for Foreign Investment (PAIZ). Unfortunately, although he was embroiled in the complexities of establishing Poland's Special Economic Zones (SSEs), Rodziewicz did not come away from PAIZ with fond memories. He said he arrived just when budget cuts began to chisel away at the agency's effectiveness so Rodziewicz left, frustrated at the lack of progress, to join Hong Kong-based residential developer Min Hoong in 1997.

A year later Rodziewicz jumped ship to sell retail units for Danish developer Steen & Ström at its newly completed Centrum Targówek. Last year, Steen & Ström divided its business in Poland into a mall management company and a separate retail development arm, then sold the two halves to Danish investment Foras and Danish developer TK Development respectively. This opened up a vacancy for a center manager at Centrum Targówek and Rodziewicz leapt at the chance. As well as managing the center, he is also responsible for tenant acquisition at Foras' Centrum Reduta in Warsaw.

Past notes:

1995 - Left the department of economics at Warsaw University

1995 - Salesman for Zero Terminal

1996 - Investment consultant at PAIZ

1997 - Salesman for Min Hoong

1998 - Salesman for Steen & Strom Polska

2000 - Director of Centrum Targówek

Word of advice:

"Mall management is a job in which things are constantly happening, there is plenty of contact with people, but you can't expect quick results. Your work is rewarded only in the long term, when you begin to see growth in sales, turnover and visitor numbers."

Greg Goodale