Poland’s richest entrepreneur dies

Poland lost its richest business man, philanthropist and person strongly associated with the country’s transformation from communism to the market economy on Wednesday (30 July) when Jan Kulczyk died after complications following minor heart surgery.

 

Kulczyk started on his path to fortune as an intermediary in the privatization of the largest state-owned companies in the 1990s.

 

Today his energy and infrastructure company has assets on five continents. His personal wealth has been estimated by Forbes at €3.62 billion.

 

Kulczyk started his business while Poland was still under communist rule, investing money from his father.

 

His first company Interkulpol imported used agricultural machinery from Germany to Poland. A few years later he became the first authorised Volkswagen dealer and earned his first big money selling 3,000 cars to the security services.

 

Słówka do zapamiętania:

associate – kojarzyć , łączyć

surgery – operacja

intermediary – pośrednik

assets – majątek, aktywa

estimate – szacować

earn – zarobić