Grzegorz Piechota
As head of social campaigns and editorial development of the biggest quality daily newspaper in Poland, Gazeta Wyborcza, Grzegorz Piechota moves communities and provides them with tools to change the world.
He involves journalists, readers, universities, non-governmental organizations, commercial companies into aggressive, public-minded, community-serving editorial projects that include serious investigative reporting, crowd-sourcing, transmedia storytelling, building expert platforms.
Additionally, Piechota leads the digital transformation of Gazeta’s newsroom and development of innovative new business models and products like events, services, websites, magazines.
Gazeta was founded in 1989 by an underground opposition to bring independent journalism to this communist dictatorship and support the first free elections in Central and Eastern Europe. Over 24 years it has built one of the most successful media groups there called Agora. Its businesses include leading Internet portals, magazines, books, record and movie productions, cinemas, radio stations and out-of-home advertising.
Piechota graduated in law and began his career at Gazeta in 1996 as a reporter in one of the smallest local offices rising to a news editor and a vice-president of Agora Foundation (a position he still holds). He's got experience in launching, re-launching, managing, evaluating and closing projects with budgets of up to 10+ million euro. He has managed teams of up to 150 people.
Piechota is a board member of Dallas-based International News Media Association -- a worldwide network of 5,860+ media executives -- and was the first ever editor who served as its European board's president. He gives frequent lectures and consultations on various media-related issues to public and private institutions around the world.
His work has driven printed circulation, online traffic, engagement and revenue, and been awarded by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers WAN-IFRA and other institutions. For example, in 2008 WAN-IFRA awarded Gazeta the title of the World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year and in 2010 the London-based trade portalJournalism.co.uk listed him as one of the leading innovators in the world's media.
Piechota is married with one child and lives in Warsaw.