Jacek Michałowski - Head of the Chancellery
Jacek Michałowski was born in Warsaw in 1955. He graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at University of Warsaw.
Since 1975, he has been a member of the Catholic Intelligentsia Club in Warsaw, and in the mid-1970s he became involved in oppositionist activities.
He was involved with the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and then with Committee for Social Self-defence. From 1980 to 1981, he was the branch secretary of the Solidarity movement at the Specialist Psychiatric Health Care Facility in Warsaw. After the commencement of the period of martial law, he became involved with the structures of the democratic opposition. In the 1980s, he was a psychologist-psychotherapist at the Synapsis Psychiatric Health Centre in the Ursynów district.
From 1989 to 1998, he was employed by the chancellery of the Polish senate – the first non-communist office in Poland, created from scratch. Within the office, he was the director in charge of the Studies and Analyses Office and advisor to the vice-speaker of the senate, Andrzej Wielowieyski.
From 1998 to 2000, he was the managing director of the Chancellery of Jerzy Buzek, the President of the Council of Ministers.
From 2000 to 2010, he was the programme director for the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. He managed tasks related to social diplomacy and the sharing of experience related to the transformation of the political system in Poland with other countries from East-Central Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Within the foundation, he was also involved in activities aimed at establishing a civil society and animating local communities in small towns and villages.
On 10th April 2010, the Speaker of the Sejm, as acting President of Poland, appointed Michałowski to Secretary of State, acting Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland. On 7th July 2010, he was appointed the Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland.
He is married, has two children and '1.5 granddaughters,' as he has remarked playfully (his second granddaughter is to be born in December).