Maciej Łopinski - Secretary of State
Secretary of State in the President’s Chancellery since December 23, 2005.
Born in Gdańsk on August 19, 1947. In 1973-77, a journalist of the „Głos Wybrzeża” daily and in 1977-1981, the secretary of the editorial staff of the „Czas” weekly. After the martial law had been imposed, he was prohibited to work as a journalist and became involved in samizdat publications. He was an editor of „Solidarność” – a newspaper of the Gdańsk Region of the Solidarity Trade Union.
Arrested in December 1982. Released three months later, he continued his underground political activity. He published articles in such émigré periodicals as Kultura, Zeszyty Historyczne, or Kontakt. In 1984, „Konspira. Rzecz o podziemnej „Solidarności” (Resistance. A Thing About the Underground Solidarity), a book co-authored with Z. Gach and M. Wilk, was published by the underground publishing house Przedświt and Editions Spotkania, a Paris publisher.
Member of the Regional Coordinating Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union in Gdańsk. He took part in the strikes staged at the Gdańsk shipyard in May and August 1988, and in 1989-90 he was a member of the open Interim Management Board of the Solidarity Gdańsk Region.
In 1989-1991, editor-in-chief of the „Tygodnik Gdański” weekly, and in 1991-97, the Vice-President of Prasa Bałtycka press company, in 1998-2002, President of Agencja Rozwoju Pomorza S.A. (Pomerania Development Agency). In 2002 – 2005, he was the president of Grupa Zarządzająca Pomerania S.A. (Pomerania Management Group company).
In 1996 – 2005, he taught journalism at the post-graduate studies at the University of Gdańsk. Author of several hundred columns, articles, essays and reportages. Laureate of the Bolesław Prus award presented by the Polish Journalist Union.