Secretary of State Ignacy Niemczycki was appointed on 12 August 2025.

Undersecretary of State Wojciech Zajączkowski, appointed on 6 August 2025, takes over from Marek Prawda, who was dismissed on 5 August 2025.

 

Ignacy Niemczycki was born in Warsaw on 14 December 1983. He is a Polish government administration official, farmer, and NGO activist. In 2024–2025, he held the offices of Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and of Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Bocconi University in Milan (2005), a master’s degree in political science from Lancaster University (2007) as well as a master’s degree in sociology from SWPS University (2010). He also completed postgraduate studies in agriculture at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (2016) and in organic farming at the University of Warmia and Mazury (2017). He was awarded the Landecker Democracy Fellowship and a scholarship from the US Department of State.

Between 2008 and 2012, he worked at the Office of the Committee for European Integration, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, and the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union, where he focused on the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and EU funds negotiations.

Involved with non-governmental organisations. He coordinated the Free Belarus Initiative between 2006 and 2009. In 2017, he founded and coordinated the Front Europejski, a coalition of social organisations. In 2020, he became President of the Bronisław Geremek Foundation and Vice-President of the Akcja Demokracja foundation.

 

Wojciech Zajączkowski was born in Bydgoszcz in 1963. He attended one of the city’s primary schools and the Jan and Jędrzej Śniadecki High School no. 6. In 1982–1987, he studied history at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1999, he was awarded a PhD at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Political Studies.

In 1987–1988, he worked as a proofreader at the Archdiocese of Warsaw’s publishing house, and later as an editor at Ośrodek Dokumentacji i Studiów Społecznych (Centre for Documentation and Social Studies). He also became affiliated with the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris as a researcher. He was employed at the Res Publica publishing house in 1989–1991. In 1991, he became part of the Centre for Eastern Studies, and worked there until 1993. Subsequently, he joined the Stefan Batory Foundation as a director of the Forum for Central and Eastern Europe.

Employed at the MFA since 1998. His experience includes postings at the Polish embassies in Moscow and Kyiv and leading the MFA’s Eastern Policy Department. In 2008, he was appointed the Prime Minister’s chief advisor on energy security.

In 2008–2010, he served as the Polish Ambassador to Romania in Bucharest. In 2010, he became Poland’s Ambassador to Russia in Moscow, in office until 2014. In 2014–2018, he headed the Department of Strategy and Planning at the MFA. In 2018–2023, he was Poland’s Ambassador to China in Beijing. After his return, Wojciech Zajączkowski served as Deputy Director and then Director of the MFA’s Asia–Pacific Department. From 2024, he was simultaneously in charge of the Eastern Department.

Author of around 70 published works, mainly on Eastern Europe and methods of analysis.

 

Photo: Konrad Laskowski/MFA