The Bucharest Stock Exchange found its CEO in Warsaw

Ludwik Sobolewski, the former CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange will be the new Chairman of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), after he was appointed by the Board of Directors of the Exchange which was gathered last night.

However his taking over of the position depends on the approval of the Financial Supervision Authority, where he is allegedly not exactly liked, after he was dismissed in the begininng of the year due to a conflict of interest.

According to the Polish press, Ludwik Sobolewski was fired in January from his position of CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, because he allegedly involved the WSE in raising funds for financing a movie in which his girlfriend Anna Szarek played a part.

It would seem that in Poland this kind of acts are not prosecuted, and some say that his dismissal was actually a political move.

According to some market sources, Ludwik Sobolewski comes to the BSE with major plans, but the details about them are "secret" for now.

However, in Poland, Ludwik Sobolewski is known as an extremely ambitious man, and the BSE project could represent an opportunity for him to show what he is capable of.

However, his mission is extremely difficult, and a failure could be fatal for him, especially since the naysayers are already saying that it was in fact the support of the Polish government that propelled the stock market to dizzying heights, rather than the contribution of his CEO.

One week ago, Sobolewski told Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that he was seriously considering the offer he has received from the BSE, but that his final decision could 2-3 months from now.

Ludwik Sobolewski also said that he would only accept the position if he was convinced that he can change the market: "Yes, the Bucharest Stock Exchange is far smaller than the one in Poland. But I remember what the Warsaw market was like in 2006, when I took on the position of chairman of the WSE we had been stagnating for several years (...). In less than seven years, many things have changed. Of course, there are voices that claim that the development is due to the privatization process and the pension funds. But those existed before 2006 as well. But it is only after 2006 that we have created a strong, supra-local market ".

BURSA was the first newspaper to write, on May 16th, that the BSE is courting Ludwik Sobolewski for the position of General Manager.

At first, the president of the BSE Lucian Anghel and Narcisa Oprea, a member on the Board of Directors, went to Warsaw to make a proposal to Sobolewski. The talks subsequently continued, including in Bucharest, where Sobolewski introduced himself to the Board of the BSE and even had a meeting with Mircea Ursache, the vice-president of the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority (ASF).

The BSE was left without a chairman in March, when the management dismissed Victor Cionga, claiming he did not restructure the company fast enough.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange was privatized in 2010, but the Ministry of the Treasury holds the majority of the votes.

Ludwik Sobolewski is currently on the Supervisory Board of energy producer ZE PAK and on the Supervisory Board of Polish Fund TFI IDEA.