Factional clashes trigger leadership reset at key state agency

On the evening of Wednesday, April 29, the composition of the supervisory board of PAIH changed. The following day, April 30, the new supervisory board dismissed the management board and seconded Artur Osuchowski to serve as a board member.

An unusual dismissal process at PAIH

“On Thursday morning, the new board member arrived at the agency. Magdalena Skarżyńska [then vice president—ed.], who was present in the office, offered to show him around and introduce him to staff. That turned out to be unnecessary,” reports a source who spoke with PAIH employees.
The agency’s president, Andrzej Dycha, as well as vice presidents Andrzej Pudłowski and Łukasz Gwiazdowski, were also dismissed. None of them were present on Thursday.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before - an entire board dismissed so abruptly. No one expected it. No one had spoken to the board members about it beforehand,” one XYZ source comments.

A different account is offered by Natalia Żyto, PAIH’s spokesperson.

“No one was pressured or forced to leave the office. Mr. Artur Osuchowski met with all employees present. The discussions were calm, cordial, and professional,” she says.

Infighting takes its toll

XYZ understands there was no single decisive reason for the dismissals.

“The board was at odds with itself. Interestingly, members affiliated with the Polish People’s Party (PSL) were in conflict with one another. Poland is having its moment - everyone is watching, everyone wants to engage - and economic diplomacy should be operating at the highest level. Meanwhile, PAIH’s board members were preoccupied with internal power struggles. Because they could not reach an agreement, everyone lost their job. No political faction won; the goal was not escalation but de-escalation,” says a source close to the Ministry of Finance.

It remains unclear, however, whether the supervisory board will now tilt toward a different political faction.

“The previous board was effectively a PSL board. Now only one member from that party remains. This may signal that the Civic Coalition (KO) will take control of PAIH,” says another XYZ interlocutor.

Artur Osuchowski served as a management board member at Orlen fuel giant in 2024–2025 and was previously associated with Ciech chemical company. He is an energy expert and, according to one source, linked to the Civic Coalition.

The other supervisory board members are Jadwiga Wycinka, a legal counsel and deputy director of the Administrative Office at the Ministry of Development and Technology; Dominika Stępińska-Duch, a lawyer and chair of the supervisory board of Respect Energy; Dr. Katarzyna Śledziewska, head of the Department of Digital Economy at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Economic Sciences; and Michał Dziubak, director general at the Ministry of National Defence.

Mr. Osuchowski may yet enter the competition for the role of PAIH president.

“The supervisory board will promptly announce a competition for the positions of president and management board members,” PAIH said.

Friction within PSL factions

Andrzej Dycha, the son of a PSL activist, previously worked as an assistant in the European Parliament, served as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (appointed by PSL in 2007), and ran unsuccessfully as a non-party candidate on PSL lists in the 2009 European Parliament elections. In 2010, he joined the European Commission, later serving as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Economy (2011–2015) before becoming Poland’s ambassador to Nigeria. Andrzej Pudłowski, who had previously been associated with Nowoczesna and the Civic Coalition, also enjoyed PSL backing.

XYZ reported as early as November 2024 on factional infighting within PAIH linked to PSL. Conflicts between President Dycha and Vice President Magdalena Skarżyńska had already emerged in spring 2024. This led to a change in the agency’s statutes in June 2024, requiring at least two board members to approve employment decisions. In August 2024, the board was expanded to include Łukasz Gwiazdowski and Paweł Pudłowski.

Grzegorz Piechowiak, a Law and Justice (PiS) MP and former deputy minister of development and technology responsible for PAIH, criticized the board’s competence in 2024.

“President Andrzej Dycha is nicknamed ‘the tourist’ because he likes to travel. When I was deputy minister, I went to Taiwan on a mission that led to the creation of a Polish-Taiwanese semiconductor working group. The Ministry of Science identified Polish technical universities for cooperation with Taiwanese counterparts. PAIH was supposed to sign a cooperation agreement with its counterpart. The president of PAIH was to do so during a conference in Berlin. He failed to attend the meeting because he went to dinner with someone else. Ultimately, he signed the agreement only at the Semicon trade fair in September,” Mr. Piechowiak said.

A case of diminishing returns

Many sources respond to the sudden changes at PAIH with the same question: why only now?
“Poland needs a new approach to foreign investment, promoting the Polish brand, and supporting exports. What worked a few years ago no longer does. Poland has a unique window of opportunity globally, and PAIH has not fully capitalized on it. There have been several recent events involving Minister Domański, and perhaps PAIH did not deliver,” one source speculates.

In February, the largest Polish economic mission in history - nearly 70 participants, including Minister of Finance and Economy Andrzej Domański and PAIH President Andrzej Dycha - traveled to Riyadh.

Subsequently, a Polish government delegation visited Seoul in early April, but the Poland–Korea Business Forum organized by PAIH took place more than a week later and was attended by Vice President Paweł Pudłowski and Deputy Minister of Development and Technology Michał Jaros.

A grand farewell

“I would like to thank Ministers Krzysztof Hetman, Krzysztof Paszyk, and the current Minister of Finance and Economy Andrzej Domański for very good and effective work for Poland. Everything was also possible thanks to Team Poland - I thank everyone involved. The wave of positive international coverage of Poland’s economic success is our shared achievement,” outgoing president Andrzej Dycha wrote in a press release.

The statement also highlighted PAIH’s performance:

“In 2025, the value of investment projects supported by the agency exceeded EUR 4bn, a record result. After the first quarter of 2026, the figure stood at EUR 1.3bn, more than double the level recorded in the same period last year. Last year, thanks to the activities of PAIH’s Foreign Trade Offices, export contracts worth EUR 117m were signed. Nearly one thousand events were also organized worldwide to promote Polish companies on global markets.”

The statement further referenced the announcement of “the largest investment opportunity in Poland’s history.

“At the end of March 2026, the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA) declared its intention to establish a technology park in Poland.”
PAIH also pointed to a cooperation agreement with the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR), “already contributing tangibly to increased exports of Polish agri-food products,” and emphasized that “close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs throughout the term improved coordination in economic diplomacy.”

Key Takeaways

1. On April 29, PAIH’s supervisory board was reshuffled; a day later, the new board dismissed the entire management board with immediate effect. Artur Osuchowski, a member of the new supervisory board, was seconded to the management board.
2. A source close to the Ministry of Finance claims the dismissals stemmed from the board’s inability to reach agreement, with clashes occurring among members nominated by the same party - PSL - while the government expects top-tier economic diplomacy from the agency.
3. While the previous supervisory board was, according to one source, aligned with PSL, the current board may be more favorable to Civic Coalition (KO) candidates. Mr. Osuchowski, an energy expert linked by one source to the Civic Coalition, may enter the competition for the presidency.