Thomas A. Kolaja

Thomas Kolaja graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors and distinction from The Ohio State University with a B.S in chemistry and B.A. in Russian. He also completed an MBA at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University with a specialization in Manufacturing. In 1990 Mr. Kolaja was a Fulbright fellow at the University of Warsaw.

From 1991 to 1993 he worked at the Ministry of Privatization, where he was in charge of the privatization of the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors in Poland. In 1993 Mr. Kolaja joined McKinsey & Company where he assisted international chemical, pharmaceutical and energy firms develop strategies for the Central European markets (Poland and Germany in particular). During his work at McKinsey he also advised many Polish industrial companies on how to increase their competitiveness and restructured one of the major Polish banks.

During 1997-1998 Mr. Kolaja worked for Goldman Sachs in London in their investment banking division, where he was responsible for the development of transactions in Poland and the Czech Republic as a member of both the emerging markets and chemicals teams.

In 1998 he joined CII Group (Kolaja & Partners' predecessor organization) as a partner, where he was put in charge of the firm's activities in Poland. In this role he has held a number of senior interim management positions.

From 1999 until 2000 Mr. Kolaja was Chief Operating Officer of Frantschach Świecie S.A., the largest Polish manufacturer of unbleached paper. The cost cutting measures for this client involved personnel reductions of over 860 employees as well as improved procurement and optimization of manufacturing operations. The program tripled the company's share price and increased ROCE from 0% to over 20%.

In 2000-2001 he served as CEO of Elektrim Online Sp. z o.o., a subsidiary of Elektrim S.A., where he was responsible for the development and implementation of Elektrim's Internet strategy.

From August 2001 to February 2002, Mr. Kolaja was Vice President of Operations of Carlsberg Okocim S.A. in Poland, where he was responsible for the integration of Okocim and three newly acquired breweries Bosman, Kasztelan and Piast. During the post-merger integration project Mr. Kolaja managed to develop and implement a new organizational structure limiting the role of all the breweries to production centers, creating one, nationwide supply chain and reducing costs by approximately PLN 50 million p.a., including an employment reduction of over 630 employees altogether in the four companies.

Mr. Kolaja is a member of the Polish Young Business Roundtable (Rada Młodych Przedsiębiorców) and YPO. He serves on the External Advisory committee of the Ohio State University Honors & Scholars Program. In 2005 he joined the supervisory board of TRACE (Transparent Agents and Contracting Entities), a US based anti corruption non-profit organization serving blue-chip global corporations.

Mr. Kolaja is fluent in English, Polish and German and possesses a working knowledge of Czech and Russian.