Expert panels – International Scientific Conference of the College of Management and Quality Sciences of the Krakow University of Economics

Theatre Management

The Art of Theatre Management: Challenges and Perspectives

Termin: 10/06/2026 (środa), godz. 13:00-14:30
Link to the virtual event platform: MS Teams

The purpose of the panel is to provide a reflective discussion on the contemporary challenges faced in the management of performing arts institutions. Invited experts will present their experiences of balancing artistic vision with financial and organisational responsibility. The panel will create a space for the international exchange of experiences in leadership and innovation in the management of arts institutions.

Eksperci:
Pierina Lavanca, Executive Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Chamber Music Ensemble of SODRE in Uruguay
prof. dr Agata Bieńkowska, mezzosopran
prof. dr hab. Piotr Sułkowski, Director of the Kraków Opera
Vladimir Ham, General Manager (Intendant) of the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek

Moderatorzy:
dr hab. Marek Jabłoński, prof. UEK
mgr Julia Karcz-Ryndak
dr Mariola Wiater

Description of panelists and moderators

Pierina Lavanca

Pierina Lavanca is the Executive Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Chamber Music Ensemble of SODRE in Uruguay, both part of the Ministry of Education and Culture. With more than 15 years of experience in Uruguay’s public cultural sector, she has held leadership roles in symphonic seasons as well as ballet and opera productions. Throughout her career, she has also worked in performing arts productions in the private sector, in production roles. A graduate in Public Accounting with a specialization in Cultural Management, she is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Cultural Administration at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA, Argentina). She also serves as a university professor in Strategic Management of Organizations.

Agata Bieńkowska

Agata Bieńkowska was born in Gdynia. She is a graduate of the Gdańsk Academy of Music, where she studied under Prof. Barbara Iglikowska and Prof. Alicja Legiedź-Matosiuk (assisted by Prof. Dr Dariusz Paradowski), and of the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart, where she studied under Prof. Julia Hamari. She was a scholarship holder of the City of Gdynia, the DAAD, the Richard Wagner Society in Bayreuth, the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Polish-German Academic Society, as well as a prize-winner of the Sylwia Geszty International Vocal Competition in Luxembourg, the Teinecher Prize (Germany) and the European Union Competition (Baden-Baden), and a finalist in the Operalia competition.

Her opera and concert career began whilst she was still a student. She has made numerous debuts at leading European theatres such as the Gran Teatre Liceu in Barcelona, the Opera di Roma, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, the Teatro Comunale di Modena, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Belgium), the Teatro Filarmonico dell’Arena di Verona, the Zürcher Opernhaus, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur, the Washington National Opera/Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and others.

She has collaborated with many distinguished conductors such as Jesús López-Cobos, Vladimir Jurowski, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Oren, Nello Santi, Renato Palumbo, John Neschling, Alberto Zedda, Stefano Ranzani, Christophe Rousset, Maurizio Barbacini, Riccardo Frizza, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, and artists of the stature of Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Mariella Devia, Plácido Domingo, Dolora Zajick, Maria Guleghina, Grigory Kunde, Renée Kollo and Piotr Beczała.

Her repertoire spans works from the Baroque to the present day: Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea by C. Monteverdi, Galatea in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by G.F. Handel, Judith in Juditha Triumphans by A. Vivaldi, Joan of Arc in The Maid of Orleans and Olga in Eugene Onegin by P. Tchaikovsky, Hanna in N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, Charlotte in Werther and Divonne in J. Massenet’s Sapho, Conception in M. Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, G. Bizet’s Carmen, Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Marie in M. Gurlitt’s Wozzeck and many others.

Agata Bieńkowska is highly regarded for her performances of Italian bel canto music. She has frequently taken on Rossini roles: she was Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Marchesa Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims, Marchesa Clarice in La pietra del paragone, Malcolm in La donna del lago, the title role in Tancredi and the Italian Woman in Algiers, Madame La Rose in La gazzetta, Marie in Moïse et Pharaone, Clarina in La cambiale di matrimonio, Arsace in Semiramide, and has also portrayed characters such as Maffio Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia by G. Donizetti, Romeo in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi by V. Bellini’s I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and Die Gerechtigkeit in Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots by W.A. Mozart, Ernesto in Il mondo della luna by J. Haydn, Giunia in La vestale by S. Mercadante...

The artist has collaborated on numerous occasions with Baroque ensembles such as: Divino Sospiro (Lisbon), La Confraternita de’ Musici (Brindisi/Italy), barockwerk hamburg, Gli Archi del Cherubino (L’Aquila), Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca...

Her discography includes works by Rossini: La pietra del paragone (Naxos), Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (Bongiovanni), Matilde di Shabran (Bongiovanni) and La gazzetta (OPUS – DVD directed by the Italian Nobel Prize winner Dario Fò), as well as operas by Luigi Mosca L’italiana in Algeri (Bongiovanni), S. Mercadante’s La Vestale, J. Massenet’s Sapho (Marco Polo), G. Verdi’s Nabucco (DVD), C.P.E. Bach’s Hamburger Bürgerkapitänsmusik 1780 (CPO), and G.F. Handel’s cantata Lucrezia HWV 145 (Navigare). A special place in her discography is occupied by a solo album dedicated to Faustina Bordoni, La prima Diva (Tactus).

In 2017 she was awarded a doctorate, and in 2024 she was appointed Professor of Music at the Belvedere Academy.

Prof. Dr Agata Bieńkowska combines her artistic career with teaching: she leads a solo singing class at the G. Rossini State Conservatory of Music in Pesaro.

Piotr Sułkowski

Director of the Kraków Opera. He has extensive experience in opera, gained, amongst other things, during his many years at the Kraków Opera and at the Wildwood Festival Opera AR (USA), where he served as Music Director. He has staged numerous premieres and world premieres, including K. Szymanowski’s operettaLottery for Husbands, or Fiancé No. 69 (2007), Z. Krauze’s opera Bona Sforza (2024), and B. Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, staged in 2004, which was named the best production of the year at the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival. In 2019, he staged W. A. Mozart’s *The Marriage of Figaro* with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, with whom he toured Japan. Manager of the Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic (2011–2022), Manager of the Polish Radio Choir (2008–2009), Music Director of the Toruń Symphony Orchestra (2009–2011), and guest conductor of the Signature Symphony Orchestra (2008–2014) in Tulsa, USA. Conductor of the F. Chopin State Music School Orchestra in Kraków (1993–2016), with which he ran educational programmes for French young people. He launched the National Pantheon Foundation (2010). He produced a recording of music by B. Chajdecki for the historical series Czas Honoru.

He is the founder of the Copernicus Open festival in Frombork and the Arena Festival film&music in Olsztyn.

An advocate of using music to address themes of particular importance to young audiences. Hence his idea for the musical Pora Jeziora, based on the legends of Warmia and Masuria, which ranked 6th in Wirtualna Polska’s ‘Golden Ten’ list of the best musicals of 2021, and the musical Kopernik (2023), which won the Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Awards, including for best production for young audiences, and the ballet production Możdżer in blue (2024) to the music of G. Gershwin, exploring the themes of loneliness and relationships in the digital world.

He collaborates with numerous orchestras both in Poland and abroad. In 2016, he toured with the winners of the H. Wieniawski International Violin Competition, culminating in a concert with M. Vengerov in St Petersburg, and in 2018 he conducted one of the concerts at the K. Penderecki Festival to mark his 85th birthday. He promotes the works of F. Nowowiejski. In 2016, he performed concerts and made the first studio recording of the oratorio Quo Vadis, with A. Kurzak, A. Ruciński and R. Siwek, and the album of the oratorio The Return of the Prodigal Son, featuring A. Rehlis, A. Rutkowski and Ł. Konieczny in the solo parts, was nominated for a Fryderyk Award (2021).

He teaches at the Academy of Music in Kraków and in Bydgoszcz. Since 2020, he has been Head of the Conducting Department at the Bydgoszcz Academy. In Spain, he leads workshops for conductors. He is a member of Polish and international music competition juries. He is a member of the Artistic Council of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra (2020–2023), the Programme Council of Radio Olsztyn (2012–2016), Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Association of Polish Philharmonics (2014–2021), as well as a participant and panellist at conferences on culture and the modern orchestra model.

Recipient of numerous awards, including the St James Statuette (2012), the Bronze and Silver Medals for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2014, 2023), the Pegasus Statuette (2015), the Golden ArtKey Treble Clef (2023), the Silver Cross of Merit (2016), the F. Nowowiejski Award (2017), and the Gold Cross of Merit (2021).

Vladimir Ham

Vladimir Ham was born in 1981 in Osijek. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Osijek with a degree in Marketing. During his professional career, he worked in journalism as a radio and television editor. He also served as a public relations advisor at the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek and as Marketing Director at Borovo d.d., while also running his own advertising agency as a private entrepreneur. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Deputy Mayor of Osijek, and from 2017 to 2023 he worked as Assistant Director of the Children’s Theatre in Osijek. Since his early youth, he has been actively involved in numerous non-governmental organizations — from the student association AIESEC and Croatian Music Youth to the Rotary International, as well as many cultural and sports associations within the local community. He has been a long-standing member of the German Community in Croatia and has served as its president since 2018. Since April 2023, he has held the position of General Manager (Intendant) of the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek.

Julia Karcz-Ryndak

Asystent w Katedrze Zarządzania Procesowego, Instytucie Nauk o Jakości i Zarządzania Produktem, Kolegium Nauk o Zarządzaniu i Jakości, Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Krakowie.

Specjalista w zakresie zarządzania, finansów przedsiębiorstw i psychologii biznesu. Rozwija się również w kierunku psychologii osobowości. Związana z branżą informatyczną, winiarską, artystyczną i trzecim sektorem. Członek zarządu Fundacji Vitellonis. Badacz sektora kultury i organizacji biznesowych. Specjalizuje się w badaniach metodami jakościowymi i mieszanymi.

W ramach działalności naukowo-badawczej podejmuje problematykę: systemowego ujęcia organizacji; zarządzania procesem produkcyjnym; innowacji produktowych; gier organizacyjnych; strategii przedsiębiorstw; ekonomicznych i finansowych uwarunkowań działalności przedsiębiorstw; koncepcji przywództwa; psychologicznych i etycznych aspektów funkcjonowania człowieka w organizacji. Ponadto rozwija problematykę zarządzania w kulturze.

W ostatnim okresie rozwija się naukowo w dwóch obszarach: zarządzania teatrem (koncentrując się na kompetencyjnej perspektywie procesów zarządzania teatrami o różnych formach własności) oraz zarządzania procesami wdrożeniowymi technologii nowej generacji. Rezultatem połączenia tych zainteresowań jest projekt badawczy: „Zarządzanie współczesnym teatrem w warunkach postępujących zmian technologicznych z uwzględnieniem perspektywy międzynarodowej”.

Członek zespołów eksperckich ds. implementacji sztucznej inteligencji w procesach biznesowych. Specjalizuje się przede wszystkim w modelach AI wykorzystujących dane behawioralne.

Współpracuje z zagranicznymi organizacjami i ośrodkami badawczymi (m.in. we Włoszech, Chorwacji, Holandii, Czechach i USA). Jest inicjatorem i koordynatorem umowy o współpracy naukowej między UEK a EFOS w Chorwacji.

Mariola Wiater

Doktor nauk społecznych w dyscyplinie nauki o zarządzaniu i jakości.
Adiunkt w Katedrze Zarządzania Procesowego, Instytucie Nauk o Jakości i Zarządzania Produktem, Kolegium Nauk o Zarządzaniu i Jakości Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Krakowie.

Zainteresowania naukowe z obszaru zarządzania organizacjami, w tym w szczególności:
- implementacji koncepcji neuroróżnorodności,
- innowacji społecznych realizowanych przez organizacje biznesowe,
- kulturowych uwarunkowań zarządzania zmianą.

Supply Chains

From Disruption to Design: Rebuilding Global Supply Chains for a Fragmented World

Date: 10/06/2026 (wednesday), 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM

Global supply chains are being fundamentally reshaped by geopolitical uncertainty, shifting trade dynamics, and increasing regulatory complexity. The panel will explore how organizations can move from reacting to disruption to intentionally designing more resilient, agile, and competitive networks.
Industry leaders will share practical insights on balancing cost and risk, navigating trade volatility, and applying AI and automation in real-world operations. The session will also address evolving leadership capabilities needed to manage complexity and drive performance in a rapidly changing global environment.

Experts:
John Stewart – Supply Chain Consultant and Director, Cascade Partners
Adam Skinner – VP Supply Chain ODL
Les Brand – CEI Supply Chain Solution/NexusLogix

Moderators:
dr Justyna Dabrowska, Krakow University of Economics
Prof. Jaideep Motwani, Grand Valley State University

Description of panelists and moderators

John Stewart

Supply Chain Consultant and Director, Cascade Partners

John Stewart serves as Director at Cascade Partners and is an experienced supply chain and logistics consultant with extensive expertise in both domestic and international operations. His professional focus encompasses supply chain optimization, process improvement, data-driven operational strategy, and performance enhancement. He specializes in helping organizations create value through analytical methods, project management, and cross-functional collaboration, applying Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to improve business efficiency and operational outcomes.

Adam Skinner

VP Supply Chain ODL

Adam Skinner serves as Vice President of Supply Chain at ODL, Inc., where he leads supply chain strategy, operations, and organizational performance across the company’s manufacturing and distribution network. With extensive leadership experience in supply chain management, he specializes in operational excellence, logistics, procurement, and process optimization. His professional focus includes developing resilient supply chain systems, improving efficiency, and supporting business growth through strategic operations management.

Les Brand

CEI Supply Chain Solution/NexusLogix

Les Brand is an experienced supply chain and logistics executive associated with CEI Supply Chain Solutions and NexusLogix. His professional expertise spans supply chain strategy, logistics optimization, procurement, and operational performance improvement. Throughout his career, he has focused on developing integrated supply chain solutions that enhance organizational efficiency, strengthen supplier and customer relationships, and support sustainable business growth. His work combines strategic leadership with practical experience in supply chain transformation and end-to-end operational management.

Justyna Dąbrowska

Krakow University of Economics

Justyna Dąbrowska holds a PhD in Business and Management from Manchester Business School in the UK. She is presently employed at Krakow University of Economics, within the Department of Commerce and Market Institutions. Additionally, she is a member of the Advisory Board at the Science Park Graz in Austria. Prior to her current position, Justyna was affiliated with the University of Manchester, where she held the managerial role of Head of Innovation at Manchester Science Park. In this capacity, she coordinated business support initiatives for start-ups, led research and collaboration projects at both regional and international levels. Additionally, she was responsible for the evaluation of SME ventures, as well as the measurement and reporting of business performance metrics. She also contributed to the consultative process for designing innovation policies for the UK government.
Before her job at Manchester Science Park, Justyna was employed by Innova SpA in Rome, Italy. Her responsibilities included involvement in the EU policy formulation process in five Newly Associated Countries (NAC) and the assessment of initiatives designed to promote the growth of regional innovation systems. Dr Dąbrowska has also worked as an independent consultant for various organizations, including among others the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the International Association of Science Parks, the UK Science Park Association and Brazilian Association of Science Parks and Business Incubators (ANPROTEC).

Jaideep Motwani

Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University

Professor Jaideep Motwani is a distinguished scholar affiliated with the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in the USA. He has an extensive academic and research portfolio in the fields of management and information systems. As an international expert in supply chain management, he has authored numerous scholarly publications and participated in many international research projects. His research interests include quality management, operations management, entrepreneurship, and the management of non-profit organizations.

PANEL

Tytuł

Opis

Prezentacja panelistów i moderatorów

XVIII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF THE COLLEGE OF MANAGAMENT AND QUALITY SCIENCES OF KRAKOW UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
Knowledge – Economy – Society