WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s state-controlled energy company, Orlen, on Wednesday named Ireneusz Fafara as CEO. He was formerly the head of the company’s Lithuanian operations.
The company had conducted a nearly two month-long search with 260 candidates applying to become members of the management board.
In February, Orlen’s supervisory board underwent sweeping changes at the request of the new pro-European coalition government.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he sees Orlen and its former CEO as symbols of the previous nationalist administration’s policies of using state-controlled firms for political purposes.
Prosecutors launched investigations into Orlen’s fuel-pricing policies ahead of the last election, while the state audit office alleges that Orlen sold assets of peer Lotos for at least 5 billion zlotys ($1.26 billion) below their estimated value.
Orlen says the merger was a transparent process supervised and controlled by several institutions.
($1 = 3.9671 zlotys)
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
