Leszek Balcerowicz has been president of the National Bank of Poland since December 2000, and is chairman of the Center for Social and Economic Research based in Warsaw. From 1997 to 2000, Dr. Balcerowicz served as deputy prime minister, minister of finance, and president of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers in the AWS (Solidarity Election Action)-UW (Freedom Union) coalition government, where he designed and executed the radical transformation and stabilization of the Polish economy. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Balcerowicz served as the president of the UW. Since 1992, Dr. Balcerowicz has been a professor at the Warsaw School of Economics (WSE), and since 1993 he has been a director and chair of the International Comparative Studies at WSE. He graduated from the Foreign Trade Faculty in the Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw (now WSE); received an M.B.A. from St. John's University in New York; and earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Central School of Planning and Statistics. Dr. Balcerowicz served on the Faculty of Salzburg Seminar Session 333, Europe on the Eve of the Year 2000, 1996.