Jan Wejchert
Jan Bohdan Wejchert (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈbɔɣdan ˈvɛjxɛrt]; January 5, 1950 - October 31, 2009) was a Polish businessman and media mogul. Wejchert was the co-founder of the ITI Group, one of Poland's largest media groups, as well as the co-founder and co-owner of the TVN television network.[1]
Biography
Early career
Wejchert graduated from the Economics Faculty of the University of Warsaw.[2] In 1974, Wejchert began his career as a businessman by working for Konsuprod, GmbH & Co., a German trading company.[2] Wejchert later incorporated the new Polish subsidiary of Konsuprod in 1976, the first instance of direct foreign investment in Poland,[2] which was under Communist rule.
Career
Wejchert co-founded the ITI Group in 1984 with businessman, Mariusz Walter.[1][2] Wejchert became the ITI Group's first president and founding shareholder.[2] He ran ITI in a partnership with Walter and Bruno Valsangiacomo.[1] He later co-founded and co-owned both the TVN television network[1] and TVN 24 television networks.[3] He sat on the management board of TVN.[1]
He was also the co-owner[3] and deputy president of the Onet.pl group.[1] Additionally, Wejchert co-owned the Legia Warszawa football club.[3]
In 1991, he was appointed to the US-Poland Action Commission, which was headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski.[2] Wejchert was a co-founder of the Polish Business Roundtable, a business club, and served as the organization's first president.[2] The Polish Business Rountable is headquartered at the Sobański Palace, a 19th-century Warsaw townhouse owned by Wejchert since 1996.[2] Wejchert restored the townhouse in the late 1990s.[2]
Wejchert also purchased Stara Papiernia, a suburban Warsaw paper mill which was destroyed by fire in 1984.[2] He restored Stara Papiernia and reopened the building, incorporating it into a shopping center in November 2002.[2]
Personal life
Wejchert was a resident of Konstancin-Jeziorna, a suburb of Warsaw.[1] He was married, and the couple had five children.[1]
Jan Wejchert died on October 31, 2009, at the age of 59. Wejchert had fought leukemia since 1993,[3] which he had kept secret from the public.[1] However, the cause of his death was a heart attack due to an infection and sepsis.[1]