Jan Grabowski leaves PGZ board to lead Gdańsk shipyard group GPB

Two years on PGZ's naval programmes

Jan Grabowski joined the PGZ management board on 18 June 2024, where he oversaw the maritime domain and international cooperation with foreign partners. That portfolio covered the area in which the most significant recent decisions for Polish naval shipbuilding were taken.

During his time at the group, PGZ Stocznia Wojenna launched the first Miecznik frigate, ORP Wicher, and Poland signed its contract for new submarines under the Orka programme in June 2026. In a July interview with Portal Obronny, Jan Grabowski named Orka, Miecznik and industrial partnerships aimed at building maintenance and upgrade capability in Poland as the three pillars of the group's maritime strategy.

Wind towers, offshore steel and seagoing vessels

Grupa Przemysłowa Baltic is wholly owned by the Industrial Development Agency (ARP). It was set up to consolidate energy and shipbuilding subsidiaries and works to develop a domestic supply chain for wind, nuclear and hydrogen energy as well as the oil and gas sector. Its product range includes wind turbine towers, large steel structures for offshore and onshore projects and seagoing vessels of various types.

Jan Grabowski said his ambition is to strengthen the group's position as a significant participant in the energy transition, develop new areas of growth and respond to changing market needs, while building a strong Stocznia Gdańska brand so that it becomes the employer of first choice in Pomerania.

A third change at the top this year

Jan Grabowski is the third full CEO of GPB in 2026. Remigiusz Paszkiewicz led the group from August 2025 before moving to KGHM Polska Miedź. Tomasz Szymczak took over in mid-February 2026, and in the summer Jerzy Wiatr stepped in as acting CEO.

The new CEO arrives as the group looks for a larger role in offshore wind. In August, ARP said GPB would take part in the work of a team it had set up to assess the capacity of Polish industry to manufacture wind turbine components.

From MBDA through PGZ to the shipyard

Jan Grabowski has more than twenty years of experience in Poland and France, mostly in the defence industry. He spent six years from 2018 as managing director of MBDA in Poland, was responsible for Central and Eastern Europe at Nexter Systems in France from 2015 to 2018, and served as director of strategy and international industrial cooperation at Bumar from 2012 to 2014.

He graduated in international relations from the University of Warsaw, completed postgraduate studies in public relations and strategic communication at the Warsaw School of Economics, and studied at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale in Paris. The move to GPB is his first executive role outside the defence sector, though it keeps him in the maritime domain and in the Tricity, home also to PGZ Stocznia Wojenna.