About

Stanisława Świst-Zawada leads a team of 12 individuals at insurance company LINK4, a company she returned to in October 2016 after a previous nine-year tenure there from 2002 to the end of 2011. She started as a sales consultant for the company but within five years had gained promotions to become head of legal. Regarding this, Świst-Zawada says, ‘it was a great opportunity for me but also a great challenge’, adding, ‘I was promoted to the role responsible for all legal issues within the company without any previous experience in legal teams and I had to learn how to manage problems, people and suppliers from scratch’. By handling this great challenge, Świst-Zawada demonstrated an array of legal skills, gaining recognition from both internal and external peers in the process. Particularly significant developments she has worked on at LINK4 include the acquisition of the company by RSA Group, which involved significant internal restructurings, and participating on the establishment of a new insurance subsidiary company. ‘As a head of legal of both the mother company and its subsidiary, I was responsible for supporting the business and management whilst fulfilling legal requirements connected with establishing a new company and ensuring compliance of the company’s procedures, processes and products to applicable laws and regulations’, she explains. Between 2013 and 2016, Świst-Zawada spent time at both Liberty Mutual Group and AXA Group, following the latter’s acquisition of the former’s Polish operations. She created the legal and compliance functions at Liberty and played a key role on the acquisition by AXA claiming it was, ‘the biggest and most complex transaction in my professional life’. Elaborating on this, she says, ‘I was responsible for the legal and compliance areas at that time in Liberty Poland and I had to ensure that all legal issues connected with the transfer were managed properly – there was of course external law firm who supported the Group with the transfer agreement, but all operational issues were managed internally’. With such transactions under her belt, it is easy to see why Świst-Zawada is regarded as a legal expert who can deliver in challenging circumstances.