Marek Matraszek

The Jagiellonian Trust

Marek Matraszek was born to émigré Polish parents in the UK in 1962 and was initially educated at the Woking Grammar School for Boys in Surrey. In 1981 he gained an Exhibition to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1984. Following a year in Poland teaching at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, he returned to Oxford to obtain a Master of Philosophy in Russian and East European Studies, specializing in Polish contemporary history, in 1987. He then continued his studies at Oxford, reading for a doctoral dissertation on the political writings of the pre-1980 Polish dissident movements.

Marek first met Sir Roger Scruton in Poland in 1984, and was appointed Secretary of the Jagiellonian Trust, a UK charity devoted to assisting independent cultural activities in Poland and Hungary, in 1985. During the second half of the 1980s he worked with Sir Roger and the other Trustees – among them Jessica Douglas-Home, Dennis O’Keeffe, Agnieszka Kolakowska, Timothy Garton-Ash and The Baroness Cox – to establish and manage a network of couriers, intermediaries, lecturers and artists travelling to Poland and Hungary offering support to the anticommunist dissident movements in those countries. Over five years a substantial volume of books, literature, printing equipment and other material assistance was delivered to academics, dissidents and underground publishers in both countries.

Marek moved to Poland in the autumn of 1990, initially working as a freelance correspondent for publications such as The Spectator and Wall Street Journal Europe. In the 1990s he worked closely with both the British Conservative Party through the Westminster Foundation, and the US Republican Party through the International Republican Institute, in assisting their activities in Central Europe. Supported by Sir Roger, he became the Director of the Jagiellonian Foundation in Poland in 1990, continuing the work of supporting independent academics in Poland and Hungary. In 1992 he was appointed to represent the Margaret Thatcher Foundation in the region, and assisted in the organization of Lady Thatcher’s visits to Poland following her retirement. Between 1993 and 2001 he was the Poland Director of the Windsor Group, a cross-party think tank and pressure group promoting free market and pro-Western reforms in Central Europe.

He continued to work closely with Sir Roger in supporting his activities in Central Europe throughout the 1990s and 2000s, until Sir Roger’s final visit to Poland in June 2019 when he was awarded the grand cordon of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Marek has also written widely on Polish and international affairs for publications such as the Warsaw Business Journal, The Spectator and Wall Street Journal Europe, and has published a study of the Polish political scene, The Politics of Restoration. Until recently he was a regular commentator on Polish politics for Polish Radio, the BBC, CNN, CNBC and other international media outlets. Professionally today he is a political adviser to a range of Western multinationals in Poland and Central Europe.