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UPDATE Alumnus Rafal Trzaskowski ’91, Mayor of Warsaw, to Visit Cranbrook Schools.

9/11/2024

Due to severe flooding in the south of Poland, Mr. Trzaskowski has been called back to Poland earlier than originally anticipated. As such, the talk scheduled with him for tomorrow evening has been canceled.

He will still be on campus tomorrow morning and early afternoon to spend time with our Upper and Middle Schools students before departing. Trzaskowski will interact with students at both the upper and middle schools.

Portions of Eastern and Southern Europe have been experiencing some of the worst flooding those regions have seen in decades. Dozens of lives have been lost (including seven so far in Poland). Mr. Trzaskowski must get back as soon as possible to help direct relief and resettlement efforts that will inevitably have an impact on Warsaw and its people.

Born in Warsaw, Trzaskowski attended Cranbrook Schools, and later graduated in international relations and English philology from the University of Warsaw. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science in 2004. Trzaskowski was first elected Mayor of Poland’s capital in 2018 and was re-elected in 2024. In 2020, he was the democratic opposition’s candidate for the Presidency of Poland. Along with the mayors of the capitals of the other Visegrád Group countries, he signed the Pact of Free Cities in December 2019 to promote “common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.” A former member of the Polish Parliament, of the European Parliament, and Vice-Chair of the European People’s Party, in 2014 he served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and in 2013 as Minister for Administration and Digitalization in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

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