Jacek Kastelaniec

Jacek Kastelaniec, 29, is a founding member of the Auschwitz–Birkenau Foundation and currently serves as General Director. As co-creator of the Foundation’s Perpetual Fund, he is also responsible for day-to-day fundraising and financial affairs for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

The mission of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation is to secure the conservation and the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site for future generations by implementing a long-term,
comprehensive conservation plan prepared by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum’s team of historic preservationists.

Kastelaniec is an experienced social activist who is engaged in promoting democracy and political changes in Eastern European. He is co-founder and an active member of the Free Ukraine and Free Belarus Initiatives, and a key organizer of the “Free Belarus” concerts and demonstrations. In 2005 in cooperation with the Schuman Foundation and the Batory Foundation, he organized the visits of independent observers during presidential elections in Ukraine and later also in Belarus.

Born in 1982 in Warsaw, Kastelaniec is a graduate from the University of Warsaw and the University of Montpellier in France with degrees in journalism and political science. For three years, he served as an assistant to Le Monde journalist Christophe Chatelot, who went on to become the Vice Head of Foreign Affairs at Le Monde.