Solorz-zak biography

Polish businessman Zygmunt Solorz-Zak has an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion as of April 2016, according to Forbes. He is the second richest man in Poland today.

Zygmunt Solorz-Zak was born on August 4, 1956 in Radom, Poland. Currently divorced, he was previously married to Ilona Solorz and Małgorzata Żak. He has three children named Aleksandra, Tobias and Piotr.

In 1992, Zygmunt Solorz-Zak founded Polsat, a free-to-air commercial TV channel which later emerged to be one of the biggest television stations in Poland. In addition to that, he also owns the controlling stakes in the small life insurer Polisa, retail bank Invest Bank, as well as in pension fund PTE . He also controls the lignite power plant PAK which is considered as one of the top three largest producers of electricity in Poland. Since 2011, he has been the owner of the Polish mobile phone company Polkomtel, and since 2008, he has owned the football club Śląsk Wrocław.

Polish businessman

Zygmunt Solorz (Polish:[ˈzɨɡ.muntˈsɔ.lɔʂ]; born Zygmunt Józef Krok, August 4, 1956 in Radom) is a Polish businessman and a media tycoon known for launching Polsat, one of the largest private television channels in the country. As of 2024, he is the fifth richest person in Poland and has repeatedly appeared on Forbes' ranking of the world's billionaires, with an estimated net worth around €5.77 billion. He ranked #688 on the Forbes 2016 with a net worth of US$2.5 billion. The companies controlled by him include Cyfrowy Polsat, Polkomtel, Netia, Elektrim and Interia.

Biography

Early life

According to the media, Zygmunt Solorz was born in Radom, a city to the south of Warsaw, and originally had the surname Krok. In 1977 he escaped the Polish People's Republic while on a holiday trip and settled in Munich, in the then West Germany. In the 1980s, he took the surname Solorz after his first wife for feminist reasons. Several years later, after the second marriage, he added the hyphen and became Solorz-Żak. He currently uses just Solorz as his only surname.

In his early twenties, he managed to escape closed-off Poland and got to Germany, where he founded a transport company.

Businesses

His first major investment on the Polish media market was purchasing the majority stake in the Kurier Polski daily newspaper in early 1992. The same year, Solorz launched the free-to-air commercial TV channel Polsat, broadcast through satellite, and obtained a national commercial television license in 1993. Since the middle of the 1990s, Polsat has remained one of Poland's biggest

Zygmunt Solorz-Zak (born Piotr Krok aka Piotr Podgorski), second richest person in Poland (according to the weekly �Wprost�), repeatedly appearing on Forbes world's billionaires ranking, with an estimated net worth around EUR 5,77 billion.

Born:  August 4, 1956 in Radom, Poland

Early days. He finished a technical high school.

Career. Solorz-Żak launched the free-to-air commercial TV channel Polsat in 1992, broadcast through satellite, and obtained a national commercial television license in 1993. Since the middle of the 1990s, Polsat remains one of the Poland's biggest television stations. Apart from TV Polsat, Solorz-Żak's key assets include pay TV platform Cyfrowy Polsat. He holds controlling stakes in pension fund PTE Polsat, small life insurer Polisa and retail bank Invest Bank. After winning control over the distressed Elektrim conglomerate, Solorz-Żak obtained operating control over lignite power plant PAK, ranked among the top three largest electricity producers in Poland. Since 2009, he owns football club Śląsk Wrocław and since 2011 Polkomtel. In 2008, according to �Wprost�, he ranked second in list of the richest Poles and 48 among the 100 richest people of Cenral and Eastern Europe. In 2009 Forbes ranked him as the richest person in Poland.

Personal. He married first Ilona Solorz. They divorced in 1991. They have a son Tobias. He married next Malgorzata Zak. They are divorcing now. They have a son- Piotr and a daughter- Aleksandra.

Based (with modifications)on articles that appear in Wikipedia :
Wikipedia
Wikipedia (in Polish)
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