From Apple and Motorola to e-point. Richard Lada is new Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Thanks to the supervision of Richard Lada, market giants such as Apple and Motorola were able to enter the Polish market. Lately he has become new chairman of the Supervisory Board of e-point SA. For many years he has worked in the new technology industry as manager and coach for senior and executive management.

Currently, he acts as consultant in the implementation of new technologies and the introduction of Polish innovation to the markets of Western Europe and the USA.

Working for the giants

Richard acquired his experience through cooperation with the biggest and most prolific IT companies in the world. Between 1985 and 1988 he was responsible for product marketing in the printer branch of Tektronix (currently known as Xerox). In cooperation with his team, he created and commercialized the first in the world printer capable of producing 16, 7 million colours.

Between 1988 and 1990 he was stationed in the Silicon Valley and supervised the Macintosh computer line for Apple. It was a time of the introduction of the first Macs – computers capable of generating graphics and text in colour. Similar to their black-and-white counterparts, thanks to their wide application, the new Macs became popular within the education sector and started to be widely used by head newspaper publishing houses.

In 1990, short after the political change in Poland, it was Richard himself who persuaded Apple’s European branch manager to enter the Polish market. Born and raised in California, Richard discovered his Polish ancestry while he was still studying at Stanford University. This is when his fascination with the country of his forefathers first started. Along with three other Polish enthusiasts of Mac computers (one of which was Jakub Tatarkiewicz, grandson of the famous Polish philosopher – Władysław Tatarkiewicz), he made the Warsaw branch come into existence.

At that time, Richard was the only Apple employee in East-Central Europe. He was responsible for the first localization of the Mac operating system in Poland and the development of the retail marketing chain for the Cupertino giant.

In 1992 Apple’s European HQ had decided that the corporation no longer wants to keep an East-Central European branch. Richard being already strongly attached to Poland moved to Motorola – one of the leading producers of mobile phones, transceivers and semi-conductors.

As country manager, his job was to help the company start and expand sales in a dynamically developing economy of Poland. During his over fifteen year career in the company he and his colleagues developed trade relations. However, his main efforts were to encourage the company to make as many investments in Poland as possible. The most noteworthy of his achievements is building a software centre and 2 shared service centres in Cracow, which were the first outsourcing centres for business services in Poland.

Again, thanks to Richard’s initiative, Motorola was the first American IT corporation to start research and development cooperation with top Polish universities post 1989. CEO of Motorola made Richard vice-president of Motorola for East-Central Europe, because of his achievements. Richard was also appointed mentor for all newly employed country managers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In 2008 Richard left Motorola to start his own consulting company - Eremel Consulting. He used his experience in advising innovative start-ups and Polish entrepreneurs considering to expand into foreign markets.

Richard is not only focused on business. He is also a social activist. He is an active member of different councils and chapters. This includes the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland, Stanford Club of Poland, German Marshall Fund of the United States Marshall Memorial Scholarships and PARI (Polish- American Innovation Committee). In the past he was also a member of the board of directors of Polish- American Fulbright Foundation and the Foundation of the Jagiellonian University.

In 2006 Richard’s contribution to the development of Polish innovation and the SSC/BPO (business services outsourcing) sector was noted and he was awarded the Golden Antenna of Telecommunications World in the “Man of the Year” category. In June 2014, during the 25th anniversary of the first free elections and the rebirth of free market in Poland, Richard was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland by president Komorowski.

Working only with the best

When Richard was asked about the reasons for deciding to become Chairman of the Supervisory Board he replied: