Krzysztof Jakub Król
An information society analyst, formerly a Member of Parliament, an ICT journalist, a social communication specialist, an ICT market development advisor, and a manager of internet projects.
A member of the democratic opposition in the People's Republic of Poland, from 1978 a distributor of illegal publications, collaborator for the Committee for Social Self-Defence KOR, co-creator of an independent youth movement, member of the Confederation of Independent Poland (KPN), sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for his leadership of KPN, political prisoner for 18 months, organiser of opposition activities, detained numerous times by the Citizen Militia (MO) and the Security Service (SB), punished by fines in magistrate courts for participation in demonstrations, publisher and journalist of the independent press. In 1990 he received the Polcul Foundation award. In 2001 he was awarded the title "Zasłużony Działacz Kultury" (Prominent Cultural Activist). In 2004 the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation issued a statement that Krzysztof Król was regarded as harmed as defined by the Institute of National Remembrance Act. In September 2009 the President decorated him with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Between 1991 and 1997 he was a Republic of Poland MP, chairman of the KPN parliament club, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the ad-hoc committee for establishing the election statute. Member of Konwent św. Katarzyny [a right-wing political bloc], and co-creator of Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS). Before the 1997 election he withdrew from politics.
In 1986 he commenced work on the use of computers in underground activities, including phototypesetting systems. In 1991 he participated in the construction of Fidonet (amateur pre-internet). In 1995 he wrote the first parliamentary question regarding internet prices in Poland. From 1997 he was advisor to the portal Centrum Nowych Technologii – Wirtualna Polska and creator of the on-line community internet project that provided access to local government newspapers and to how-to books via the web (within US-AID). Between 1997 and 2004 a journalist for "Wprost" weekly, where he had the column "Intermedia" devoted to the internet. Author of hundreds of articles on Information Technology, it was his website cafe.wprost.pl that hosted the first chat in Poland and which was later published in the press, while poczta.wprost.pl was one of the first free e-mail systems. In 1998 he co-created the Cities on the Internet Association, which promoted internet use among local government officials and e-gov solutions. In 2004 he was a Reform Representative of the Rzeczpospolita onLine website, for which he helped to achieve a positive financial result. From 2005 to 2008 he was employed at Prokom Software as the Communications Department Vice-Director for IT. In 2006 he co-authored the concept of the project "Wolne lektury" [an internet library with school readings]. Since 2008 an advisor for Asseco Poland, since 2011 a member of the Board of the Modern Poland Foundation, and since 2005 vice-president of the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
On 29 June 2011 Krzysztof Jakub Król was appointed Social Advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland.