Elżbieta Bieńkowska née Moycho, born on 4 February 1964 at Katowice in Silesia, is a Polish politician who served as a Polish Government Minister before being nominated as European Commissioner by Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014.
Education
Bieńkowska graduated from Jagiellonian University with a Master"s degree in Oriental Philology in 1989. She has also received a post-graduate Diploma from the Polish National School of Public Administration and afterwards a postgraduate studies Master of Business Administration from Warsaw School of Economics.
Career
Bieńkowska was Minister of Regional Development in Prime Minister Donald Tusk"s Cabinet from 16 November 2007 until 27 November 2013, when she was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Poland while continuing her previous responsibilities at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. Bieńkowska"s career in public administration started at Katowice City Council where she worked on regional contracts being promoted, in 1999, as head of Katowice"s Department for Economy. Later that year, she was appointed Director of Regional Development for the Province of Silesia, where she served until 2007.
Bieńkowska served as Minister for Infrastructure and Development for Poland, as well as Deputy Prime Minister from the end of 2013 until October 2013, before taking office as a European Commissioner.
She describes herself as a technocrat. On 10 September 2014, Juncker designated her as European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, following which, on 1 November 2014, she took office in the Juncker Commission.