Thomas Kolarik appointed to Operations & IT Vice-President of BCR

Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) has named Thomas Kolarik, an experienced IT top executive to Vice President position responsible for operations & IT at BCR starting January 1st 2021. His appointment is subject to regulatory approval by the National Bank of Romania. He shall succeed Ryszard Druzynski, member of the board in charge with operations & IT, who is finishing his mandate and has decided to return to native Poland in order to pursue other career opportunities.

Thomas Kolarik, a Ph.D holder in Computer Science from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, holds an extensive professional background as IT executive in senior CIO/CTO roles with banking, reputed international IT service providers, as well as start-up experience. His credentials stand consistent in project delivery and operations within mission critical environments in financial services, with a focus on outsourcing, cyber security, agile delivery & operations and machine learning.

Over the last 10 years, Mr. Kolarik has filled the role of Managing Director for s IT Solutions Austria, the IT provider for Erste Group Bank in Austria, Erste Bank Austria and 45 Savings Banks, where he managed 800-1.000 employees overseeing a rich software applications environment for more than 20.000 users and close to 1.000 branches, based on a common core banking system. Before that, he had built a consulting company from scratch, after acting as the business development manager of a multi-national IT services provider.

„Thomas Kolarik comes from a decisive position in shaping the digital future of Erste Group and has been part of the team which implemented the George platform in Austria. I am convinced he has the right skills and experience for achieving strong synergies between technology and business in order to take BCR at the next level of digital capabilities. We look forward to his proven leadership in project delivery, seamless operations and future-proof technologies adoption”, stated Manfred Wimmer, chairman of BCR’s Supervisory board.

“We are delighted to welcome Thomas Kolarik, a seasoned manager with solid credentials in transformative IT roles. We are convinced his strong business acumen will support BCR progress significantly along the path of leveraging the latest technologies, agile delivery and cyber security capabilities, to become a tech driven company, a champion of digital convenience to its customers and a benchmark for security and reliability in a very challenging environment.“

„At the same time I’d like to extend a warm thank you note to Ryszard Druzynski, who, in the last years, has worked continuously to lay a solid platform for the IT transformation and streamlining of our operations framework. In the current context, a particular note of gratitude and acknowledgement goes to his extraordinary dedication to the technology and operations business continuity of the bank in tremendously challenging times. Ryszard’s contribution was instrumental to managing and operating our business confidently in the new normal”, said Sergiu Manea, CEO of BCR.