On 13 December 2023, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz was appointed by Szymon Hołownia’s Polska 2050 party to the post of Minister for Funds and Regional Policy in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government. Between 2012 and 2014, she served as Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and between 2014 and 2016 as Poland’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation. She also served as director of the Forum Idei Foundation’s think tank. From 2020 to 2023, she was director of the Strategie 2050 Institute. Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz graduated in sociology from the University of Warsaw (1994). Between 1994 and 2003, she was employed at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where in 1999 she defended her doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Political Activity of Poles 1989–1995’. Between 1992 and 1995, and again from 1999 to 2012, she was also professionally associated with the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, where her roles included head of the Russian department and deputy director. From 2011 to 2012, she was the Centre’s representative in Brussels and coordinator of a joint research project between the Centre and the French Institute of International Relations. She speaks English and Russian.