Leszek Balcerowicz is a Polish economist who is currently a professor of economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. He served as the chairman of the National Bank of Poland from 2001 to 2007, after serving as Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister. He is known for implementing the controversial Polish economic transformation program in the 1990s commonly referred to as the Balcerowicz Plan, which was a method for rapidly transitioning from an economy based on state ownership and central planning, to a capitalist market economy.