About John
John Lynch is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker who lives in Krakow, Poland. He was one of the first expatriates to launch a start-up in Poland in the aftermath of the fall of communism. Twenty-five years since he founded it, his company is now a European leader in corporate apparel. John has travelled the former East Bloc countries extensively, and knows the region and its peoples intimately. John has Polish roots – his great-grandmother was from Białystok. He is fluent in Polish.
In 2014, John was awarded the highest civilian honor in Poland, the Presidential Order of the Gold Cross from the President of Poland, for his contributions to building Poland’s free market economy during the past 25 years. John was voted Central & Eastern Europe’s CEO of the Year and is former Entrepreneur of the Year in Poland.
He was named one of the 10 American Pioneers who made the most profound contributions to the successful transformation of Poland. He is former Chairman of YPO Poland, and a Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce since 2004, and currently serves as Treasurer.
John has a degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from The Wharton School. As a writer, John was a regular columnist for The Warsaw Business Journal and Images – a UK apparel magazine. John was former Marketing Director for US-based publisher The Easton Press, the world-leader in the design and development of fine leather-bound books.
In 2016, John was featured in a Financial Times full page article entitled “More Warsaw than Wharton”, and was interviewed for the FT Start-Up Stories podcast series which drew more than 200,000 listeners.
He lives with his wife Kasia, and two children Jakub and Zofia outside Krakow. The Ark is his first novel.