—
Roman Sledziejowski is currently the Vice Chairman of Savant Strategies, an international management consulting firm. He was born in Poland, and began his professional career in New York City at Salomon Smith Barney, Member of Travelers Group at the age of 17 where he worked for the investment bank part-time throughout his final year of high school.
At the age of 18, he became the youngest National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) licensed stockbroker in the United States and began working full time as an Investment Associate at Smith Barney, a Member of Citigroup.
In 2002, Roman Sledziejowski became the Vice President of Investments at Prudential Securities in New York City. Then in 2004, he was promoted to the position of First Vice President of Investments.
At the age of 25, Roman Sledziejowski became the Senior Vice President and Investment Officer of Wachovia Securities. At the time it was the 3rd largest investment firm in the United States with over 10,000 brokers working in 700 office locations and $680 billion in assets under management.
While at Wachovia Securities, Roman Sledziejowski began to make personal investments in multi-family rental properties in New York, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Through various partnerships, Roman Sledziejowski purchased and re-developed nearly 400 residential units between 2004 and 2009.
In 2006, Roman Sledziejowski founded Innovest Holdings, a New York City-based financial holding company. Innovest Holdings operated through four main subsidiaries: TWS Financial, LLC: a full-service broker-dealer based in Washington, DC with over $500 million in annual market transactions, servicing primarily foreign high net worth individual clients and international financial institutions. TradeWallStreet.com: one of the leading online Broker/Dealer platforms at the time, catering to individual investors. TWS Investment Partners, LLC: a real estate investment and finance company with over $100 million in real estate projects, and TWS Capital Partners, LLC: an offshore investment advisor with client assets exceeding $1 billion.
In 2007, Roman Sledziejowski co-founded MyPlace Development, Sp. Z o.o., a Poznan, a Poland-based real estate development company. His co-founder, Sebastian Kulczyk, served as the company’s CEO. Roman Sledziejowski served as the Company’s Chairman of the Board, until early 2010.
In December of 2009, RJS finalized the sale of his interest in MyPlace Development for $7.3 million in cash to Kulczyk Real Estate Holding SARL in Luxembourg.
In 2013, Roman Sledziejowski co-founded Savant Strategies, an international management consulting firm that provides management consulting services to middle-market companies primarily in Latin America, Europe, and South Africa. Then in 2021, Roman Sledziejowski took on the role of Vice Chairman at Savant Strategies.
We recently sat down with Roman Sledziejowski where he shared everything from the biggest misconceptions coworkers and business partners have about him to his proudest achievements.
What are the three things that are most important to you in a job?
First and foremost, I need to feel fulfilled at whatever job I am doing. I also need to feel that I am growing both professionally and personally as a result.
Needless to say, I must also sense that what I am doing has a meaningful impact on the organization and my efforts are being both appreciated and appropriately rewarded.
If we spoke with past coworkers, what would they say about you?
I was always unconditionally committed to whatever I was doing at work.
Once a well-thought-out decision has been made and a corresponding strategy decided on, there was never any room in my mind to doubt the course of action.
I always stood my ground when it came to executing a plan, regardless of challenges faced along the way.
What is the biggest misconception your coworkers and business partners have about you and why do they think that?
I think that they consider me to be rather “hard-headed” since I have a tendency to be quite adamant about my convictions. With that said, I am always open to logic and reason and I can surely be persuaded with a logical argument and hard facts.
I think that this may not be very apparent to those who do not know me well enough and as a result, a misconception may arise.
What partnerships have you developed that you are particularly proud of and what was the business impact as a result of these partnerships?
As an old adage says, “You learn who your true friends are when you are struggling the most.” Having found myself engulfed in a series of extremely challenging events, I had a chance to “learn” just that.
I am extremely proud to have forged multiple strong personal relationships and business partnerships that survived even the most trying times. These relationships are so meaningful to me nowadays since I know that they have been “battle-tested” and will withstand any trials to come in the future.
What is your proudest achievement – personally or professionally?
My sincerely proudest achievement may seem a bit strange, but it is learning how to become personally content with life and knowing how to enjoy simple things.
This does not mean becoming complacent, but rather enjoying simple things that life provides to us every day.
It is important to find out what gives us true happiness in life and enjoy it to the full extent possible every day.
—
This content is brought to you by Andrea Mario.
Photo provided by the author with written permission from the owner Mateo Evans.