Grzegorz Piechota awarded Silver Shovel Award for career achievement
INMA News Blog | 24 May 2016
Polish media executive and Harvard University Nieman Fellow Grzegorz Piechota was presented the 2016 Silver Shovel Award tonight in London by the International News Media Association (INMA) for lifetime achievement and contributions to INMA.
The award was presented before 400+ international media executives from 42 counties at the annual INMA Global Media Awards Dinner held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Given since 1949 for meritorious service to INMA and career achievement, the award represents INMA’s highest individual honour.

Swedish media executive Bengt Ottosson, a 2015 award recipient, announced the award on the London museum stage in a unique musical presentation and tribute. He lauded Piechota’s unique intellectual and leadership contributions to INMA that continue to this day.
Piechota, a former news editor of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and law school graduate, began his career at Gazeta Wyborcza in 1996 as a reporter, rising to head its multi-media newsroom and vice president of the Agora Foundation. Before coming to the United States in 2015, Piechota was responsible for new product development at Gazeta Wyborcza and lectured on digital innovation and social change in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
At Harvard as a Nieman Fellow, Piechota has studied advances in digital technologies and changes in social behaviour as well as best practices in innovation management.
Piechota’s involvement with INMA began in 2002 when he joined the association’s European Board of Directors. Rising through the leadership ranks, he served as division president from 2010 to 2014 – the first editor to serve in that capacity. He has continued service on the INMA Board of Directors since 2014.
A frequent speaker at INMA and news media industry conferences worldwide, Piechota in April authored the popular report, “Evaluating Distributed Content in the News Media Ecosystem.”