Prof. Marek Belka was born on 9 January 1952 in Łódź. After graduating in economics from the University of Lodz in 1972, he joined the Department of Economics at this university. In 1978, he obtained his doctoral degree, and in 1986 he received the title of doctor habilitatus. He has been affiliated with the Institute of Economic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences since 1986. During the years 1978-1979 and 1985-1986, he underwent research fellowships at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, and in 1990 at the London School of Economics. He was awarded the title of Professor of Economic Sciences in 1994.
Since the 1990s, he has held a number of important public positions in the country and abroad. In 1990, he became an advisor and consultant to the Ministry of Finance and later to the Ministry of Ownership Transformation and the Central Planning Office. What is more, in 1996, he took up the position of consultant to the World Bank. Between 1994 and 1996, he was Vice- President of the Council of Socio-Economic Strategy at the Council of Ministers, and Economic Adviser to the President of the Republic of Poland.
He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz's government in 1997 and in Leszek Miller's government in 2001-2002. He also held the function of Prime Minister of the Polish Government in 2004-2005.
Prof. Marek Belka has served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) since 2006 and as Director of the European Department of the International Monetary Fund since January 2009. Previously, he also performed the function of head of the International Coordination Council in Iraq (2003) and Director of Economic Policy in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, where he was responsible for currency reform, the establishment of a new banking system and economic supervision (2003-2004).
He has published over 100 research papers, mainly on monetary theory and anti-inflationary policies in developing countries. He specialises in applied economics and contemporary economic thought. He is also a member of the Committee on Economic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
On 10 June 2010, Professor Marek Belka was appointed President of the National Bank of Poland by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. He assumed the office on 11 June 2010 after being sworn in by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and held it until 21 June 2016.
In January 2011, Professor Marek Belka was elected to the Steering Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) for a three-year term. He has also served as President of the Development Committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since November 2011. Moreover, he has been the President of the Steering Committee of the Vienna Initiative 2 since June 2012, and a member of the Central Bank Governance Group operating within the Bank for International Settlements in Basel (BIS) since May 2013. In August 2016, Marek Belka became an independent member of the management board of the real estate fund Echo Polska Properties. In June 2017, he was appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of Bank Handlowy w Warszawie S.A., and in September, he also became a member of the supervisory boards of the Vienna Insurance group companies (Compensa, Compensa Życie and InterRisk). As of 2019, he is a Member of the European Parliament in the ninth term.