Prof. Assoc. dr hab. Jan Ostoj – rector of the Bielsko-Biała School of Finances and Law between 1999 and 2020, currently head of Banking and Finances Department at the same school, lecturer and researcher in the area of economics and finances with more than 40 years of experience. Co-creator of two faculties of the school managed and two off-campus teaching centres. Previously employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice and associate professor and head of the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Organization and Management at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice. Founder of a new approach in the economics stating that apart from rarity also excess form premise for management (monography 1996), which implies a possibility to quantify the value of waste which hitherto was not a subject to accounting records. The area of interest concentrates on increase of the resource management efficiency with an emphasis on resources that are usually not a subject to accounting records at the level of single enterprise as well as at the level of a region. Author of three monographies and more than 70 scientific papers published in Poland or abroad. Chief of multiple national and international research projects. Multiply awarded, including the Gold Cross of Merit for scientific research and didactic achievements by the President of the Republic of Poland, Gold Medal of Merit for involvement and contribution to the development of Bielsko-Biała School of Banking and Finance by the founder of the school - Association of Educational Initiatives, and other awards of the rector of Silesian University and Silesian University of Technology.