On March 19, 2008, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe presented former Finance Minister and President of the National Bank of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz with the 2008 Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Award for Public Service. Balcerowicz, an internationally recognized economist, is considered the father of Poland's economic transformation. He was first an advisor to the Solidarity trade union and then Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister under the new democratic government in Poland. He introduced a program of economic shock therapy involving the first comprehensive implementation of market reforms in satellite countries of the former Soviet Union.