Jan Kobylański

Jan Kobylański (born 21 July 1923 in Rowne, Poland) is a Polish-Paraguayan businessman. He is the founder of the Union of Polish Associations and Organizations in Latin America (pol. Unia Stowarzyszeń i Organizacji Polskich w Ameryce Łacińskiej, USOPAŁ) the largest Polish immigrant organization of South America. He was a founder of one of the world's largest companies involved in editing postage stamps, and coins mintage. He has written books on philately, as well as on the mediation policy of the Roman Curia. He was formerly the honorary consul of Poland to Paraguay, and the honorary consul of Paraguay to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

Kobylański was the son of Polish attorney at law Stanisław Kobylański. In 1943 he was arrested by the Nazis, and imprisoned at Warsaw's infamous Pawiak prison. He was a prisoner in the German concentration camps Mauthausen and Gross Rosen. After World War II, he moved to Italy, where he produced toothbrushes, and sold kitchen appliances. He became co-owner of the Astral Metal Technica company in Milan.

In 1952, he arrived in Paraguay, taking advantage of President Federico Chaves' immigration program, which allowed 18,000 families from Europe to settle in that country. Soon he won a contract to import kitchen appliances, and another to print postage stamps for the National Postal Service. In the next few years, he developed one of the world's largest stamp printing and coin minting companies.

According to Polish journalists Jerzy Morawski and Mikołaj Lizut, Kobylański had a good relationship with Paraguayan president, General Alfredo Stroessner. Kobylański, however, denies this.

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