Board of Trustees

Zsolt Hernádi graduated from the legal predecessor of Corvinus University of Budapest, i.e. Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences, with a degree in industrial design and organisation in 1986.

Between 1989 and 1994, he held a number of management positions in Kereskedelmi és Hitelbank Rt., and he was the deputy CEO of the financial institution between 1992 and 1994. He was the CEO of Magyar Takarékszövetkezeti Bank Rt. between 1994 and 2001, and between 1994 and 2002 he held a position as a member of the Board of Directors. Between 1995 and 2001 he was a member of the board of the Hungarian Banking Association. Between 2001 and 2018, he was invited to join the European Round Table of Industrialists.

In 1999, he was elected as a member of MOL’s Board of Directors. In 2000, he became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MOL Group. Since 2001 he has held the position of President and CEO of the company.

Mr. Hernádi has been a guest lecturer at the Department of Change Management of Corvinus University Budapest. Between 2006 and 2009, we was a member of Economic Council of the University.

He has been an honorary citizen of the University since September 2009, and an honorary professor of the Corvinus University of Budapest since 2018. In 2019, he was elected as the chairman of the board of trustees of Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, the operator of Corvinus University of Budapest.

Since 2014, he has been a guest lecturer at the School for Executive Education and Development (SEED).

In 2007 he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city of Esztergom. In October 2010, he received the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary with a star (civic section). He has been an honorary citizen of Százhalombatta since March 2016. In March 2017, he was elected as a member of the National Competitiveness Council. 

László György (PhD) is the State Secretary for Economic Strategy and Regulation of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, an associate professor at John von Neumann University (NJE) and an assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). Prior to his appointment, he had worked as the chief economist of the “Századvég” group and also as the direction of the Pallas Athene Domus Mentis Foundation.

Mr. György obtained his masters degrees in 2003 and 2004 from Corvinus University of Budapest and in Switzerland (CEMS, Universitaet St. Gallen), and then obtained his MBA (2008) and PhD (2013) degrees from the Budapest University of Technology. The title of his doctoral dissertation was “Certain Economic Policy Aspects of Social Cohesion”; in this dissertation he examined the economic policy measures supporting social cohesion in Hungary and the applicability of the successful social cohesion of the Malay minority in Singapore.

He “Teach for Hungary” initiative was his idea; the initiative was launched in 2018, and he has had a crucial role in the implementation thereof as a state secretary. The vision that brought the initiative to life is “it feels good to pass on everything we know and to see others benefit from it.” In line with this, Teach for Hungary supports primary school students living in small settlements in completing their studies successfully, as well as mutual learning, strengthening communities and, more broadly, responsible care for the future of Hungarian society as a whole.

His book, Creating Balance – the Mission of Economic Policy debuted in Hungarian in 2017, and an expanded version in English (Creating Balance – the Mission of Economic Policy) was published in 2019. The book presents the milestones of Hungarian economic policy after 2010 in plain language and embedded in an international context, and also diagnoses the situation of the global economy, offers feasible answers to the challenges, interprets Hungarian economic policy decisions, presents the opportunities facing economic policy, as well as identifies possible directions for economic strategy. 

András Lánczi professor and the Rector of the Corvinus University of Budapest between 2016 and 2021. Since 1 July 2019, he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini (MUC) Foundation, which is responsible for operating Corvinus University of Budapest, which has been transformed into a private university.

Mr. Lánczi has been a lecturer at the Institute of Political Sciences of Corvinus since 1991, where he also served as the director between 2002 and 2016. His field of education and research is political philosophy, in particular the analysis of the relationship between political knowledge and political action, as well as the analysis of the fundamental issues of faith and rationality with a historical approach. He was strongly influenced by the philosophical works of Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. He has academic relations with the Eric Voegelin Institute (Louisiana State University), where he had been a researcher as a Fulbright Scholar. He also has ties to Michigan State University, where he worked with Strauss students, and the Liberty Fund, which has influenced him for three decades to shape knowledge and attitudes.

His extracurricular activities include being a well-known member of the european conservative cultural movement and the chairman of the Advisory Board of the Dutch foundation Center for European Renewal, of which he is also a founder.

Mr. Lánczi is the author, editor or translator of numerous books. He has been publishing works since 1986. His most recent independent volumes: Debate of antiquities and moderns. Late Observations on Pascal (2019), Political Realism and Wisdom (2015), On Political Knowledge (2012), Legacy of Fate (2009), Political Philosophy of the 20th Century (2007), Utopia as Tradition (2005). 

Mr. Palotai has a degree in economic sciences and is a honorary associate professor. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Corvinus University of Budapest in 2004 with a degree in finance and a minor in actuary studies. Since 2019 he has been trustee of Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation. He is a lecturer at the MNB Institute of the Corvinus University of Budapest, and was a lecturer at the Department of Macroeconomics previously.

He started his professional career at the Central Bank of Hungary, and between 2004 and 2007 he worked as an analyst in the Monetary Strategy Department of the Economics Division of the Bank. He is one of the creators of the MNB’s early retirement model and a pension system expert. From 2007, he continued to work at the European Central Bank as an analyst for certain non-euro area EU Member States, gaining insight into the processes of financial crisis management. Since November 2010, he has been the head of the Department of Macroeconomics of the Ministry of National Economy and has been actively participating in the elaboration of Hungary’s structural reform program, as well as has assisted in Hungary’s economic and financial stabilisation as a member of the European Union’s Economic Policy Committee (EPC).

Between 2013 and 2020 he was the Managing Director of the Central Bank of Hungary and the Bank’s Chief Economist. He is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the European Central Bank and the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the European Union. In 2015, he received the Sándor Popovics Award, which is given to economists under the age of 45 for their outstanding professional performance.

Since 2016 he has been the chairman of the Competitiveness Department of the Hungarian Economic Association (HEA), and since 2017 he has also served as the vice-president of HEA. Between 2016 and 2020, he was the chairman of the editorial board of the Credit Institution Review, the editor-in-chief of the paper from July, and a member of the editorial board of the Economic Review since 2019. He is the author of numerous articles and studies on central banks, economic policy and competitiveness, as well as the co-editor of the 2016 book Competitiveness and Growth.

Since November 2020, he has been the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Central and Eastern European Country Group and a member of the International Monetary Fund’s Board of Directors. 

József Váradi is one of the most successful Hungarian entrepreneurs. In 2003, he and his colleagues set up Wizz Air in a few months, which has now become the largest discount airline in Eastern and Central Europe.

József Váradi graduated from Corvinus’ legal predecessor, the Budapest University of Economics, and then graduated from the University of London with a master’s degree in international business law, but also a degree from INSEAD.

He is a board member of Wizz Air Holdings (UK) and JetSMART (Chile) and chairman of Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air UK and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. Prior to founding Wizz Air Holdings, he worked as CEO of Malév and before that as Sales Director for Protecter & Gamble Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2017, Ernst & Young was named Businessman of the Year, and in 2018, he was named Best CEO in Central and Eastern Europe. Also in 2018, he represented Hungary at the European Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Monte Carlo.
“I believe that successful business decisions depend primarily on how well we are able to model what’s happening from the tiny signs of the future and act quickly ahead of everyone. I consider it my mission to teach the professionals of the future this skill in addition to the essential theoretical knowledge. In my new assignment, as a former Corvinus student, I will work to achieve this and provide all assistance to the University in achieving its strategic objectives. The future of a country depends on whether it can educate professionals who are able to succeed. I have also taken this position to take part in preparing for a successful future.”

Board of Trustees membership 2019-2021

Board of Trustees membership 2019-2020