Expat CEO of the Year Award

Work has already been underway for some time on what will be the seventh annual BBJ Expat CEO of the Year Gala, due to be held on Friday,

January 29, 2021.

More details will be announced throughout the remainder of this year. Should coronavirus make an unwelcome return, we have “Plan B” and even “Plan C” scenarios to fall back on, but we very much hope they will not be necessary. In the meantime, watch this space for further details as they become available.

The BBJ Expat CEO of the Year Gala is one of the most prestigious annual events in Hungary. On that evening the Expat CEO of the Year Award is presented to a company head chosen from among a pool of what amounts to several hundred expat leaders.

In receiving the award, the chosen CEO is recognized as the most successful foreign leader in the past year. Success here means that they contribute at an exceptional level to the economic development of Hungary, and that within their Hungarian organization they show a great example to their employees and also their peers within the expat community.

The award is now a tradition; it has been granted every year since 2015. The idea to create an award that would be given as exclusive recognition for their efforts to the most outstanding CEO of the year, came from the Budapest Business Journal.

“The BBJ is Hungary’s only English-language economic bi-weekly, and has always played an important role in providing information for expat CEOs working and living in Hungary. That is why we decided to found an award to recognize their efforts annually,” explains Balázs Román, the CEO of the Budapest Business Journal.

The BBJ Expat CEO of the Year Award

The BBJ Expat CEO of the Year Gala is an invitation only event for the most important players in the Hungarian economy. The award is given to the foreign business leader who is determined to have made the most outstanding achievements in the previous year.

In January 2020, BlackRock’s Melanie Seymour was recognized as the Expat CEO of the Year. Taira-Julia Lammi, CEO of ABB Hungary Kft., won the award in 2019, while in 2018 the title went to Marc de Bastos Eckstein, CEO of thyssenkrupp Components Technology Hungary Kft. In 2017, it was Jörg Bauer, then of GE Hungary, in 2016 it was Jost Ernst Lammers, of Budapest Airport Zrt., and the inaugural award was presented in to Javier González Pareja, of Bosch Magyarország.

Each year, our official event partner, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, presents its own Partnership Award in recognition of the work of foreign-owned multinational firms for the use of local suppliers in their value chain and of their CEOs for the ambassadorial role they play in representing Hungary to their home boards. Over the years the award it has been presented to: Dale A. Martin, president-CEO of Siemens Zrt. (2020); Kannan Prabhakar, projects chief of Apollo Tyres Hungary Kft. (2019); Frank Müller, head of the Regional Office of VW Group Eastern Europe (2018); Ekkehard Günter Philipp, CFO of Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary Kft. (2017); Naoyuki Takeuchi, CEO of Magyar Suzuki Zrt. (2016); and Kersten Bachmann, CEO of TAKATA Safety Systems Hungary Kft. (2015).