Expat CEO of the Year Award

The BBJ Expat CEO of the Year Gala is one of Hungary’s most prestigious annual events. On that evening, the Expat CEO of the Year Award is presented to a company head chosen from a pool of what amounts to several hundred expat leaders and recognized as the most successful foreign leader in the past year. Success here means that they contribute at an exceptional level to Hungary’s economic development and set a great example to their employees and also to their peers within the expat community.

The award is now a tradition; it has been granted annually since 2015. The idea to create a prize offering exclusive recognition of the efforts of the most outstanding foreign 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.

History of the Award

The 2022 title went to Giacomo Pedranzini, CEO of Kometa 99 Zrt. After a COVID-induced delay to the gala of 18 months, Erik Slooten of Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary was selected as the 2021 winner. His immediate predecessor, albeit one named in January 2020, was BlackRock’s Melanie Seymour. Taira-Julia Lammi, CEO of ABB Hungary Kft., won the award in 2019, while in 2018, it went to Marc de Bastos Eckstein of Thyssenkrupp Components Technology Hungary Kft. In 2017, it was Jörg Bauer, then of GE Hungary; he followed Jost Ernst Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport Zrt. in 2016. The inaugural award was presented in 2015 to Javier González Pareja of Bosch Magyarország. Each year until 2020, the official event partner, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, presented its Partnership Award in recognition of the work of foreign-owned multinational firms in promoting the use of local SME suppliers in their value chain and of the ambassadorial role their CEOs play in representing Hungary to their home boards. Over the years, the award has been presented to the following:

Nevijo Mance, director of engineering, Jaguar Land Rover Hungary (2021); 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).