ESIS extension / Key Person Contacts and Organisations / Hungary / Update Memo 5

With the effect from 1 March, György Rácz was appointed the director of Lotus Hungarian Agency. During the previous two years, György Rácz has been the leader of Lotus Professional Services, and he keeps this position even after his appointment. The first man at Lotus Hungary had worked for AT&T and the Hungarian Post earlier.

During the week after the liberalisation of domain registration, Balázs Martos, the chairman of the Council of Hungarian Internet Providers resigned from his post as he alone was not capable in voluntary work of fulfilling the surplus tasks that emerged as a consequence of liberalisation. ISZT (Council of Hungarian Internet Providers) will soon set up an administrative office with a permanent staff to fulfil domain registration duties. Councils deciding on disputes over domain registration will be set up in two weeks: a consulting council and an ad hoc selected court. (Source: Index, www.index.hu/cikkek/0003/domain2/)

Under the articles, the vice-chairman will automatically take over the duties of the chairman, so János Zsakó, technical director of Banknet, will fulfil the tasks the post involves until the convocation of the general meeting.

Two new positions were introduced at Microsoft Hungary to satisfy the increasing demand for the company’s Internet business solutions. Gábor Varga business unit director will be responsible for the network service providers, while Balázs Tordai became the business development manager of e-commerce solutions.

Experienced Microsoft workers occupy key positions: Balázs Tordai had been the mercantile agent of the financial business unit, while Gábor Varga managed the corporate solutions business unit. The appointments indicate that Microsoft Hungary intends to participate actively in the shaping of the new economy, and in addition, by perceiving the demands of its partners and customers it considers its important mission to distribute Internet solutions of real business value.

The post of the formerly resigned chairman of ISZT was deleted and placed under the management of a five-member directorate. Members of the new directorate are Balázs Martos former chairman, Péter Gervai, Csaba Nagy, Árpád Palotás and András Tüdos. (Source: Index, www.index.hu)

Because of the multiplied registration tasks after the domain liberalisation, ISZT decided on the setting up of the directorate to improve the operating conditions of the legal consulting council, the elected court and the registration process.

Gábor Teleki, former chief information officer of Tiszaker, has become one of the executives of Haitec Hungary Ltd., a company distributing IBM platform level solutions. Teleki replaced Attila Szomolányi, who had been on the post for one year since the establishment of the public limited company. Gábor Csurgai remained the other executive director at Haitec.

The appointment of Mátyás Vince, chief executive of MatávNet Ltd., fell due on 31st March 2000; his duties were temporarily taken over by György Simó, executive officer of MatávNet, from 1 April.

At the weekend in Brussels, Sándor Hegedus, strategic and multimedia executive officer of Antenna Hungária, was elected member of the so-called seven-member Council, the main narrow decision making body of ETIS (European Telecommunications Informatics Services).

ETIS, the European Telecommunications Informatics Services, founded by 24 leading European telecommunications companies in the 1990s, is a non-profit organisation with a declared aim to promote information, idea and experience sharing and co-operation in the field of information technology as one of the most important fields of the telecommunications market. The members of ETIS are mainly telecommunications companies providing wired or mobile telephone services. (Proxy holders: e.g.: Deutsche Telekom, KPN Telecom, Telenor, Telia, Telefonica Espana, Telekom Austria, Telecom Italia, SPT Telecom, etc., also participate in the workgroups: e.g.: British Telecom, At&T, Cable&Wireless, Marconi.)

9. Hungarian chief executive at the head of Panasonic Hungary Ltd. - 19/04/2000

With the effect from 1 April, István Stark was elected the chief executive of Panasonic Hungary. István Stark replaces Toshibumi Tanimoto, who is the leader of Panasonic’s Polish subsidiary from April on.

Dr. László Vinkovits, executive director of debis IT Services Unisoftware Ltd. was appointed the executive director of debis IT Services Hungary Ltd.

Holding executive Vinkovits, elected the top IT manager in 1999, is from now on the first man of the system integrating enterprise, which has more than 5 billion forints turnover annually. The holding includes debis IT Services Unisoftware and debis IT Services Dataware.

Péter Füzes, executive director of Lucent Technologies Ltd. and regional director in one person of the Polish, Czech and Slovakian Lucent Technologies got a new assignment. Lucent spin-off New Enterprise Network Group appointed him head of the region including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Yugoslavia beyond countries mentioned above.

Through his person, the national and regional role of the Hungarian subsidiaries of the parted Lucent Technologies will be further reinforced. The fact that Lucent will operate in two divisions in the near future means that the New Enterprise Network Group will operate focusing on corporate and institutional centres representing the e-business line, while Lucent Technologies Hungary will function individually in the future focusing on services.

In the annual general meeting of Matáv on 27th April, Sándor Csényi, president and managing director of the National Savings Bank (OTP Bank), was elected a new member of the shareholders and the shareholding company’s directorate.

According to the conviction of the owners of Matáv, this act will further strengthen the traditionally good co-operation of the two market-leading corporate enterprises.

Stephen Y. Benford, executive director of Scala Hungary was elected the chairman of the East Central European Unit within Scala Business Solutions. http://www.scala.se/

With the effect from 1 May 2000, Minolta’s former economic director Zoltán Papp occupies the post of the executive director of the 10-year old office technology firm.

From 1 May, the telecommunications firm Matávcom’s marketing manager is Péter Klopfer, whose two main duties are to support Matávcom’s PR and sales activities.

With the retirement of Bálint Koródi, chairman Pál Vadász will take over the position of the managing director of Montana from 15 May 2000, while Tibor Kondákor, former director of the company’s information protection division will carry on his activity as a general deputy manager.

The new director of Montana’s information protection division is Tamás Kovács. Gábor Bundschuh, former system integrating director of the public limited company, will continue as a technical deputy head manager, while the system-integrating director is Levente Pércsi from now on.

On 16 May, the general assembly of the National Association of Strategic and Public Utility Companies (STRATOS) elected Géza László, chairman and managing director of Antenna Hungária, the next chairman of the organisation representing economic and employer interest.

László replaces withdrawing former chairman János Berényi, managing director of GYSEV, in this post. Berényi will occupy one of the co-chairman functions in the future, while Gábor Bencze, director of the Hungarian Privatisation and State Holding Company (ÁPV Rt.) became the other co-chairman. Vice chairmen of STRATOS are: Gyula Takácsy, chairman of the Hungarian Railways and Shareholding Company (MÁV Rt.) and Pál Zarándi, managing director of Eroterv Rt.

"Harnessing our member firms’ market weight and good government relationship, we would like to even more strikingly articulate employer and public service interests in the future both in Hungary and the European Union," the new chairman said subsequent to his appointment.

Vasváriné Éva Menyhárt was commissioned director of the Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Branch of Matáv Hungarian Telecommunications Company Ltd. (Matáv Rt.), while Ottó Gecser, chief marketing officer of the company also fulfils duties of the chief Internet officer these days. The new post indicates the revaluation of the Internet activity within Matáv.

Tamás Fellegi, chief government relations officer of Matáv, quit his position, but he will keep on supporting the work of the government relations branch in the future on behalf of Matáv. Vasváriné Éva Menyhárt will lead the Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Branch from 15 May as a commissioned director.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán relieved Kálmán Katona, Minister of Telecommunication with effect from May 31. According to the Prime Minister’s decision, informatics and the connected fields were overtaken by the Prime Minister’s Office – on a government comissioner level – under the control of Chancellery Minister, Mr. István Stumpf.

The Ministry of Transport, Telecommunication and Water is transformed into Ministry of Transport and Water the leader of which is Mr. László Nógrádi, representative of Fidesz (one of the Hungarian .

Telecommunication is attached, together with the budgetary support allocated for this field, to the competence and province of the Government Commissioner operating within the Prime Minister’s Office and under the control of Chancellery Minister István Stumpf.

Vasváriné Éva Menyhért was appointed Acting Director managing the governmental contacts and regulatory matters of MATÁV. Mr. Ottó Gecser, Marketing Deputy Director General of the company, is recently responsible for the Internet Deputy Director General’s tasks, as well. The new post indicates the appreciation of Internet activity within MATÁV.

22. Mr. Zoltán Sík is Government Commisioner for Informatics at the Prime Minister’s Office - 22/05/2000

The Prime Minister and the Chancellery Minister have decided on the person of Government Commissioner for Informatics. Mr. Zoltán Sík – who was, previous to his new appointment, the Informatic Manager of the Inspectorship of Telecommunication and earlier the Manager of Integra Rt. which is known for its software deveopment and is a partner of Synergon – took his new office on June 1.

There were several requirements set concerning the new officer, like wide technical background, knowledge of public administration, familiarity with the actual issues of the technical field – for example with the coming act regulating the problems of electronic signature – and excellent communicational ability. It was exactly the issues of electronic signature which was Zoltán Sík’s main field at the Inspectorship of Telecommunication.

The management of Matáv decided to prolong Mr. Elek Straub’s charge as Director General until June 30. 2005. According to the company’s communiqué, Mr. Elek Straub at the same time was reelected president of the management, therefore he will continue his work as President Director General of the company group.

The team of Scala ECE Hungary, leading distributor of company management and electronic management systems, has grown with a new Project Manager: Mr. Zsolt Lackó has been employed at the company since April.

On July 15 2000., Mr. Péter Szalay will become Director of Motorla Ltd., Mr. Tom Szoke, who has been the Director so far, will operate as Business Development Manager responsible for the Motorola Global Software (GSD) region.

Mr. Tom Szoke will continue controlling the domestic Tetra project and supports the initiations aiming at the establishment of the Hungarian software centre of Motorola. Until July 15, Mr. Péter Szalay is one of the Managing Directors at Westel Mobil Co.

26. Gábor Mondvai Is Manager of ENG’s Hungarian Organization - 19/06/2000

Mr. Gábor Mondvai, possessing rich experiences in network software development and in business management of information technology, was appointed Managing Director of the Hungarian organization of Enterprise Networks Groups (ENG) seperating from Lucent Technologies.

This information was introduced by Mr. Péter Füzes, Middle-Eastern European Regional Manager of Lucent Technologies Enterprise Networks Group on a press conference on Monday. Mr. Gábor Mondvai will be responsible for the full management of the eBusiness oriented new company.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.