Daniel Korioth of Bosch Group, Erik Slooten of Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions Hungary and Prabal Datta of Tata Consultancy Services will contest the overall title, with the decision due to be made minutes before the annual Expat CEO of the Year Gala, to be held later this year.

The Budapest Business Journal, Hungary’s leading business biweekly, founded the award in 2015 with the aim of recognizing the efforts of expat CEOs in Hungary, both for their companies and the country. 

The title is given to the person living and working in Hungary who is assessed to have done the most for this country’s development and its international recognition through his or her professionalism and outstanding achievements last year.

The shortlisted trio were chosen by the award’s professional awards jury, which will also make the final decision. This year its members are Írisz Lippai-Nagy, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary; András Sávos, president of the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce; Róbert Ésik, CEO of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), the official award partner, and Balázs Román, CEO of the Budapest Business Journal.

The fifth seat on the jury is traditionally taken by the previous year’s award winner, which was Melanie Seymour, former head of BlackRock Budapest from 2017-2019, now Head of Global Client Services for the world’s largest asset manager.

The jury met on Friday, January 29, to whittle the long list of nominees down to the final three. In a sign of the COVID-influenced times we live in, Seymour, who still has a team reporting to her in Budapest, was unable to attend in person and joined the meeting via a video call. 

The date was also somewhat poignant. In its six-year history, the gala has always been held in late January, and the 29th had been the date it was scheduled to be held on in 2021.

Check out a special video about the jury meeting by clicking here.