Prior to that he was the CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board at Central Wechsel- and Credit Bank AG, Austria, between December 1997 and December 2000.

There he had full responsibility for the liquidation of a commercial bank owned by the National Bank of Hungary. In line with the owner’s strategic goal, he successfully dismantled an organization with internationally dispersed, low-quality assets of over € 500 million and 130 multi-cultural employees in an EU country against a highly sensitive political background in Hungary. To his credit he met all recovery expectations.

Dr. László Láng is well versed in English, German, Russian and Italian and is very well travelled. As such he feels at home in multicultural environments, also due to seven years of working abroad. Such experience includes establishing and managing a back office service centre for a Libyan-Hungarian joint venture company in Benghazi, between September 1982 and December 1983.

Dr. Láng conducted extensive research for the Institute for World Economy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, between August 1978 and May 1987. During that period he conducted research on development issues, economic policies in the Third World and East-South cooperation. He also planned and managed the activities of the respective department of the institute, published and lectured widely at home and abroad, and built up an effective network of international academic cooperation.

1. Where in Hungary did you grow up and attend school / higher education?
Győr. Attended the famous Révai Gimnázium there, and then came to Budapest, to the Közgáz.

2. What Hungarian traditions bring back fond memories of your childhood?
Looking for Easter eggs in the garden of my grandparents.

3. What would you miss most if you moved away from Hungary?
The Saturday morning farmers’ markets in Szentendre.

4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?
Some galleries, a few good restaurants, a “romkocsma” for the late evening and some parts of Pest that are mostly unfrequented by tourists.

5. What is your favourite Hungarian food?
Tojásos galuska fejes salátával – gnocchi with eggs and lettuce.

6. What is never missing from your kitchen?
High-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

7. What is your favourite place in Hungary?
The small, closed garden of our house in Szentendre.

8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?
Do history as a historian.

9. What’s a job you would definitely never want?
A career at a big global company I would probably dislike.

10. Where did you spend your last vacation?
Toscana/Umbria.

11. Where do you hope to spend your next one?
Toscana/Umbria.

12. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?
The film was Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (1970), the hobby was history and archaeology and the band I do not remember.

13. What can’t you resist?
The temptation. (If it is massively tempting.)

14. Red wine or white?
A red vine person converted to light white vines.

15. Which achievement in your life are you most pleased about?
Turning IBS into a sustainable business and saving billions for the Hungarian taxpayers by closing down CW-Bank, Vienna (an affiliate of Hungary’s central bank) professionally.

16. Book or movie?
Books always, movies for going out.

17. Morning person or night person?
Definitely morning! After 10,00 p.m. it is time to go to bed.

18. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?
Discrimination driven by prejudice and stupidity.

19. Buda or Pest side?
Pest in the early morning hours, Buda in the late afternoons. In between and beyond, none of them.

20. What would you say is your personal motto?
“Nothing will work unless you do.” from Maya Angelou, an African American poet and author.