Xpat Interview Two: Peter Zwack: RIP

  • 6 Jul 2012 12:00 PM
Xpat Interview Two: Peter Zwack: RIP
What’s been happening at work and at home since your first Xpat interview? I have triumphantly survived yet another important birthday. The company has also triumphantly survived the crisis and we have just come out with a new product, Unicum Szilva.

On the home front, my oldest son Peter, who is a general in the U.S. Army, has just been appointed Military Attache’ in Moscow.

2. On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you with your life in Hungary, and why?
I would have to say 10 as Hungary is my home: my business is here, my son Sandor and daughter Izabella are both here working with me in the company and here, too, are all my old haunts

3. What’s the best party you’ve been to while in Hungary, and why?
My wife’s 60th birthday on the Danube, perhaps because our friends came from all over the world and most of them were under forty

4. What’s your favourite drink ?
Sorry, but that is a silly question!

5. What hidden talents do you have?
I think that takes us back to triumphantly surviving.

6. What was the most interesting travel trip you have ever taken?
We went to India with the family last New Year’s Eve and it was an unforgettable experience

7. If you were given a wish that could come true, what would you ask for?
Another eighty five years

8. What’s the last book you read and movie you watched?
“To Save a People” about Raoul Wallenberg who was a friend of my father’s and “The Iron Lady” which reminded me a little of my wife and me.

9. If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?
“Es kommt immer etwas anders” as my father used to say: Something else always happens.

10. What is the perfect pizza toppings combination for you?
I don’t remember ever eating a pizza.

11. If you could trade places with any other person for a week, real or fictional, with whom would it be?
Attila the Hun

12. On a scale of 1 to 10 how unusual are you, and why?
My wife would say 10. She married me because she says I am an Unicum.

13. What’s the best website you’ve ever visited and why?
I don’t visit websites, but my daughter Izabella showed me a beautiful one she is doing for her home-made ice cream, Bolgheri Ti Amo, at our gelateria in Tuscany.

14. Whom do you admire the most and why?
J.F.Kennedy. He had vision, charisma and he inspired a whole generation.

15. What do you like best and least about living in Hungary?
I like the feeling of belonging in a very special country and I hate the envy and xenophobia that are present in some layers of society.

16. What has made the biggest impact on your life so far, and why?
The collapse of communism because I not only was able to get back my company but my country as well

17. If you won USD 30 million, what would you do with the money?
I’d start a philanthropic foundation

18. If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”

19. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
Right where I am now.

20. In ten years from now what will you be doing?
My great grandfather Jozsef Zwack was still at his desk at that age. That’s where I would like to be too.

Related article:

RIP: Péter Zwack, Hungarian Businessman & Budapest Ambassador

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