On December 5, at the XXXIV. Annual General Assembly of AmCham, the Chamber’s Board unanimously decided to present this year’s Dr. Iván Völgyes Award to Róbert Ésik, former President and CEO of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA). The Dr. Iván Völgyes award recognizes individuals who contribute significantly to the development of Hungarian-American relationships and business relations.
"I help, aggregate, articulate and comprehend mutual interests. The art is to be able to make sure that both sides' interests are clearly met." Dr. Iván Völgyes
The award is handed out since 2005, in memoriam of Dr. Iván Völgyes, who is considered by many as the father of modern lobbying in Hungary. Born in Hungary, he moved to the United States in 1956. Later, he became instrumental in bringing numerous U.S. based businesses to Hungary including the Gallup Organization and Reader's Digest. As the chief advisor to General Electric in Hungary, Mr. Völgyes also assisted in bringing six of GE's 10 global core businesses, along with more than $1 billion in investment. Dr. Iván Völgyes lost his life in an airplane crash in June 2001.
In his acceptance speech Mr. Ésik reinforced “this prestigious award is the first ever recognition of my work in the field of economic development and it is very special to me”.
Mr. Ésik also shared his perspective on working with AmCham and the American business community. “My goal during the eight years with HIPA was to create value to our clients, the investors in Hungary and to contribute to the economic development of the country, while promoting Hungary as an ideal investment location. I am also proud of the strong partnership HIPA and AmCham have developed throughout the years. We have been strategic partners since 2014, we collaborated on countless events and initiatives, including 7 Business Meets Government Summits, numerous FDI projects and policy proposals that have contributed to the strengthening of the Hungarian-American business relations.”
Prior to his time at HIPA, Mr. Ésik spent more than 15 years in various management positions at large global ICT companies including Alcatel, Siemens, Nokia, and Amazon Web Services. Róbert has been working tirelessly on developing Hungary’s competitiveness and bringing investments to Hungary from several countries all around the world, breaking new records year-on-year. During this period, together with his team, he managed about 1,900 investment projects in the amount of EUR 31.3 billion, resulting in more than 120 000 new workplaces. Under the leadership of Mr. Ésik, HIPA received various international recognitions, and significant developments were carried out with the participation of the agency in key economic sectors including the automotive industry, electronics industry, food industry, life sciences, business services, and the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
After serving for 8 years as President and CEO of HIPA, Róbert now pursues his career as a Partner of EY’s Global Location Services & Incentives, responsible for the EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) region.
Previous recipients of the Iván Völgyes Award:
- 2005 - Péter Hegedűs
- 2006 - Lajos Sápi
- 2007 - Ambassador András Simonyi
- 2008 - Thomas Ramsey, Consul General
- 2009 - László Czirják
- 2010 - István Gyarmati
- 2011 - Marcel Szabó
- 2012 - Charles Huebner
- 2013 - Robert Peaslee
- 2014 - Gábor Garai
- 2015 - László Metzing (posthumuos)
- 2016 - Ambassadors Colleen Bell and Réka Szemerkényi
- 2017 - Joerg Bauer
- 2018 - László Ábrahám and Gábor Orosz
- 2019 - Péter Fáth
- 2021 - Péter Komáromi
- 2022 - Róbert Ésik