• Károly Kocsis

    Member of the Board of Trustees

    Geographer, research professor, university professor, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). Focus of his activities in scientific (ethnic geographic, cartographic) research and policy are the Hungarians in the Carpathian basin and the Hungarian diaspora. Since 2010, director of the CSFK Geographical Institute (earlier of the HAS Geographical Institute), since 2012 professor of the MFK Institute of Geophysics and Geoinformatics of the University of Miskolc, director of same since 2007. Chair of the MTA national policy apparatus, the Hungarian Science Abroad Presidential Committee since 2011. Chief editor of the Hungarian National Atlas, head of the editorial committee. Owner of the Officer's Cross of the Hungarian order of Merit (2014) and Széchenyi Prize (2023) . Honorary member of several domestic and foreign scientific associations.

  • István Fodor

    Member of the Board of Trustees

    He is an Széchenyi, Puskás Tivadar and Gábor Dénes Prize-winning electrical engineer. He established the Ericsson Company’s Hungarian subsidiary in 1991, and was CEO of the subsidiary until 2002, and then Chairman of the Board until 2008. Between 1998 and 2000, he was the Chairman of the Hungarian Section of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). Besides being one of the founders and former president of the Hungarian EU Enlargement Business Council (HEBC), between 2004-2007, he was a member of the European Research Advisory Board. He was a member of the four-member Council of Sages, constituted by the former President of Hungary, László Sólyom. He is a member of the Semmelweis University Economic Council and a member of the Eötvös Lóránd University Economic Council. From 2010 to October 2012 he served as a Chairman of the Board of Directors of Urban Management Centre of Budapest. Minister Counsellor from 2018-2022. Co-founder of the Széll Kálmán Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees 2005-2011. He was awarded the Manager of the Year Prize in 1998, and the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic Median Cross. He is an “honorary citizen” of Óbuda. István Fodor is a member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

  • János Martonyi

    Member of the Board of Trustees

    University professor, politician, attorney, international arbitrator, author of numerous books, essays and articles primarily in the field of international trade law, competition policy and law, European integration and law, cooperation in Central-Europe, global regulations, and international relations. Doctor of Law and Political Sciences (1967). He has been a teaching at the ELTE Faculty of Law since 1987, at the Central European University in 1996. From 1990 to 1991 he was Administrative State Secretary at the Ministry for International Economic Relations, while from December 1991 to June 1994 Administrative State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Brugge and Natolin between 1994 and 1998. Between 2000 and 2009 he was Head of Department at Szeged University of Sciences, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Department of Private International Law. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary between 1998-2002 and 2010-2014. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Szeged.

  • Jenő Megyesy

    Member of the Board of Trustees

    Eugene Megyesy is a former member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. He was born in Hungary, in 1956 the family emigrated first to Austria and from there to the United States, where he grew up. He obtained degrees in political science and law in the USA. He also studied at the University of Vienna. Mr. Megyesy worked for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and built up a successful legal practice, focusing on environmental law. He was the president and a shareholder at the law firm of Saunders, Snyder, Ross and Dickson P.C. and director at Dufford & Brown P.C.. From 1990 to 2010, he was Honorary Consul General of Hungary in Colorado. He was active in numerous non-profit and charitable organizations. He has been active in numerous non-profit and charitable organizations. He was the Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary for eight years. He is currently a consultant to an oil company in Colorado.

  • Mariann Vízkelety

    Member of the Board of Trustees

    Ms. Vízkelety started her career at the Pest Central District Court as a judge, then later worked as a lawyer. She also worked for the Prime Minister’s Cabinet office. Ms. Vízkelety headed the Secretariat of Economic and Social Policy of the Prime Minister’s Office, then became the Head of Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office. She was the Chief Advisor of the Office of the Hungarian National Assembly between 2004 and 2010. In 2010 she was appointed Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Development, a position she held until 2012, when she left for the Vice-Presidency of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Ms. Vízkelety was State Secretary responsible for judicial relations at the Ministry of Justice between 2015-2020. She is the president of Magyar Polgári Együttműködés Egyesület (Hungarian Civic Cooperation Association).

  • E. Sylvester Vizi

    Chair of the Board of Trustees

    E. Sylvester Vizi is chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. He is a medical doctor, neuroscientist, pharmacologist, university lecturer, professor emeritus, and a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). He was awarded the Széchenyi Grand Prize by the State of Hungary. He is an internationally recognised researcher in pharmacology and neuroscience and has been a lecturer at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, USA. From 1996 to 2002, Professor Vizi was the vice-president of the MTA and president from 2002 to 2008. He is currently Chairman of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge (TIT), Chairman of the Board of the Hungarian Corvin Chain, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation (Kék Bolygó Klímavédelmi Alapítvány) and Honorary President of the Hungarian Atlantic Council since 2020. He has authored and/or co-authored over 450 scientific articles and several books. Professor Vizi is well known for his significant scientific educational activities.