CEEcosystem Summit Speakers

Join us on November 10th, 2023!

In the heart of Budapest as we illuminate the rising domestic and regional innovation ecosystem. Our startup conference will bring together visionaries, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to kickstart and to explore the dynamic landscape of innovation in Central Europe.

Our distinguished guests from the UK, Israel, and other incumbent ecosystems will present their insights.”

Discover cutting-edge technologies, network with innovators, and gain insights that can transform your business at this unmissable event.

Meet some of the speakers:

Zoltan Acs

Zoltan started his career in economic journalism, before founding his own media start-up in 2011, which completed a successful financing round under his management. As Head of Innovation at Design Terminal, he had worked with over 200 startups for eight years. After, as a consultant, he worked in various sectors (FMCG, financial sector, manufacturing industry and defense industry) focusing on innovation management. In 2020-2021, he served as the Director of Innovation at MKB Fintechlab (MKB Incubator Ltd.). From 2022, he became the CEO of MKB Fintechlab (later MBH Fintechlab) and the Head of Innovation at MBH Bank. Since 2014, he has been a part-time lecturer at several universities (Moholy-Nagy University of Art, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest Business School). He is an active angel investor and also the President of the Hungarian Fintech Association.

Csongor Biás

Csongor has been an active community person over the past +10 years. Currently, he is the Managing Director of Startup Hungary, an NGO that brings together some of the most established post-exit & scale-up founders who give back through the platform to supercharge the ecosystem. In addition, Csongor is also an angel investor who backed some of the hottest early-stage startups, such as Axoflow and Mitzu.

Peter Csillag

Peter Csillag is the founder of Starschema, a data analytics and data technology company. After dedicating several years building his startup, with prominent clients such as Netflix, Facebook, and Apple, Starschema was acquired by HCL Technologies in early 2022. Since the successful exit, Peter has been channeling his efforts into nurturing the angel investing ecosystem in Hungary as the President of HunBAN (the Hungarian Business Angel Network). This involves investing, mentoring, and fostering the growth of technology companies.

Peter Faykiss

Peter is the Director of Digitalization Directorate at the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the central bank of Hungary), where he is responsible for FinTech, digital finance and digital currencies topics. Before entering the digital finance area, he gained experience in financial stability and macroprudential policy. As the Head of Division for Banking Regulations of Ministry for National Economy he was responsible for the domestic implementation of the European Basel III regulatory package CRD IV in 2013. In 2014 he was appointed as the Head of Macroprudential Policy Department of the MNB, from 2017 he served as the Director of Macroprudential Directorate. Mr. Faykiss graduated in 2009 from Corvinus University of Budapest and he holds a PhD in Finance from Corvinus University of Budapest.

Imre Hild

Imre founded his first startup in 2004 with an American investor, the Hild Életjáradék, although at that time he didn’t know it was called a startup. Later, several institutional investors joined in, with a total investment of $85 million. This was followed by the OTP Életjáradék, which, together with the Hild Életjáradék, reached a value of $180 million by the time of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2009, he partnered with Péter B. Záboji, considered the father of the domestic startup ecosystem, and created the first entrepreneurial course at CEU. He founded 2 accelerators, developed educational and training programs at multiple Hungarian universities and in several cities in the Carpathian Basin, as well as in Turkey, Singapore, and the USA.

In 2015, he established the Global Traction – Grow Fast consulting company, which has helped numerous startups enter foreign markets and scale. He was also named Mentor of the Year in 2022. In September 2023, in collaboration with the Széchenyi Tőkealap, he founded the first Hungarian university venture capital company, Óbuda Uni Venture Capital, which operates in a venture studio model and can actively shape and develop the domestic ecosystem.

Tunya Irkad

Tunya is an Investment Associate at 500 Emerging Europe. 500 Emerging Europe is a €70m VC fund investing in early-stage startups across CEE &Turkey, operating under 500 Global, based in Silicon Valley.

Laszlo Koranyi

László Korányi is a senior advisor at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary and a lecturer at Óbuda University. Between 2012 and 2015, he served as the Vice President and Acting President of the Hungarian Innovation Office. Additionally, László worked as the Science and Technology Counselor at the Hungarian Embassy in Tel Aviv from 2007 to 2012. He is also the founder of several software companies and has held the role of CEE director at an Israeli software multinational. Notably, his professional journey began in the field of Medical Device Research and Development, where he worked as an engineer. He holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Budapest University of Technology and a Master’s degree in Economics from Karl Marx (Corvinus) University of Economics in Budapest. Furthermore, he has completed leadership training at the Ashridge Management College in the UK.

Miklós Kovács

Miklós Kovács is CFO / COO at a B2B SaaS marketing technology scale-up called Antavo – raised 15m€ in Seed / Series A financing. Previously, Miklos was a partner at US-based ventures capital firm iEurope and gained 10+ years of experience in investing in technology companies in the CEE region.

Bence Langar

Bence began his university studies as a French Republic scholarship holder at the Université de Rouen, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in the field of economics. As part of the scholarship, he also spent a year at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul. He continued his studies in Montreal, Canada, and then obtained an MSc degree in finance from the University of Luxembourg in Luxembourg to complete the picture. Currently, he is a doctoral student at the University of Miskolc, specializing in finance and accounting. Before embarking on his journey as an angel investor seeking the best startup companies, he worked as a consultant for a while at KPMG in Hungary, Grant Thornton, and Raiffeisen Bank.

Laviniu Chis

Laviniu is a Romania-based business accelerator program manager with a passion for program design. He has successfully designed and executed nine programs in tech, health, and general sectors, impacting over 1,000 entrepreneurs. A skilled practitioner and facilitator, Laviniu specializes in Lean Startup and Stanford Biodesign methodologies. He’s the brains behind the LevelUP Accelerator and the forthcoming LaunchPad platform. His focus on operational efficiency and streamlined processes positions him as a leading consultant in the startup arena.

Jeff Lynn

Jeff Lynn is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Seedrs, the leading pan-European equity crowdfunding platform. Seedrs lets investors invest as much or as little as they like in startups they choose, and it lets startups raise capital from friends, family, angels, institutions and the crowds, all through a simple, online process.In addition to running Seedrs, Jeff serves as founding Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), a non-profit advocacy group for digital startups and SMEs.

Krisztina Mate

Krisztina dr. Máté graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts with a degree in program hosting and directing, and she also obtained a doctorate in order to teach at the university. During this time, she completed her studies in aesthetics and Hungarian language at the Faculty of Arts of the Janus Pannonius University. She began her television career at Siófok, Pécs, and Kaposvár TV stations and later joined the public affairs team at the Hungarian Television. From the launch of TV2 in 1997, she worked at the channel as a program host, editor, and editor-in-chief, hosting multiple shows until 2009. Afterward, she transitioned to the other side of the camera and started working as a producer at RTL Klub. One of the most well-known shows for which she is responsible is Shark Tank. In addition to her university teaching and TV activities, she co-operates an online shop called Liluland, and she also holds a stake in several other companies.

Tamas Müller

Tamás is a startup geek, mentor, business analyst, and angel investor. He haa come from digital-, social and growth hacking marketing fields working with the largest digital agencies and publishing houses in the past.
He is the founder of Women Startup Competition Global event series with 9 seasons.
He was a professional advisor and mentor of Start it @K&H, EIT, GE, Intesa Sanpaolo – Novathon, Startit@ K&H, Nestle – HackYourCompany, SPAR network – Hungaricool
He was organizer of Hackathon-in-the-box event series with more than 50 hackathons.
Now he’s co-Founder of Pozi.io the free, open innovation platform for the startup ecosystem.

Peter Oszko

Peter Oszkó is a former Big4 Managing Partner and technocrat Finance Minister of Hungary, currently managing listed European tech investor group, based in Rotterdam and Budapest.
Peter joined Deloitte as partner in 2004, nominated as country Managing Partner in 2007, at the same time also took the leadership of Deloitte advisory business units in the former Yugoslav countries. In the same year he was nominated and selected for the title of Young Manager of the Year in Hungary.

Partly as a result of various public activities, he was invited into the technocrat government of Hungary for a one-year crisis management job in 2009.

As a Finance Minister he was involved in a fiscal adjustment of about 4% of the GDP in one year, including pension reform, the financing of local municipalities and the restructuring of the tax system as well. He managed to bring back Hungary to market based financing and not to use the inherited IMF/EU financed loan facility. He also represented the government on specific projects and acquisitions in the energy sector.
From the second half of 2010 he started new professional activity in the emerging Hungarian venture capital industry. He took the leadership of the VC subsidiary of OTP group. In two years, he involved other LPs besides OTP, launched two new VC funds and increased the size of managed assets to EUR 100 million, while he also managed to exit from the first investments at spectacular valuations.

Peter left OTP group in 2014 to launch his independent regional VC firm with various LPs from the tech and financial sector under its own brand, OXO. He formed OXO Technologies Holding as a tech investor group active in the early and growth stage while executing buyout deals as well. OXO goup also includes a property investment and an advisory business line and is also active in the creative and cultural industries as well as tourism and leisure besides tech investments as its primary focus. In the core tech segment, the group currently manages an asset value of EUR 150 million and is listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. Together with his team, he is currently working on the international expansion of the group, including the transition to a euro-based operation in early 2023 and the relocation of the holding company’s headquarters to the Netherlands.

Baiba Rozenberga

Baiba has 20 years of experience in advisory and venture building, both in the private and public sectors. In the last 5 years, she has mainly worked on Web3, FinTech, and Green Mobility projects. She has served as a Jury member of the KINGS (Latvia) Startup competition for 2 cycles, with a special focus on AI, Blockchain, and SaaS projects. Baiba is a Lecturer at Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, where she teaches Principles of Accounting and has developed a course titled „Digital Tools for Business Management.” Since 2023, she has been the IP Commercialization expert for hydraulic hydrogen compression technology at Ventspils University Development Fund.

In October 2023, Baiba joined the MBH FintechLab Team as Head of Startups.

Jared Schrieber

Jared is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, board director and soon to be author. Jared was the founding CEO of Numerator, a Silicon Valley startup which earned a unicorn exit in 2021. He now calls Budapest home and has rapidly become Hungary’s most active angel investor. Jared’s storied past includes a few hacks at MIT, co-founding the Pat Tillman Foundation, throwing the javelin & playing Australian Rules Football. Most recently, Jared established the Revolution Robotics Foundation to bring the inspirational joy of educational & competitive robotics to all kids globally.

Peter Schuszter

Péter Schuszter has more than 30 years of experience in the Hungarian capital market. He was the head of several Hungarian fund management and brokerage companies. He spent 25 years with the Generali group and led Generali Fund Management for almost 20 years from its foundation. He was the CEO of Axiom Alapkezelő and then the deputy CEO of SPB Befektetési Zrt. Meanwhile, he was a board member of the Budapest Stock Exchange, a board member of Association of Fund Management Companies, and the chairman of the investment department of Association of Insurance Companies. He is an economist, tax consultant, and has a qualified accountant. He speaks English and German. He graduated as an executive coach at the KPMG Academy. He is currently the CEO of Univerz Invest Zrt. Univerz Invest is the first real Investor Relation Management consultant in Hungary.

As an appointed consultant of the Budapest Stock Exchange, he deals with stock market listings. He participated in the IPO of several listed companies. The Company also deals with financial consulting, transaction consulting, and company evaluation.

Szabolcs Szakacsits

Szabolcs is the Founder, President and CTO of TUXERA, one of the top data management multinational companies in the world. He is also an active angel investor, member of HunBAN, founding member of Startup Hungary and Vice President of the Super League Champion chess team in Hungary.

Gergely Szucs

Gergely dr. Szűcs is a member of the board of directors at Cashline Investments, as well as a private equity investor and an expert in sustainable investments. He obtained his degree in financial investment analysis and risk management from the Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration in 2003. Since then, he has been involved in sustainable and venture capital investments, as well as strategic and financial management of companies. In 2015, he earned a doctoral degree from Budapest Corvinus University, with his main research areas focusing on environmental innovations and patents. He has served as an executive and management member in numerous Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises.

Richard Vegh

Richárd has been active in the capital markets sector for almost 20 years. In 2004, he started his professional career at the Budapest Stock Exchange, holding various, predominantly senior roles. From the end of 2013, he was the director of the Hungarian National Bank’s Directorate of Capital Markets and Market Supervision for 2 years, with responsibility for the supervision of domestic capital market institutions, market surveillance investigations, and capital market issuer licensing. He is member of the BSE Board of Directors since December 2015. Richárd re-joined the Budapest Stock Exchange in 2016 as Chief Executive Officer. Between 2017 and 2019 he was Chairman & CEO of the Exchange. Under his leadership, the Exchange developed a new service value chain supporting medium-sized Hungarian companies, making his contribution to advancing the role of the BSE in the domestic capital market ecosystem an important one.

Barbara Vero

Barbara is an experienced human capital expert as the CEO of Future Proof Consulting. Together with her co-founder, Patrícia Tarczali they are focusing on increasing company value by assessing and developing leaders and teams. She is an angel investor (part of the HUNBAN family), a lecturer (a proud member of the Metropolitan University team). She is a passionate ecosystem builder always focusing on the most important asset of the company – the human capital.