Keynote Speakers

Dr. István Szászi
Representative of the Bosch Group in Hungary and the Adriatic region

Dr. István Szászi is the Representative of the Bosch Group in Hungary and the Adriatic region, head of the Middle and Eastern European Engineering Cluster and general manager of Robert Bosch Kft. He is responsible for more than 23,000 employees in the region, including thousands of engineers in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering and of the Board of Trustees of the Rudolf Kálmán Foundation for Óbuda University. He is an honorary associate professor at the Budapest University of Technology and a research professor at Széchenyi István University.

Dr. Leonárd Weinek
Managing Partner of FairCity Consulting Network

Dr. Leonárd Weinek is a former mayor, smart city & smart ecosystem developer. As a Validated EU/URBACT-Expert in participatory governance and urban digital transformation, he is active in public management and urban transition projects from digitalization to urban rehabilitation and social innovations. Became a seasoned professional in co-creation and cross-sectoral local collaborations that engage stakeholders from all walks of life and focus on a wide range of public services. Also, he is (co)author of several publications and op-eds in various fields of urban and community management and occasionally participates in relevant research.

Can Cities Think? Cognitive Mobility as a Driver of Climate-Resilient Futures
Dr. Mária Szalmáné Csete
Dean at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences

Dr. habil. Mária Szalmáné Csete is the Dean at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). She holds degrees in Engineering and Management, Spatial and Settlement Development (BME), and Regional and Urban Development (Sorbonne University), and earned her PhD in Business and Management from BME in 2009. She is Head of the Regional and Environmental Economics MA Programme and a core member of the Doctoral School of Business and Management. Her research focuses on sustainability management, environmental and regional economics, climate innovation, digitalization, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. She served on the Board of the Hungarian IPCC Committee and is a member of several committees of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She has received the Faculty Research Award of BME GTK twice and was awarded the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on two occasions. She has led and participated in numerous national and international research projects, including Horizon 2020, Climate-KIC, Erasmus+, FP7, ESPON, and Interreg initiatives.

Dr. Tom Janoshalmi
Global Managing Partner, IBM

Dr. Tom Janoshalmi is part of IBM’s Global Leadership Team. In his current role, he focuses on developing and delivering strategic transformational programs. Tom has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in delivering digital transformations at global Fortune 500 companies. He was previously the Global Technology Leader at EY and held the role of Chief Business Officer at SAP, overseeing one of the industry’s largest cloud transformation initiatives. Tom was also responsible for SAP’s Services and Support business transformation as Chief Growth Officer. Prior to joining SAP, he held senior operations management positions at Freudenberg Automotive. He serves as a Board Member of EarlyBirds, connecting over 6 million digital innovators with large enterprise early adopters. In addition, he is a Guest Professor at the Department of Network Economics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, with a focus on digital technology adoption. Tom holds a Master’s degree from the University of Newcastle, a Doctorate degree from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and also attended Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bálint Vető
Managing director, MOL Limitless Mobility Ltd.

Balint Veto has been the managing director of MOL Limo since 2021. During his time at MOL Limo, Balint focused on operational efficiency, shifted the business model from minute-based to distance based pricing, introduced new vehicle categories to address every customer need and launched a rent-a-car business line. Before joining the MOL Group, Balint held international sales and marketing positions at Liberty Global and worked for McKinsey & Company as a management consultant and spent the early years of his career researching thermonuclear fusion at MIT.
Besides the day-to-day management of the company, Balint is engaged in discussions around new opportunities in mobility such as shared autonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-grid solutions, behavioral economics and innovative business models.
Balint holds a BS from University College Utrecht, MS in nuclear engineering from MIT and an MBA from College des Ingenieur, Paris.

Further Keynote Speakers and more information coming soon…