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. He founded and managed a startup accelerator program in Design Terminal which developed more than 200 startups overall. He created and managed corporate innovation programs for clients from various sectors (financial, FMCG, manufacturing and defense industry). In 2020-2021 he was the Head of Innovation, currently he is the Managing Director at MKB Fintechlab and Growth & Innovation Lead at Foundation which is a community building the new world of banking (founded by Magyar Bankholding Zrt.) Additionally he teaches entrepreneurship at Budapest Business School and Lead Mentor in Mathias Corvinus Collegium. 

Nokia WiFi products: he was involved in the development and standardization of the first generation of wireless networks. As part of the WiFi standard, some of his ideas now facilitate the lives of hundreds of millions of people. PDAmill: founder, owner, CEO 2000-2006. A pioneering mobile game company with dozens of prizes. These days the website operates only as a museum :) NNG, a.k.a. NavNGO, i.e. iGO my way: co-founder, owner, Cto, CSO, CEO – global innovation company with 800+ employees and a revenue of ~$100m.

Having graduated from Heidelberg University, Torsten Braner is originally a German lawyer. He was
admitted to the Hungarian Bar after having practiced several years as a “European lawyer” in
Hungary and has been the managing partner of Taylor Wessing Budapest since 2018. He advises
national and international clients on corporate law and is also recommended for his commercial and
employment expertise.
Torsten works with clients from numerous sectors. His advice in corporate matters encompasses the
full range, spanning from M&A transactions and corporate restructurings to general corporate issues.
As regards employment law, he and his team are especially focused on finding the right solutions for
their clients coming from the industries of tomorrow.
Torsten is a married father of two daughters and has been living in Budapest for 17 years.

Viktor Dimitrov is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur. He started his career in private equity with a Budapest-based fund, focused on Central & Eastern Europe. After completing his MBA at INSEAD, he spent a decade in Singapore, a global financial and business hub. Viktor has invested into and helped scale entrepreneurial businesses in a variety of sectors like industry, health care, B2B services, and fintech. This experience has helped shape Viktor’s investment principles further. He enjoys nothing more than rolling up his sleeves, and work directly to improve and grow companies. 

Viktor is now leading an innovative investment fund in partnership with large family offices from Europe, Asia, and America. The fund aims to acquire, and closely manage a solid medium-sized company in Hungary. Today many businesses are facing succession issues. A hands-on investment approach is a path towards preserving the founder’s legacy and open up new horizons for the company and its employees. 

Viktor is looking forward to discussing SME investments – or any other relevant topic - with participants in this exciting event.

He is a serial entrepreneur and investor, he has founded or co-founded over two dozen companies. He’s the founder and CEO of Solvo Biotechnology, the largest biotech company in Hungary. He is the founder and president of the Hungarian Biotech Association and of Medipredict, a company in the personalized health prevention and prediction field. He is an investor in 20+ startups and focuses on early stage companies in the areas of life sciences/medtech/AI/blockchain. He is an associate professor at the University of Szeged since 2003, where he teaches Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship and he also gives lectures at the Aquincum Institute of Technology. He is the founder of a school in Szeged, called Szikra. Szikra is a practical and experience-centered nonprofit institution, its goal is to become a world class primary and secondary school.

Before joining Lead Ventures Mr. Dunai was member of senior management of the Central Media Group, responsible for digital operations. His responsibilities included acquisitions and divestments and business development. Between 2008 and 2012 he was the CFO of Sanoma Hungary, earlier he worked in the M&A team of Magyar Telekom and the finance department of Malév. He earned his economics degree at the Budapest University of Economics, he is a lecturer at the Corporate Finance department of Corvinus University.

He graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics
with a MSc degree in electrical engineering, and then studied business at the
College of Foreign Trade. At SZÁMALK, he helped the launch of Microsoft in
Hungary, and later held business and IT management positions in domestic
and multinational companies. He is the head of the Ethics Committee of the
Association of IT Enterprises (IVSZ) and the Technology and Security Working
Group Leader of the Hungarian AI Coalition. From September 2020 he is
Coordinator of the AI National Laboratory.

Graduated from the Janus Pannonius University of Pécs in 1998 and pursued postgraduate studies in EU law at the University of Pécs. Obtained an LLM in International Economic Law at the University of Warwick in 2004. Attended the University of Oxford as a Chevening scholar and received a Magister Juris degree in 2006. Joined the Budapest office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2005. Associate of Oppenheim since 2007, partner at the firm since 2010. Head of the Corporate practice of Oppenheim since 2014.
Areas of specialization: Company Law, M&A, Capital MarketTransactions.
Sector experience: Capital markets, Chemicals & Pharma
Languages: Hungarian and English

Gábor Gyura acts as Head of the Sustainable Finance Department at the Central Bank of Hungary, and as  assistant professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics’ Finance Department. He is a member of several international committees and working groups in the field of green finance. He has a masters degree in Economics and also holds a PhD in Earth Sciences. His research areas include green bonds and lending, climate finance, ESG investments and risk management.

Richard is an economist, who holds a master degree in Finance. He has experience from the stock exchange, and worked for the Hungarian central clearing counterparty as a risk manager. After that he started working with startups as an investment manager, analyzed more than 50 seed stage companies and has worked with up to fifteen startups as a board member. He is a really communal person, strong to build his community and relationships. As Investment Director he is looking forward to investing in innovative technological startups, and helping to build their company with his business development experience. He is currently seeking new investment opportunities in the seed stage.

After dealing with own startups he got involved in business development, then carried on as an organization development coach and top management adviser. Currently he is engaged in launching innovation services for the Hungarian ecosystem, which includes a mission to boost youth and startup programs. Created with his supervision, the Hungarian Startup University Program now plays a key role in promoting entrepreneurship and innovative mindset among Hungarian university students.

Graduated from Universiti Utara Malaysia with an undergraduate degree in international affairs management in 2010. Speaks English, Malay and Indonesian. Spent 13 years in South East Asia, 11 years in Malaysia, and 2 years in Brunei Sultanate. Worked in various positions in sales and marketing with Chinese, Slovakian, German, and Japanese companies. In 2017 returned to Hungary, since then he worked as head of the export sales department of Herend Porcelainmanufacturer Ltd. till 2020 when established Marketyour.store that serves as CEO ever since. 

Peter graduated at the financial faculty of Corvinus University Budapest in 2010. He started his professional career at KPMG as an advisory, where he mainly worked on restructuring and M&A projects in various industries. Later, he joined the business development and strategy team of MOL Nyrt. During his work, he participated in several international M&A transactions e.g. in the UK, Norway, Russia, Iraq. He was also engaged in the preparation of MOL’s 2030 and Innovation strategy. In addition, he also assumed a prominent role in the establishment of MOL’s VC arm. Since 2018, Peter has worked with Antenna Hungária as the head of its start-up program and managing director of Antenna Hungária Innovációs Kft. Recently, he successfully accomplished the Execute MBA program at Corvinus University Budapest.

Barnabás Málnay is partner at the hardware and IoT startup accelerator Smartware.Tech and business developer at the European digital innovation and international business development organization EIT Digital. He has been managing director at the Hungarian Mobility and Multimedia Cluster since 2011 and partner at early-stage startup advisory and investment formation White Summers Cofounder since 2014. Earlier, he was business development director at AVEC, a startup accelerator launched by one of Hungary’s largest VC groups, the DayOne-PortfoLion Group; director of external relations and development at Kitchen Budapest, Magyar Telekom’s innovation lab; and senior advisor at Magyar Telekom’s Innovation and Business Development Directorate. He studied social and political theory at ELTE and CEU in Budapest, and at Stanford University, where he also worked as a teaching assistant and instructor in various teaching programs.

He is responsible for business development, István has more than 20 years of capital markets’  experience.  He spent over 18 years with Credit Suisse, first as an equity analyst, and later as Managing Director heading the Emerging Market Equity Research business and serving as Co-Head of European Equity Research. He arrived to the BSE from the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, where he worked at the UK Listing Authority  managing teams and projects related to  primary markets policy and regulation. He had also been a volunteer on the CFA UK’s Career Development Committee and helped to found he CFA UK Women’s Network. He speaks fluent English and German.

Kálmán graduated from the Budapest University of Economics in 1993. Since 1996, he has been engaged in numerous M&A and capital market transactions as an investment banker at Concorde and Concorde MB Partners. He is a member of the Issuers’ Committee and the Stock Exchange Advisory Body of the Budapest Stock Exchange.

Zsolt Nyitrai received his in Economics in 1997 at the Faculty of Economics at the University of
Miskolc. He worked for Postabank PLC between 1992 and 2000 in the accounting and account
management departments and later as an internal auditor. He continued his career at MKB Bank
PLC between 2004 and 2012 as corporate liaison then as risk management specialist. From 2012,
his key responsibility as head of risk control department at Hajdu Takarek Credit Union had been
to coordinate and manage the risk control functions of the branch, including credit risk
management, operational and liquidity risk management and oversight of arrears management.
From 2017, his main task as the risk control director of Tiszantuli Takarek Credit Union was to
coordinate the risk control functions of the institution, to manage credit risk, and to manage
operational and liquidity risks. Between 2019 and 31st March 2020, at Takarekbank PLC, as
head of regional credit risk management, he was responsible for coordinating the credit risk
management tasks of the region, participating in strategic planning and key decision making.
Zsolt Nyitrai has been granted the title of director of risk management at Capital Fund
Management as outlined by the Kbftv. (operative law of collective investment schemes and their
managers).

Oszkó Péter gazdasági szakember, kockázatitőke-befektető. Karrierjét az ELTE jogi karának elvégzésével párhuzamosan a KPMG-nél kezdte, 7 évvel az egyetem befejezése után a Deloitte partner pozícióban vette fel, majd 2 évvel később a Deloitte Hungary elnök-vezérigazgatója lett. 2009-ben a technokrata kormány idején Magyarország pénzügyminisztere volt a 2010-es választásokig. 2010-ben csatlakozott az OTP csoport kockázati tőkealap-kezelőjéhez vezérigazgatói pozícióban.

2014-től önálló pályára lépett, OXO márkanév alatt alakította ki saját cégcsoportját, melynek keretében saját forrásai és a hozzá csatlakozott befektetőtársai segítségével vitte tovább a korai fázisú, induló vállalkozásokat célzó befektetési és inkubációs, tanácsadói tevékenységét. 

Az elmúlt 5 év alatt az OXO csoport egy több mint harminc céget számláló portfóliót épített fel, melyben egyaránt szerepelnek korai és növekedési fázisban lévő technológiai startupok is, és kivásárlásokat is megkezdték. A 2020-as évet az OXO csoport már új cégstuktúrában kezdte: egységes portfólióba rendezte a befektetéseit és OXO Technologies Holding néven új holdingot alapított, melyhez az összes eddigi magán és intézményi befektető csatlakozott. A megtett bejelentések szerint így a dinamikusan növekvő technológiai portfóliót a csoport nyilvános piacra viszi. 

2017 óta az Erste Alapkezelő befektetési igazgatója, ahol befektetési alapok, intézményi és
magánügyfelek portfólióinak kezelését vezeti. Ezt megelőzően a társaság befektetési
értékesítési területén dolgozott, korábban pedig portfólió menedzserként a BNP Paribas
Wealth Managementnél és az Inter-Európa csoport alapkezelőjénél. Pályája elején a
Dresdner Bank treasury területén is szerzett tapasztalatokat elemzési és értékesítési
munkakörökben. 1996-ban diplomázott a Budapesti Közgazdaságtudományi Egyetemen,
2008-ban megszerezte a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) oklevelet.

He has been working as an attorney-at-law since 2005 at various Hungarian law firms with international client-base. He is primarily active in the fields of capital market, transactional, and company law. He has represented stock market companies for over 15 years, and, during this time, he worked on dozens of capital market transactions. In the course of multiple mergers and acquisitions, as well as capital investments, he had the opportunity of being the legal representative on both the seller/target company side and the buyer/investment company side of the transaction. He founded the legal partnership operating under the brand name AegisLegal in February, 2021. Gábor graduated from the University of Pécs, Faculty of Law, and he is a member of the Budapest Bar Association. He is fluent in English.

He is an entrepreneur, investor and consultant with a degree in economics and law, and is involved in several related industries, especially in the space industry. In addition to his work in the space industry, he also works professionally in the field of ICT and other related sectors.

As an alumnus of the Space Studies Program of the International Space University, he started his professional work in order to build the ecosystem of the Hungarian space industry. Together with the stock listed 4iG Plc. and the state-owned Antenna Hungária, he established CarpathiaSat Zrt., in which István Sárhegyi holds a share through the company of New Space Industries Zrt. and is the Vice Chairman of the Board. CarpathiaSat's goal is for Hungary to have a geostationary satellite by 2024, as one of the cornerstones of the critical infrastructure of the 21st century. New Space Indsutries Zrt. contributes to this and other projects with its domestic and international professional network and the provision of know-how.

He is the largest owner of a space-tech company, Remred Ltd. Remred is also a joint venture with the state Energy Science Research Centre. The goal of Remred is to develop, test and apply technologies, methods and software for space applications, primarily for the research of space weather and cosmic radiation, for domestic and international industrial users.

In addition to the above, István Sárhegyi established Herius Capital investment fund, which primary purpose is to manage the Herius-1 private equity fund. The private equity fund was set up by investors to make regional investments in the aerospace industry in companies that are already in a mature stage or even have a proven strong supplier role in related industries (e.g., automotive, nuclear, electronics, etc.).

In addition to the above investments, István Sárhegyi is the advisor to the President and CEO of 4iG Plc. and a member of the executive board of Hungaro Digitel Ltd., a 4iG holding company dealing with VSAT communication.

He teaches international space law at the University of Pécs and is a member of several social organizations (e.g., FIVOSZ, AURUM law club) and its founder (e.g., SpaceBuzz Foundation).

Júlia a Vespucci Partners alapításakor azt tűzte ki legfontosabb célként, hogy a Szilikon-völgyben tevékenykedő tőkealapok működéséből minél többet átemeljen a magyar székhelyű alapkezelőbe és hidat teremtsen a közép-keleti-európai startupok és az USA startup ökoszisztémája között.

Júlia háttere nagy szerepet játszott abban, hogy megfogalmazódjon benne ez a cél. A tanulmányait három egyetemen végezte három különböző országban. A Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem angol nyelvű Nemzetközi Gazdálkodás szakán végzett, és ebből fél évet Münchenben az ISM-en és két évet a los angelesi University of Southern California üzleti karán tanult. Ezek után a kaliforniai Group11 tőkealapnál dolgozott, melynek köszönhetően mély betekintést kapott az amerikai startup ökoszisztéma központi világába.

Mikor visszatért Magyarországra ezzel, társaival megalapították a Safeskin nevű startupot. Ezáltal, a kinti tapasztalatokat kiegészítve, azt is megtapasztalta, hogy milyen az ökoszisztéma startup oldalán lenni és bevonni tőkét a hazai piacon. Ezeket a perspektívákat egybe gyúrták három új partnerének a szemléletmódjával, és így született meg a Vespucci Partners.

A Vespucci Partners új perspektívából közelíti meg a startupokat és az ökoszisztéma fejlődését. Ténylegesen okostőkével segítik a portfóliójukba kiválasztott cégeket. Elsősorban olyan startupokat keresnek, melyek erős technológiai újdonsággal, valós globális növekedési potenciállal rendelkeznek és alkalmasak az úgynevezett hibrid startup modell felépítésére.

Ezek Magyarországról induló projektek, melyeknek a Vespucci segít a befektetés pillanatától abban, hogy megvessék a lábukat, illetve elindítsák értékesítésüket az amerikai piacon, majd onnan vonjanak be következő körös befektetőket. Tőkealap-kezelőjük a „fordított hibrid” startupokat is kifejezetten támogatja. Itt olyan cégekre gondolnak, amelyek az amerikai piacról indulnak, ottani értékesítési lábbal, de a fejlesztésüket pedig Magyarországra helyezik.

Péter Soós is a financial specialist, senior private banker and minority owner of HOLD Asset Management. He graduated from Corvinus University of Budapest in 2007 with a degree in investment analysis and risk management. He has deepened his knowledge at the Norwegian NHH. He has been with HOLD Asset Management for 15 years (formerly named Concorde Asset Management), where he led the private wealth management department, which invests the savings of high net worth individuals, for five years. Then he led a big data based acquisition team for another four years. As senior private banker of HOLD Asset Management, Péter manages an exceptional portfolio of nearly 70 billion HUF in client assets. In addition to the world of financial savings and mutual funds, he focuses extensively on succession planning and generational change. He holds a leadership role in a non-profit organization for industry-forming purposes on this field.

Kornél Szabó (University of Szeged, Kings College London) has 20 years' professional experience in international environment and 'magic circle' law firms in Budapest and Brussels in the fields of private equity, M&A, capital market transactions and regulatory matters.
He is the Deputy Managing Partner of Sárhegyi and Partners law firm (a top ten largest law firm in Budapest) and the CEO of the technology (aerospace) focussed fund management firm, Herius Capital.

Pál has significant experience in both cross-border and domestic mergers & acquisitions, as well as private equity and corporate matters Pál is a Partner and Head of our Corporate/ M&A practice group based in Budapest. He has nearly 15 years' experience in mergers & acquisitions, private equity, corporate and employment matters. He has significant experience in cross-border and domestic mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures, including acting for both private and public vendors, private purchasers and private equity firms across a range of industry sectors, such as financial institutions, energy, telecommunications and media, chemistry, life sciences, technology and retail & consumer. He has also advised on competitive auction bid processes. Pál also has company reorganisation and restructuring experience and his practice covers all types of corporate and commercial transactions. He regularly advises clients on general employment matters and other specialised areas including collective redundancies, benefits and incentive programmes, share incentive schemes as well as both domestic and cross-border labour law related transactions such as company reorganisations and outsourcing. He has also advised on various arrangements with executives and their compensation packages. Prior to joining us, Pál worked as part of the M&A, corporate and employment teams at other leading international law firms. He also spent nine months on M&A and private equity teams in London. Pál obtained his J.D. from Pázmány Péter Catholic University Faculty of Law, Hungary in 2004 and also holds a degree from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. He is a member of the Budapest Bar. Pál is fluent in English, in addition to his native Hungarian.

Ferenc is a co-founder of Navega Strategies, a New York-based quantitative investment research firm that focuses on connecting global macroeconomic conditions to long-term multi-asset returns and risks using systematic, AI-assisted, modern financial models. Prior to Navega, he founded and managed multiple technology companies in the deep-tech, biotech, and fintech fields. Ferenc has an MSc in physics.

Viktor Szekeres graduated from the Corvinus University of Budapest with a bachelor’s degree in public administration. During his academic years he became acquainted with the VoIP technology, selling VoIP based call center technology at his first job. After graduating, in 2003 he founded his own company, Gloster. The company initially focused on valued added distribution of Cisco VoIP technologies, he grew his company alongside the synergies of IT and telecommunications. In 2020 he successfully listed Gloster on the Budapest Stock Exchange XTEND market.

Viktor Szekeres holds the Cisco Network Academy CCNA, CCDA, Cisco Service Specialist and Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Specialist qualifications. In his free time, Viktor Szekeres enjoys hiking with his family and the occasional diving and sailing.

He graduated at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration as a financial investment analyst and risk manager in 2003. He has more than 12-years experience in venture capital and private equity investments, as well as, strategic and financial management of companies. Between 2003 and 2007 he worked for the Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) and MFB Invest Zrt. His position was investment analyst, he was responsible for the analysis of development plans, company valuation, the support of the operation of the portfolio companies, and the exit from the investments. He is working for Cashline Group since 2007 as a portfolio-manager, active in the deal flow generation, project analysis, valuation, management of the entire investment and exit process, as well as, strategic management of the portfolio companies. Since 2012 he is responsible for the venture capital activity of Cashline Group, and is the CEO of Valor Capital. He completed a Ph.D. Program at Corvinus University of Budapest, on the Department of Environmental Sciences and Technology in 2015. His research topics are environmental innovations and patents. He is managing director and board member of numerous Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises.

Sándor started his carrier at Hill Samuel Bank Plc. in London and in Budapest, in project finance after he graduated from  BME (Budapest Technical University). He worked as equity analyst at ABN Amro Equities, later as equity portfolio manager at Budapest Alapkezelő Zrt. He joined CAIB Fund Management (subsidiary of Credit Anstalt Bank) in 2000, where he managed the local equity portfolios and the public CA Central-European Equity Fund. CAIB launched the first Hungarian mutual fund in the early 90’s. Sándor has been appointed as CEO and Chairman of the Board of CAIB in 2002. Later on, Pioneer Investments acquired CAIB, then in 2017, Amundi purchased the Pioneer Group. Amundi Hungary currently manages around € 800 million of assets. Since 2010, he is the Chairman of the Association of Hungarian Investment Fund and Asset Management Companies (BAMOSZ). Since 2018, he is the Chairman of the BSE (Budapest Stock Exchange) Index Committee.