At its meeting held in Budapest on 25 May 2017, the General Assembly of delegates of the Hungarian Economic Association elected Gyula Pleschinger, member of the Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary to be President of the HEA. Éva Hegedüs, Chairperson and CEO of GRANIT Bank Zrt retained her position as Secretary General of the 123 year old scientific civil organisation. Árpád Kovács, Chairman of the Fiscal Council of Hungary, who held the position of President of the Association over three cycles, i.e. a period of nine years, became a lifetime Honorary President of the HEA.
In order to hold the position of Vice President for a period of three years, the General Assembly elected Péter Balázs, Professor of CEU, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, first Hungarian member of the European Commission; Ádám Balog, CEO of MKB Bank Zrt; Péter Ákos Bod, Professor of Corvinus University of Budapest, former Minister of Economy and President of the National Bank of Hungary; Éva Palócz, CEO of Kopint-Tárki Zrt; Dániel Palotai, Chief Economist of the National Bank of Hungary and Head of the HEA Competitiveness Section; Mihály Patai, President of the Hungarian Banking Association, Chairman and CEO of UniCredit Bank Zrt.
The newly elected members of the Board include Zsolt Bischof, Director of the Szolnok Branch of Béres Gyógyszertár Zrt, Head of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County organisation of the HEA, Zsolt Felcsuti, Director of MPF Holding and Márton Nagy, Vice President of the National Bank of Hungary, Head of the Finance Section of the HEA with approximately one and a half thousand members. Éva Kriszt Sándorné, Rector of the Budapest Business School continues to hold the position of Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee of the HEA.
The delegates adopted the Association’s 2016 financial report and public benefit supplement as well. In her account Éva Hegedüs, Secretary General of the HEA told the delegates that the Association closed year 2016 with a positive P/L of HUF 6.8 million and adequate liquidity, and the revenues of the HEA from donations, funds and individual membership fees also increased significantly. The funds received from the offered 1% of personal income tax amounted to HUF 701,000 last year. As it was pointed out by Éva Hegedüs, in addition to its traditional major events, such as the Itinerant Conference of Economists in Kecskemét with an audience of approximately 750 individuals, the number of conferences, professional events and roundtable sessions organised in subjects including health care, sport and cultural economics, labour market and competitiveness reached 80-100 in 2016.
In 2016 the HEA hosted several prominent international forums including the meeting of Central and Eastern European stock exchange senior managers. Éva Hegedüs welcomed the fact that the Hungarian Economic Association is currently represented in the youth organisations of most Hungarian tertiary educational institutions of economics. In accordance with the changes of the Civil Code of Hungary effective since 1 January 2017, the delegates of the Sections and regional organisation amended the Articles of Association of the HEA operating as a non-profit entity.
The re-election meeting of the General Assembly of delegates also discussed the 55th Itinerant Conference of Economists, the largest annual event of Hungarian professionals to take place in Eger on 7-9 September 2017.
At the meeting a presentation on the current issues of monetary policy was held by President Gyula Pleschinger.