Ms. Éva Hegedüs, Chairman and CEO of GRÁNIT Bank, and formerly Secretary General of the association, was unanimously elected President of the Hungarian Economic Association (HEA) on Friday. After nine years, Éva Hegedüs succeeds Gyula Pleschinger in the position; the delegates elected Pleschinger Honorary President for Life of the HEA. Gábor Miklós Nagy, previously Head of Secretariat of the HEA, was appointed Secretary General of Hungary’s most prominent professional association of economists. The delegates also elected Zsolt Darvas, researcher at the Brussels-based Bruegel and senior research fellow at Corvinus University of Budapest, as a new member of the association’s presidium. In the 132-year history of the HEA, Éva Hegedüs is the first woman to serve as president of the civil organization.
The HEA, which will celebrate the 132nd anniversary of its foundation on May 27, has approximately 3,000 members, 30 professional sections, and 16 regional organizations. Each year, it serves its members and the broader public interested in economic affairs through approximately 80–100 professional conferences. At the leadership renewal general assembly held on May 22 at Corvinus University of Budapest, the outgoing president of the association, Gyula Pleschinger, reported to the delegates on the achievements of recent years. He stated that the HEA had expanded with six new professional sections in recent years and had likely become the country’s most active professional civil organization. The association’s activity was not diminished by Covid; on the contrary, as a result of digitalization, the HEA emerged from the pandemic even stronger. Today, almost all professional events organized by the association can be followed live and replayed on YouTube. These events — particularly the annual traveling conference of economists, considered the profession’s largest yearly conference — and the significant media coverage surrounding them, have also given the HEA a notable public role and influence. According to its statutes, the HEA aims to provide a platform for public policy debates and to support decision-makers with professional recommendations, which it has consistently done over the past nine years.
Speaking about plans for the coming years, the newly elected president, Éva Hegedüs, emphasized that the HEA is a strong professional community where open and honest dialogue, meaningful professional debate, impartiality, and independence are values to be preserved and are key to the association’s credibility. In the spirit of “renewing while preserving,” the new president aims to make the Hungarian Economic Association even more visible. As she explained, in the coming period the association intends to seek more focused and more pronounced answers to the most pressing social, economic, and geopolitical challenges, such as the introduction of the euro, strengthening the innovation capacity of the Hungarian economy, the spread of artificial intelligence, and demographic trends. Éva Hegedüs stressed that attracting as many young people as possible is a strategic priority for the association. To this end, the HEA plans to launch a mentorship program for economics students and young professionals at local, regional, and national levels. The HEA also considers cooperation with its regional organizations to be of outstanding importance. In order to strengthen its regional activity, the association plans to establish additional partnerships with universities offering economics education and is also seeking cooperation with regional chambers of commerce and local organizations of VOSZ.
The new President of the Hungarian Economic Association is Éva Hegedüs, economist, banker, and Chairman and CEO of GRÁNIT Bank. She graduated from the Budapest University of Economics in 1979. Between 1981 and 1996, she worked at various public administration institutions, and from 1993 to 1997 she served as Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance. Between 1997 and 2000, she was Deputy CEO of the Land Credit and Mortgage Bank, and between 2000 and 2002 she served as Deputy State Secretary for Strategy and Energy at the Ministry of Economy, where she was responsible for the liberalization of the Hungarian energy sector and housing loan regulation. Between 2002 and 2006, she was Deputy CEO of OTP Bank and Chairman of the Board of OTP Housing Savings Bank. From 2006 to 2010, she served as Chairman and CEO of BG Hungary Real Estate Financing Ltd. and BG Hungary Leasing Ltd. Since May 2010, she has been CEO of GRÁNIT Bank and later also became its Chairwoman. Since 2013, she has been a member of the Board of the Hungarian Banking Association. Her work has been recognized with numerous domestic and international awards. In 2015, Hungarian banking executives elected her Banker of the Year at the MasterCard Bank of the Year Awards. In 2017, she received the Award for the Hungarian Economy, and in 2020, she received the Manager of the Year Award. In 2025, Forbes named her Hungary’s most influential businesswoman for the seventh consecutive year, and in 2024 she received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Since 2025, she has served as Vice President of the Banking Association for Central and Eastern Europe (BACEE). She has been Secretary General of the HEA since 2014 and will serve as President of the HEA from June 1, 2026.
The new Secretary General of the HEA, Gábor Miklós Nagy, is an economist and communications professional. He graduated from Kossuth Lajos University in 1999. He worked for nearly ten years as a business journalist at Hajdú-bihari Napló and also published regularly in Világgazdaság. Later, he served as Head of Communications for the Hajdú-Bihar County Government and subsequently as Head of Communications at the National Development Agency. For one year, he served as President of the Delegates’ Assembly of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists, and he also worked as a communications consultant on European Union projects. For the past 19 years, he has served as Head of Secretariat of the Hungarian Economic Association, and from June 1, 2026, he will become Secretary General of the association.