János Csák (born 15 October 1962) is a Hungarian corporate leader, honorary professor of management, who served as a Minister of Culture and Innovation between May 2022 till June 2024. Formerly, he served as Ambassador of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

between 2011 and 2014.

Education

Csák holds an MSc in Finance and Sociology from the

Corvinus University of Budapest Corvinus University of Budapest () is a private university, private research university in Budapest, Hungary. The university currently has an enrolment of approximately 9,600 students, with a primary focus on business administration, economics, ...

(Hungary, 1987), and completed the Challenge of Leadership Program,

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

(France, 2000) and the Executive Program at the University of Michigan Business School (USA, 1996).

Career

During his career Csák worked in executive and board positions for several companies in Europe, the US and Australia including Matáv (treasurer, 1993–2000),

MOL Group MOL Plc. (), also known as MOL Group, is a Hungarian Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Members of MOL Group include among others the Croatian and Slovak former ...

(chairman, 1999–2000),

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

Hungary (incl. chairman, 1997–2001), Creditanstalt Investment Bank (CA-IB), Budapest Bank (

GE Money Bank GE Capital was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial. Ultimately, only one divi ...

), Gedeon Richter Plc. (non-executive board member, 2014–2019) Falcon Oil and Gas, and Wildhorse Energy Ltd. He worked as treasurer of Matáv (now

Magyar Telekom Magyar Telekom Nyrt. (officially ''Magyar Telekom Távközlési Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság, Magyar Telekom Telecommunications Public Limited Company'' ) is one of the leading Hungarian telecommunications service provider com ...

) playing an instrumental role in Matáv's $1 billion listing on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

, a deal seen as the model for future privatizations winning the International Financing Review Award in 1997. Csák also crafted and negotiated the biggest mobile deal in the

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

an region to its date: the acquisition of Westel (now

) for $885 million from

MediaOne Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which US ...

in 1999. Under his leadership in finance Matáv won the World's Best User of Syndicated Loans Award (

Euromoney ''Euromoney'' is an English-language monthly magazine focused on business and finance. First published in 1969, it is the flagship production of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc. History and profile ''Euromoney'' was first published in 19 ...

, 1997). In 1996 he was a Senior Treasury Advisor at

Ameritech Corporation AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation (and, before that, American Information Technologies Corporation), was an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the ...

(Chicago, USA). During his tenure as chairman of the board at MOL in 1999–2000, he orchestrated a comprehensive growth strategy which resulted in the reconstruction of the leadership and the strategy of the group. Under his tenure, MOL acquired the Slovakian energy company

Slovnaft Slovnaft is an oil refining company in Slovakia. The company, located in Bratislava, is a subsidiary of MOL Group. History Slovnaft is the successor of the Apollo company. Apollo was established in 1895 in Bratislava. Its refinery was bombar ...

. As a result,

became a top-notch enterprise in the oil industry and a regional leader. He was an executive board member of Creditanstalt Investment Bank, a Vienna-based comprehensive investment bank focusing on Central-Eastern Europe in 2001–2003, where he supervised the energy and telecom practices. Between 2003 and 2010, Csák ran his own management and strategic advisory practice. As an investor, he turned around a number of companies, notably he revitalized Helikon's (a publisher of quality literature and art), and Heti Válasz's (a magazine reaching over 1% of the population nationwide, covering politics, economy and culture) brand strategy, and successfully sold both as efficient companies. Csák was a visiting fellow in political economy and energy security at

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (or simply Heritage) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the Presi ...

in Washington, DC and at

Acton Institute The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is an American conservative and libertarian think tank in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with an office in Rome. Its stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by i ...

, in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2009–10. He served as Hungary's

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

accredited to the United Kingdom between 2011 and 2014. Between 2016 and 2019 he was part-owner and Chairman of Design Terminal, a non-profit incubator, part-owner and Chairman of Arete Ltd., an early-stage investment company, and part-owner of Brain Bar, a major European festival on the future. Although he sold these companies in 2019, he still remains active in the startup ecosystem. Between 2017 and 2021 he was the Head of ConNext 2050 project at the Socialfuturing Center of the Corvinus University Budapest. Between 2019 and 2020 he served on the board of trustees of the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, the endowment managing

. From 2019 to 2021 he was on the supervisory board of Blue Planet Climate Protection Investments (Kék Bolygó Klímavédelmi Befektetési Zrt.). Between 2015 and 2022 he served as a non-executive director of

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Banco da China'') is a state-owned Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, Beijing, China. It is one of ...

(CEE) Ltd, from 2019 to 2022 he was a member of the Ethics Subcommittee of the

Hungarian Olympic Committee The Hungarian Olympic Committee (, , MOB) is the National Olympic Committee representing Hungary. History The Hungarian Olympic Committee was founded on 19 December 1895, as sixth in the world, following the French, Greek, American, German a ...

. He is a member of the supervisory board of the Saint Francis Foundation of Déva. In 2003 he founded the Kálmán Széll Foundation, an association of business leaders.

Awards

In recognition of his economic and social activities he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary in 2010. He was conferred the

Honorary Citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of the 20th district of Budapest (2013), and the Knight Grand Cross of Merit of the

Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (; ), also historically referred to as the Imperial Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Order of the Constantinian Angelic Knights of Saint George, is a dynastic order of knighthood ...

(UK, 2013). He was awarded the Sándor Wekerle Economic Grand Prize and the Rákóczi Prize in 2023.

Personal life

He is married to Júlia Márton, they have four children and eight grandchildren. In his spare time, Csák enjoys literature. In addition to writing essays, he also translated several books to Hungarian including novels and professional literature. His recent works are ’The Genius of America (Az amerikai géniusz), and The Good Side of Life - Searching for Values in an Unstable World (Az élet jó oldala - Értékek keresése az ingatag világban), co-authored with Franciscan monk Csaba Böjte.https://www.libri.hu/konyv/bojte_csaba.az-elet-jo-oldala.html The American edition of János Csák's book, "The Genius of America" was published by Angelico Press in April 2024 in the United States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Csak, Janos 1962 births Living people Ambassadors of Hungary to the United Kingdom Hungarian business executives Hungarian economists Culture ministers of Hungary Members of the fifth Orbán government