The staff members of the Equilibrium Institute and the members of its Advisory Board are renowned experts in Hungary who are considered to be among the best researchers and analysts in their respective fields.
The work of the Institute is helped by more than 30 experts, including economists, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers, urbanists, and climate researchers.
Tamás Boros
Executive director and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute
Political analyst
Tamás Boros is the executive director and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute. He was the co-founder and co-owner of Policy Solutions, a consultancy and research institute. He is a recurring guest on a variety of political talk shows and often comments about public affairs for leading international media. He previously worked for the European Commission and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an expert on communication and EU affairs. His research focuses on Hungarian and EU political communication and populism.
tamas.boros[at]eib.hu
Ákos Kozák
Director of Business Relations and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute
Economist and sociologist
Ákos Kozák is the director of business relations and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute. Previously, he served as the director of the GfK Hungária Market Research Institute for nearly 30 years. He is the former president of the Hungarian Marketing Association. Formerly, he was also a lecturer at the Budapest Business School and is currently an academic research fellow at the Cyber Economics Research Centre. He is the author or co-author of numerous academic studies on market research. He is the 2008 recipient of the Gábor Klauzál Award (the most prestigious Hungarian state award in the area of trade). He is an expert in futures research and consumer studies and holds a PhD in the sociology of consumption.
akos.kozak[at]eib.hu
Gábor Filippov
Director of Research
Historian and political scientist
Gábor Filippov is the director of research at the Equilibrium Institute. Previously he worked as an expert advisor in the Hungarian National Assembly and then as a political analyst and senior analyst at the Hungarian Progressive Institute. His analyses and op-eds have been published by numerous domestic and international media outlets, and he is frequently invited to talk about politics on television and radio shows. His research focuses on the European and the Hungarian far-right, on the histories of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and their present-day manifestations, as well as the workings of contemporary authoritarian regimes.
gabor.filippov[at]eib.hu
Dóra Csernus
Director for Climate and Environmental Policies
Economist
Dóra Csernus is the director for climate and environmental policies at the Equilibrium Institute. As an expert in environmental issues, she has worked for the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations and the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, representing the Hungarian position in different EU, UN, and OECD fora. She later worked as Director for International Policy Development at Klímapolitika Research and Consultancy Ltd, and as an independent expert in climate and environmental issues. Her main focus is on climate policy, air-quality control and water policy.
dora.csernus[at]eib.hu
Réka Szemerkényi
Senior Advisor for Foreign and Security Policy
Réka Szemerkényi is the former Ambassador of Hungary to Washington and a leading geopolitical expert in trans-atlantic security with over 20 years of experience in a variety of government, academic and private sector capacity. She is the former Executive Vice President of the Washington think-tank CEPA, the Center for European Policy Analysis. Her government roles include her mission as Ambassador of Hungary to the United States and being National Security Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary. Her business experience include being Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of MOL Group, the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company and Consultant of the World Bank.
Barna Szabó
Chief Economist
Barna Szabó is the chief economist at the Equilibrium Institute. He worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of England, and counselled more than half a dozen other central banks on building forecasting systems. Previously, he worked for OGResearch, a Prague-based macroeconomic consultancy. He specialises in macroeconomic modelling and forecasting and holds a PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
barna.szabo[at]eib.hu
Bertram Marek
Analyst
Political psychologist
Bertram Marek is an analyst at the Equilibrium Institute. He holds a BA in Political Science from ELTE, an MA in Communication and Media Studies from BME and an MSc in Political Psychology from the University of Kent. He is currently pursuing his PhD at ELTE PPK. His research focuses on the relationship between nostalgia and system criticism. Previously, he worked as a junior analyst at NielsenIQ. He is a fellow of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
László Kenyeres
Project manager (Business Relations Segment)
Sociologist
Business Project Manager at the Equilibrium Institute. He was previously a fellow at the
Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and later a social statistician, where he
researched household income and expenditure structures. Later, he gained experience in the
financial and energy sectors as a programme manager and leader of enterprise-wide
customer-centric transformations. Recently, he has been involved in methodological and
technological developments of various research approaches and satisfaction measurements.
His focus is on building multi-source integrated databases to support data-driven decision-making.
Julianna Pásztory
Project coordinator
Sociologist
Julianna Pásztory is the project coordinator at the Equilibrium Institute. She holds a Master’s degree in Sociology with a specialization in global social studies from Corvinus University of Budapest. After graduating, she worked for an independent think tank on corruption, supporting their research, communication and project management for two years.
Melinda Wesselényi
Head of Secretariat
Melinda Wesselényi the head of the secretariat at the Equilibrium Institute. She previously worked as an assistant and then as an office manager in Hungarian and foreign SMEs in various sectors, mainly with a focus on HR.
Zoltán Balázs
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Economist and political scientist
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He is the Program Director of the doctoral program in political science at the Corvinus University of Budapest. He has held research fellowships at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Wassenaar), the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon, and the University of St Andrews. His areas of research include analytical political theory, conservative political thought, Hungarian intellectual history, and the thought of Aurél Kolnai.
Gyula Gilly
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Physician and healthcare manager
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He previously worked as the Program Director of the Ministry of Education‘s World Bank Higher Education Development Project. Following the creation of the Student Loan Centre, as the organisation’s CEO he played a leading role in spreading the use of student loans in Hungary. He also served as the CEO of the OTP Health Preservation Ltd (an affiliate of Hungary’s largest commercial bank OTP), and in that capacity he was actively involved in setting up the OTP National Health Insurance Fund and the design of its services. In the Ministry of Human Resources, he was a senior political advisor to the state secretary in the newly created State Secretariat for Higher Education.
Ágnes Havas
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Film and television expert
She is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. She is the former CEO of the Hungarian National Film Fund. In 2018, Variety magazine’s International Women’s Impact Report ranked Ágnes Havas among the 50 most influential women in the entertainment industry. She subsequently became the program director at the Hungarian division of HBO, and she served in the same capacity at the Hungarian television channels Spektrum and TV3. For several years she worked as the CEO of Skyfilm, where she worked jointly with Gábor Herendi as a producer. After that, she began managing her own company, Havas Films, which has operated as the Hungarian partner in the international joint production of several documentaries.
Edina Heal
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Technology consultant
She is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. Ms Heal is the former CEO of Google Hungary. She was on the cover of Forbes magazine’s 2015 issue on the most influential women in Hungary. Previously, she served as the CEO of Hungary’s most-listened-to and highest-grossing radio station at the time, Sláger. She also managed the EMI record label in Hungary, and she worked for Island Records, PolyGram, and EMI in London. She is the founder and director of Egyenlítő, a foundation that promotes women’s equality.
Imre Kovách
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Sociologist and a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He is a scientific advisor at the Institute for Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Faculty of Social Science (MTA-TTK), a university professor, and the director of the doctoral program in sociology and social sciences at the University of Debrecen. His areas of research include rural society, social inequalities, and social integration. He has also served as the president of the European Society for Rural Sociology and is currently the vice president of the International Society for Rural Sociology. His work has been recognised in the form of several academic and state awards as well as a wide variety of invitations to teach as a visiting professor. He is a corresponding member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France.
István Síklaki
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Social psychologist
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He is a professor emeritus at the Budapest Corvinus University and teaches in the doctoral program of the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE) Department of Sociology. He previously worked as the managing editor of the division on psychological publications at the Gondolat publishing house in Hungary and then went on to work as a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Psychology. He formerly served as the Director of Research at the Sawyer-Miller Group’s Budapest office, and then as a researcher at the Medián Opinion and Market Research Institute.
Mária Törőcsik
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Economist and university professor
She is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. She teaches marketing, purchasing and consumer behaviour, and personality-based marketing. Her research focuses on consumer behaviour and its changing trends and patterns, as well as contemporary issues in marketing. She is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Business Management. She teaches in the doctoral programs of the University of Pécs and the Széchenyi István University.
László Urbán
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Economist and banking expert
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Slovenian NLB bank. After the regime transition, he was elected a Member of the Hungarian National Assembly. As a banking expert, he started out at the World Bank in Washington and then continued his career at ABN-AMRO in Hungary. He went on to serve as the vice president for corporate business at the Postabank, also in Hungary. At Citigroup in New York, he was in charge of global product development. Subsequently, in Hungary, he became the director of the Hungarian National Bank and then the deputy chairman of Hungary’s largest commercial bank, OTP. He is a former member of the EBRD Board of Directors.
Diána Ürge-Vorsatz
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Physicist-climatologist
She is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. Diána Ürge-Vorsatz is one of Hungary’s leading physicist-climatologists and Vice-Chair of the UN’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She is a professor at the Central European University, Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy. She has published widely in the field of environmental and energy science, particularly on climate change mitigation.
Tibor Závecz
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board and co-founder of the Equilibrium Institute
Sociologist and public opinion researcher
He co-founded the Equilibrium Institute and is a member of its Advisory Board. He is the director of the ZRI Závecz Research Institute. Since 1989, his work has continuously focused on researching the social base of political parties; the political process; the public mood; and the political/ideological attitudes of citizens. He served as the director of public opinion research at Szonda Ipsos (later Ipsos), a leading Hungarian polling company, and he held this position for 25 years. His surveys and analyses of the public’s perceptions of social issues and political events have made him a regular presence in the Hungarian media where he frequently comments on issues in the orbit of his research.
János Zlinszky
Member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board
Biologist and university professor
He is a member of the Equilibrium Institute’s Advisory Board. He serves as the European Parliament’s delegate on the Board of Directors and the Management Board of the European Environment Agency (EEA). Previously, he worked as an expert for the United Nations Open Working Group (UN OWG) in New York. Before his job at the UN, he was the head of the Strategy and Research Division of the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations. He also served as the senior environmental advisor to László Sólyom when the latter was the President of the Republic.
István Bart
Senior Fellow
Climate policy expert
He is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. He has specialised on climate policy, the impact on society of climate change, emissions reduction, and adapting to climate change for twenty years. He previously served as the founder-director of the Hungarian Energy Efficiency Institute (MEHI). He subsequently worked in Brussels at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. During his employment in the Hungarian public administration, he was in charge of the introduction in Hungary of the EU Emissions Trading System.
Áron Horváth
Senior Fellow
Economist
He is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. He is the founder-director of the ELTINGA Real Estate Research Centre, where he works as a researcher, analyst, advisor, and educator on issues involving the real estate market and cities. His work is regularly published in economics journals, and he drafts strategic briefs for business and policy decision-makers. He also teaches urban and real estate economics at the university level.
Judit Lannert
Senior Fellow
Scholar of education, a senior researcher at the Centre for Knowledge
Management and Educational Research (T-Tudok)
She is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. She has been actively engaged in studying and researching education for thirty years. She was the director of the Research Centre of the National Institute of Public Education, and she went on to serve as the deputy director of the Institute. She is the founder of the T-Tudok Centre for Knowledge Management and Educational Research, as well as of Kölöknet (Kid’s Net), a community website aimed at parents. As a researcher at Creative Partnerships Hungary, she is deeply committed to fostering creativity in schools.
Ábel Ravasz
Senior Fellow
Sociologist, political scientist
He is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. Ábel Ravasz is a sociologist and political scientist from Dunajská Streda, Slovakia. He studied at ELTE and BCE, Budapest, as well as Columbia University in New York City. As a sociologist, he has been doing his fieldwork in the Gemer region as a founder and member of several NGOs. He is the founder and current president of the Bratislava-based Mathias Bell Institute specializing in minority policy and human rights. Between 2016 and 2020 worked as the Plenipotentiary of the Government of Slovakia for Roma Communities.
Katalin Szilágyi
Senior Fellow
Economist, university instructor
She is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. She worked as a junior assistant professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest’s Department of Macroeconomics. Subsequently, she worked on formal modelling for the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) and then became a liaison for the technical cooperation between the MNB and the International Monetary Fund. Next, she went on to work as a senior economist at the Prague-based OGResearch and became the head of its Budapest office. She has previously served as a senior analyst at the Equilibrium Institute.
András Szöllősi-Nagy
Senior Fellow
Hydrologist and an external expert at the Equilibrium Institute
He is a senior fellow at the Equilibrium Institute. He is a professor and head of the Water and Environmental Policy Department of the National University of Public Service. He worked for 25 years as a senior official at UNESCO. In that capacity, he was based in Paris as the Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme, and then he continued as the Rector of the UNESCO–IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft. He was on the Board of Governors of the Marseille-based World Water Council and also served as the president of UN-Water and of the UNESCO-IHP Intergovernmental Council, respectively. He is the recipient of numerous domestic and international prizes and awards.
