Chairman
Duncan Graham
G&G Wealth
Managing Director
After a highly-successful and highly-popular tenure as BCCH Chairman through 2019-2021, Duncan Graham continues his work as Chairman over the next two years.
As Managing Director of G&G Wealth Limited, Duncan is responsible for the direction and growth of a company providing private financial and investment services in Budapest. He successfully opened G&G Wealth in 2012, an independent company delivering quality financial advice with a personal touch, with clients in Europe and the Middle-East.
His past experiences outside of Budapest have included working in Edinburgh, Scotland for Newton Barr Plc as a Senior Adviser (an FCA regulated investment firm) as well as Allianz (Cornhill Insurance) in a UK national role.
As the current President of the St Andrew’s Egyesület, Duncan has brought the St Andrew’s Ball from a small gathering of 40 guests to the current attendance of 250 in a few short years. The Ball raises some funds for local charities, which currently include Tabitha House (a Budapest hospice for children) and the ‘letters to Santa’ initiative in the 8th district of the city. Duncan was also involved with turning the Lánchíd Bridge blue and white on St Andrew’s Day, to commemorate Adam Clark the Scottish engineer.
Duncan regularly organises a whisky tasting event, which is currently held at the Diageo Sky Bar, with a few glasses of the best malt whisky from the Diageo range.
Now living full-time in Budapest since 2011, Duncan has moved his life and career to Hungary but still regularly visits friends and relatives in Scotland. A keen golfer, Duncan was a past Board member of the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, the fifth oldest club recorded.
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Our new council members
Tamás Simonyi
KPMG
Senior Director
I have been around doing business for as many as 40 years. I spent half of this time working for financial instutions in Hungary, Japan, Australia and Austria and the other half working with financial institutions around the CEE region in 17 countries advising them on trying to expand or reduce their empire. I still love my job, it keeps me on my toes all the time. I also look after industrial and service companies some 20% of my time in their mergers and acqusitions effort.
This has made me build a business card collection of some 3 thousand names in finance, industry and government in many countries. The job requires patience, empathy and perseverance for one needs to massage parties into accepting each other’s view. I think this experience and skill will always come very useful in an organisation such as the Chamber.
I used to be a Council member about a decade ago, I stayed on for 2 or 3 years which I enjoyed very much. I had to withdraw because there was too much travel which is not going to be a hindrance as far as we can see now.
I hope that with an additional ten years of experience and bridge building, but with certainly much less hair, I can serve members’ interest even more efficiently than in those long gone years.
András Módos
EY
Associate Partner
András has been active in the international economic and business circles since his graduation as a Master of International Relations at Corvinus University of Budapest. After a brief stint in diplomacy with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Centre for Democratic Transition between 2008 and 2011, András turned his focus to international business by joining the Big4 as an international tax advisor in 2011.
Since starting his career in tax advisory, he has always been keen to serve multinational clients in various fields. With EY, he had to opportunity to serve North American multinationals at EY’s New York office in 2016 and 2017. Since his return to Hungary in March 2017, András has been responsible for overseeing EY Hungary’s tax services to clients that have background in the UK. To that end, he used to share his time between Budapest and London prior to the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.
András (being a Hungarian national) is a linguistics enthusiast and speaks English and Spanish fluently. He is also an avid squash player.
Kinga Málnási
FirstMed
Administrative Manager
Eleven years ago, I joined FirstMed as a receptionist. A short time later, I received a promotion to work on the company’s marketing activities. One of my main duties was growing our business through ‘top-of-mind’ activities and networking. I eventually learned various social media platforms to create a more efficient and personalised experience for our patients. Currently, I am the Communications and Social Media Manager at FirstMed.
Over the years, I have been an active participant in BCCH’s business forums and social events. I would enjoy using my skills and experience to grow BCCH.
If elected as an at-large board member, I would:
Support small-medium sized businesses strengthen the chamber by bringing a fresh perspective and different mindset to ensure BCCH remains a vibrant organisation
BCCH continues to draw extremely talented members, as we can see by the individuals running for open board seats. I would be honored if you or your proxy would support me at this year’s elections on May 25.
Michael Glover
Taxually
Managing Director
Mike has been working in Budapest since January 2001. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1987 and a Chartered Tax Adviser in 1990 and started his 37-year career in Preston and since then he has worked in London, Liverpool, Kiev and Budapest. He was a partner with KPMG for nearly 20 years (in Kiev and Budapest) and left at the beginning of 2018 after being in charge of the KPMG in Hungary’s tax practice and KPMG’s European tax compliance centre.
Born in North West England, Mike supports his hometown rugby league club, St. Helens and is a keen watcher (former player) of cricket, having also served on the Hungarian Cricket Association board for over 3 years and having been responsible for Hungary joining the cricket world governing organisation (ICC) in 2012. Above all that he also co-owns Hungary’s only full-size cricket ground in Szodliget.
He founded Taxually in mid-2018 with a partner based in Budapest and since then they have become the fastest-growing tax technology company in Europe, currently employing around 70 people in Hungary, China, the UK and Poland. After what he considers an ‘excellent period’ enjoyed under the leadership of Duncan Graham as Chairman, Mike will join the Chamber and take an active role in elongating said excellent period.
Returning Council Members
Douglas Arnott
EDMF Language Services
Owner
Douglas Arnott is the founder and owner of EDMF Language Services Kft. in Hungary. Having initially worked as a freelance translator and interpreter on his arrival in Hungary over 20 years ago in 1998, Douglas then spent six years at KPMG Hungary, latterly managing a team of 8 translators at the firm. Upon deciding to leave KPMG he set up his own translation agency which has since gone from strength to strength.
With a team of four in Budapest, EDMF works with over 150 experienced translators and language professionals around the world, providing a wide array of linguistic services. Douglas is also very active in the charity sector as Chairman of the Robert Burns International Foundation, a voluntary organisation established in 2005 to raise money for sick and underprivileged children in Hungary.
Under his leadership, the activities, sponsors and funds of the RBIF have seen exceptional growth, with the foundation regularly supporting hospitals and social projects around the country. Whilst already on the BCCH Board, he was awarded a British Empire Medal for his accomplishments in 2019.
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Kinga Kalocsai
PAV Hungary
Senior Consultant
Kinga Kalocsai has a sound track record in change management, online marketing, PR & corporate communications, digital transformation and go-to market strategies on an EMEA level. A trusted C-suite consultant, with strong business acumen and the right growth mindset.
After 15+ years leadership experience with blue-chip companies, Kinga started her consultancy last year and is now supporting SMEs with their growth plans – helping them to dream big and to translate their aspirations into actions with tangible results. She is now working with PAV Hungary, IT solutions provider for SMEs, and has further references in the private healthcare, ICT and business services industries.
Kinga has been serving on the BCCH Council for 6 years, she was executive sponsor of the BCCH – uSchool Youth Entrepreneur program and designed several stakeholder events to support SMEs. Kinga is currently the content strategist and host of Context, BCCH knowledge transfer platform, running since last April with guest speakers from the government, the diplomatic and corporate sector. Kinga is married and has a 9-year old daughter.
Károly Oelberg
AACM Central Europe
Managing Director
Károly is the managing director of AACM Central Europe, an innovative Budapest-based consulting firm since 1996. The company was established as a member company of the Australian AACM International Group, and through an acquisition deal became part of Dames & Moore Group, one of the world’s leading US environmental consultancy and engineering firms. AACM Central Europe was purchased by its current management in 1999, and operates since January 2000 as an independent private firm with its headquarters in Budapest and a representation office in Târgu Mureş (Romania).
The core business of AACM Central Europe Ltd lies in environment and sustainable energy sectors. Clients include the international donor agencies and financial institutions such as the European Commission, EIB EBRD, IFC, UNHCR, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as national and regional government agencies and municipalities. AACM Central Europe has also established a strategic working relationship with leading international environmental, engineering and other consultancy firms, and collaborates with them on private sector projects. AACM Central Europe has strong work experience in a wide variety of mostly Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The company is a member of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hungary since 2016.
Károly has 33 years of work experience in research, public service and consultancy. He obtained a master’s degree in chemical engineering and has a postgraduate diploma in law and is a certified Body Auditor according to SERI’s R2:2013 Standard.
Károly’s work experience is particularly focused through environmental protection and development of the low-carbon economy. He has substantial gained experience in EU programming activities at multi-country, national and regional levels and implementation of EU funded projects in various CEE countries. Recently, he has been several times retained by the European Commission services as independent evaluator and/or rapporteur for the evaluation of Horizon 2020 proposals.
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