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NEO Economic Development Program Partners, Team Members and Selected Contacts
for May 9-16, 2009 Trade Mission to Hungary

(Download the list as a PDF)

Current list of contacts for Trade Mission to Hungary scheduled for May 9-16, 2009

Updated by Jeanette Grasselli Brown as of 3/27/2009

Project website:

http://www.clevelandhdp.org/economicdevelopment/ (Lél Somogyi, Jeanette Grasselli Brown) 

Contacts:

Cleveland Mayor’s Office - Valarie McCall – Chief of Government Affairs and in charge of International Programs – Mayor Jackson’s office   (vmccall@city.cleveland.oh.us)     (Istvan Toth)

Cleveland Mayor’s Office - Michael Mendolera – Special asst to Mayor Gov. Affairs, etc.  (mmendolera@city.cleveland.oh.us )

Ohio Development Europe - Brent Decent, Acting Director, ODOD Europe office, (Brent.Decent@development.ohio.gov )  011.32.2.512.8687   (Valarie McCall)

Dr. Istvan Toth – retired VP technology, TRW – founder and president of Cleveland Miskolc Sister City Development and member of CHDP   (istvantoth@ameritech.net)

Dr. George Eisen  -   Nazareth College, Rochester – International Programs and Scholarly Exchanges  (has $1.2 m Atlantis Grant for scholarly exchange with univ from Hungary et al and Rochester) --  (Lev Gonick)

Dr. Judit Puskas, Prof polymer science at UA – support from International Institute of NSF.  Proposal for “Science of Technology Centers” with Dr. Pungor and match from EU (jpuskas@uakron.edu )

Fred Goodman (fgoodman@mrisystem.com ) – head of Beachwood incubator (Tom Sudow)

Batara Sianturi - Citi Country Officer, Chair of board of Citibank Hungary.  CWRU grad.  Laszlo Balassy, Gen’l Mgr of Citi Markets & Banking and Clevelander.  (Sam Dean’s boss and friend of April Foley)  Interested in getting Hungarian Univ set up for tech transfer (batara.sianturi@citi.com) 

Stephen J. Petras, Jr. at Baker & Hostetler LLP, Cleveland  - (SPetras@bakerlaw.com) -   (Istvan Toth)

Istvan Tamoga   - Morgan Stanley, Cleveland – and VP, CHDP (Istvan.Tamoga@Morganstanley.com)      (Jenny Brown)

Michael Miller -  USEAC Great Lakes Network Director (Michael.miller@mail.doc.gov)  - (Miklos Martin Kovacs)

Sue Whitney, Office Director , US Commercial Service – US Dept of Commerce, Cleveland  (Susan.Whitney@mail.doc.gov) – market research  and Richard Kanter (Richard.Kanter@mail.doc.gov) - (Lel Somogyi)

Deborah Scherer – ODOD, Columbus – arranged Trade Mission from Ohio to Hungary, Serbia in Nov 2008.  Also Scott Kuehn – same office.

Istvan Foldesi, head of InnoHungary Technology Center in Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC  (www.linkedin.com/in/interaccess)  and (www.interaccessusa.com) – (Charlie Brez ) -Link to Embassy of Hungary about InnoHungary center – foster business relations between US and Hungarian companies in field of IT and Telecommunications. (www.huembwas.org/Z_News/InnoHungary.htm)   - (Lel Somogyi)

Miklos Martin-Kovacs – Investment & Trade Commissioner, Hungarian Consulate General, Chicago (martinkovacs@itd.hu) -  highly supportive and able to make contacts

Radhika Reddy – partner, Ariel Ventures, LLC  Supporting internationalization of NE Ohio  (rr@arielventures.com)  - (Jennifer Thomas)

Arnie de la Porte – Netherlands Consul - supports tech transfer and economic development   (Laz Kozmon)

Prof. Joseph Kennedy, UA Polymer Science Dept – expert in field of polymers for bioscience  2008 Goodyear Medal Award   (Tom Sudow)

Sandor Nagy, (nagys@chacr.org or htf@hungarian.org ) President, Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations, CHACR (www.CHACR.org )

In Hungary:

1)       Individuals

Captain Robin Minton – Ohio National Guard assigned to Budapest for economic development  (rminton@san.osd.mil)  replaced Sam Dean who was key to setting up May 2007 trip    (Jenny Brown)

Patricia Gonzalez, Steve Knode and Jeff Schavland at US Commercial Services in Budapest located in US Embassy   - fully supportive of our mission – contact info at web page of CHDP

Jeffrey Levine, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy, Budapest  (Patricia Gonzalez)

Mark S. Tauber (TauberMS@state.gov) – cultural attaché at US Embassy in Budapest (Tamas Csorgo)

Balazs Erdei  ( balazs.erdei@nkth.gov.hu) – desk officer at NKTH  - helpful for May 2007 visit  (Jennifer Thomas)

Tibor Kovacs  -  (KovacsT@state.gov) – Health, Science and Technology Affairs Specialist, Env, Science, Tech, Health Hub Office at US Embassy – helpful since May 2007 visit  - Suggests American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (www.amcham.hu) SME committee

Dr. Andras Pungor  - (pungor@bznano.hu ) - Miskolc Nanotechnology Center – an IRC founded in 2006 by NKTH (National Office for Research and Technology) – (Joe Veres)

 Zoltan Siklosi (Siklosi@invescom.hu)  -  Invescom Corporate Finance – Hungarian partner with Brown Gibbons & Lang investment bankers.  Tamas Treznyak in Hungary.  (Reka Barabas)

Dr. Charles Heubner  -  Hungarian, former GE VP, Hungarian American Enterprise Fund $70 m sponsored by US govt in 1990 to open Hungary.  1997 managed $130 m First Hungary Fund (one of largest VC’s in central Europe).  2003 partner of iEurope Cap[ital LLC private equite fund for Central and Eastern Europe.    (Tom Brick – Harvard & Univ of Detroit Mercy with CH)

Gregory Laperdrix  U Berkeley.  In Hungary since 1997 in financial sector.  Established company consulting on acquisitions and mergers through financial advisors.  (Gregory.laperdrix@plateformes.hu )  (Jenny Brown)

Tibor Hejj – head of Proactive Management Cluster, P-M-C.hu.  Formerly with Boston Consulting Group in Germany and A.T. Kearney in Hungary.  (Lél Somogyi has worked with him in the past)

2)       Organizations:

Theodore Puskas Foundation Institute of International Technology – one of 4 Innovation Relay Centres (IRC) in Hungary , established by EU.  Budapest  (Charlie Brez)

Dr. Zsolt Kohalmi -  Theodore Puskas Foundation  (Joe Veres)

Szeged Biological Center (SzBK) – EU Center of Excellence in Hungary – only one in advanced biology and medical research (www.szbh.hu) . Prof. Lajos Keszthelyi founding director of Institute and member of HU Acad of Sci.  (Tamas Csorgo)

Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) – Rector’s Office for IRC info and Tech transfer info    (Charlie Brez)

European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – EU flagship initiative for innovation in Europe - $3.4 billion institute modeled after MIT.  Mission to boost R&D in Europe.   Budget - Euros 300 million but proposed to go to Euros 2.3 billion ($3.43 billion)    (EE Times Europe  9/16/08)

MOL – largest polymer and lubricant player in CEE – (Istvan Toth knows mgt and Co.)

 3) Contacts from Robin Minton:

Ferenc Olti   Exec Dir of Inter-Europa Bank, responsible for IT, Deputy CEO of Budapest Transport Corp – constructing $3 b US new driverless Underground line (f.olti@t-online.hu )

Dr. Kirk Downey  Prof Emeritus of Mgt at Texas Christian Univ.  Chair of Board of AZZ Inc. (Mfg. co), Chair board LKCM Funds (9 mutual funds), CEO of Texassystems working with ELTE, BGF, Debrecen in Hungary (k.downey@tcu.edu )

Tamas Molnar  (tamas.molnar@lauder.hu )