Hungary’s Economy and Energy Minister, István Kapitány, has dismissed the chief executive and the chairman of the board of the state-owned MVM Group, marking the latest high-profile shake-up at major state-owned companies under the new government.
Kapitány sacks CEO and board chairman
The minister announced on Facebook on Tuesday that Károly Mátrai, CEO of MVM, and Gábor Czepek, chairman of the company’s board, had both been relieved of their positions.
“Today I dismissed Károly Mátrai, CEO of MVM, and Gábor Czepek, chairman of the board,” Kapitány wrote in a brief statement.
No official explanation for the dismissals has yet been provided.
Who are the outgoing executives?
According to Telex, Mátrai had served as CEO of the MVM Group since 23 January 2023 and was also a member of the company’s board. Before joining MVM, he worked at the Hungarian central securities depository KELER, where he later became CEO, before moving to the Swiss-headquartered MET Group, serving at its Romanian and Spanish subsidiaries.
He took over leadership of MVM after Gábor Czepek left the CEO role. An interim period followed under Edit Juhász, who later became president of the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority.
Czepek has held several senior positions in Hungary’s public sector and energy industry. He served as CEO of MVM between 2021 and 2022, chaired the board of MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd., and later became a senior official at the Energy Ministry. Most recently, he served as parliamentary state secretary, deputy minister and government commissioner responsible for Hungarian-Slovak energy infrastructure development.
He also led a government delegation sent to Ukraine by the previous administration to inspect the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline. The mission was cut short after Ukrainian authorities reportedly declined to recognise the delegation as official.
The dismissals continue a series of personnel changes initiated by Kapitány since taking office. Earlier this week, the minister also removed the head of Eximbank, while the former CEO of the Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) had already been dismissed in recent weeks. The government has not yet announced who will replace Mátrai and Czepek at MVM, one of Hungary’s most strategically important state-owned companies.
UPDATE: Kapitány announces new MVM CEO
“There has been a change in the leadership of the MVM Group: Zsolt Bertalan, who has more than 25 years of experience in the energy sector and significant senior management experience, will assume the role of CEO of the national energy holding company. I am convinced that he is well-prepared and capable of leading the MVM Group responsibly in the period ahead,” wrote István Kapitány, Minister of Economy and Energy, in a Facebook post.
“I expect him to carry out transparent, cost-effective, and forward-looking professional work, with a particular focus on strengthening security of supply, accelerating energy developments, and supporting the transition to clean energy,” the minister wrote about Zsolt Bertalan. Early Tuesday afternoon, the minister dismissed MVM’s former CEO, Károly Mátrai, and the chairman of MVM’s board of directors, Gábor Czepek.
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The machinery of the kleptocracy is now being systematically dismantled.