Ferenc Pongrácz

Ferenc is responsible for discovering an nurturing new business opportunities and partnerships and build emerging new product and service lines for Tungsram Group in order to support the growth strategy of the company and enable the transformation of Tungsram into a world class, innovation driven, lighting and technology company with extended and continuously improving offering portfolio. Ferenc is joining Tungsram from IBM where recently he was Business Development Executive at Central and Eastern Europe collaborating with business partners including leading enterprises, universities, R&D institutes, startups, scale ups, incubators, investors, government officials and NGOs with special focus on Cloud and Artificial Intelligence related innovation projects. Ferenc has extended international management experience in positions like Managing Director of one of the IBM subsidiaries in Hungary, Acting Country General Manager of IBM Hungary and multiple international C level business, operation and finance roles in Central and Easter Europe, Austria and Switzerland. During his more than 17 years at IBM under the leadership of Ferenc his teams completed multiple projects that become global reference stores. Previously Ferenc had worked for PwC in multiple management roles. Ferenc is member of the board and President of Information Technology Section of the Hungarian Economist Association a high prestige organization with more than 5500 members. He is former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary where currently he is the leader of the Investment Policy Task Force. Between 2014 and 2018 he was member of the Innovation Board of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. He is a frequent business speaker of professional and scientific conferences and published long list of articles, interviews and papers about smart cities, innovation and related topics.