Foreign Direct Investments in the Time of COVID

FDI in the Time of COVID Texas and Hungary 

Virtual Conference Sessions of The Vice-Consulate of Hungary in Houston

Overview:

This episode of the Virtual Conference Sessions of the Vice-Consulate of Hungary, Houston will focus on actual trends of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). The global pandemic not only changed our way of life, work and travel habits, but halted and postponed about half of global investment decisions.

In this unfavourable environment we see a lot of people moving from Silicon Valley to Texas, and Hungary just coming 10% shy of her all time record FDI of 2019 last year. In this constantly changing environment - challenged by pandemic, changing consumer behaviours, politics - the stability and reliability of the supply chains is more important than ever. Global actors have to reconsider strategically their portfolio to secure global value chains.

With our speakers from Hungary and Texas we will be analysing this actual phenomenon surrounding us and exchanging best practices on how to attract FDI. You will not only receive inputs and hints from key officials, but also first-hand experience from a global company working in both states, as NI will be presenting their global operations with a focus on Central Eastern Europe too.

Agenda:

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

09:00 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST), Texas

04:00 p.m. Central European Time (CET), Hungary

All registered attendees will receive an email which includes important details, updates, and LINK TO JOIN.

Detailed agenda (US CST):

09:00 – 09:05    Welcome remarks by Gábor Markocsány, Consul

09:05 – 09:20    Larry McManus, Director, Business & Community Development, Office of the Texas Governor

09:20 – 09:35    Róbert Ésik, Chief Executive Officer at Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency - HIPA

09:35 – 09:45    Rob Porterfield, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Manufacturing, NI

09:45 – 10:00    Interactive discussion - Q&A

Details:

Larry McManus is the Director for Business and Community Development in the Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism Division. He is responsible for the management of the Office’s Small Business Initiatives, Research, International, Marketing, Community Relations, Industry and Business Recruitment Activities. McManus returns to the office after serving as Senior Director for Rural Economic Development at the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) where he was responsible for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, the State Office of Rural Health, and TDA’s economic development activities. McManus previous tenure with the Office of the Governor had him managing Community Relations and Domestic Expansion and Recruitment (DER) activities. These teams assisted in the announcement of more than 140,000 jobs and a capital investment in excess of approximately $63 billion between January 2005 and August 2015. McManus has more than 27 years of economic development experience with the State of Texas.  Prior to joining the State of Texas, he spent nearly five years with NationsBank (now Bank of America).

McManus holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

Róbert Ésik, Chief Executive Officer - Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), is an economist and a finance & investment analysis expert. He graduated at the Corvinus University of Budapest and earned a master’s degree at the Université Panthéon Assas in Paris. He spent almost 15 years in various positions at the largest ICT companies of the world, such as Alcatel, Siemens, Nokia and Amazon. As the country director of Nokia Solutions and Networks he played a key role in the Hungarian subsidiary becoming one of Nokia’s most important technology development centres. Since October 2014 he has been directing HIPA. Róbert’s professional, as well as personal ambition is to further promote his homeland as a favourable investment location and by so doing contribute to Hungary’s economic and social development.

Rob Porterfield, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Manufacturing - National Instruments (NI), oversees the worldwide manufacturing organization including purchasing, production, operations, trade compliance, and services. In addition, Porterfield oversees the corporate quality function. Porterfield and his team focus on continually improving customer satisfaction and production efficiency, lowering material costs, reducing quoted product lead times, managing inventory levels, and ensuring the timely release of new products into production. Since joining NI in 1993 Porterfield has held positions including materials manager, planning manager, director of international operations and global planning, and director of international operations and global supply chain, and VP of Manufacturing Operations. During his 28 years at NI, Porterfield has transformed Manufacturing from a single site location to a global operations network with six operational hubs and multiple advance service and support locations around the world.  Prior to joining NI, he worked as a design engineer at General Dynamics.Porterfield holds a master's degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University.

Partners:

The Vice-Consulate of Hungary in Houston

The State of Texas

NI - National Instruments

HIPA - Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency

HACCTX - Hungarian-American Chamber of Commerce, Texas