In August 2022, Sándor Földi, former senior advisor at the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) , was appointed as a foreign economic attaché in Houston, Texas. Consul Gábor Markocsány previously held the position, but since the United States, including Texas, represents a significant proportion of investments in Hungary, as well as an increasingly popular destination for Hungarian export aspirations, the station was expanded with an additional position.
Sándor graduated from the University of Pécs with a MA degree in political science, and also studied international relations at the University of Leicester, UK, and Indiana University, the USA with a doctoral research scholarship.
As an attaché, his most important tasks will include the enforcement of Hungary's foreign economic interests, the promotion of investments to be made by Hungarian companies abroad, and at the same time, assisting in the search for capital investment opportunities for US companies in Hungary, as well as in the implementation of investments.
He visited the US for the first time in 2007 when he taught swimming, kayaking, and surfing to campers at a YMCA summer camp in New Jersey, as a camp counselor. He also completed the American Red Cross lifeguard course, then returned as a counselor every summer for the next four years. In 2012, he spent four months at Indiana University's Central Eurasian Studies department.
During the time he spent in the United States, he had the opportunity to admire the natural wonders of the country not only on the east coast, but also in the states of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and to visit the decisive locations of American democracy in Washington DC and Boston. According to his Linkedin profile, before HIPA he worked at Ernst&Young and the Prime Minister’s Office in Budapest.
His intention is to help Hungarian SMEs, to provide them with all the information needed to expand in Texas, which can increase the share of Hungarian exports outside the European Union. Helping the integration of domestic SMEs into the global value chains of international companies is also one of the declared goals of the National Export Strategy, so Sándor considers the achievement of this goal a priority with all the means available to it.
Married, father of two children.
Contact:
Sándor Földi
sandor.foldi@mfa.gov.hu
+1 (832) 695-9160