Sándor Csányi is a Hungarian billionaire businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of OTP Bank Group, one of the largest financial groups in the CEE Region and the largest bank of Hungary. He is a shareholder and board member of the Hungarian-based multinational oil and gas company, MOL Group. He owns Bonafarm, a Hungarian food manufacturer. With an estimated wealth of 294.3 billion forint as of 2017, he is according to Forbes, the wealthiest person in Hungary, and the country's first billionaire.
Early life
Sándor Csányi was born on the 20 March 1953 in a lower middle-class agricultural family in Jászárokszállás. His father, József Csányi was the field guard of the cooperative of Jászárokszállás. His mother, Amália Ballagó was a line driver also in the town's cooperative. He has two brothers. His parents were beekeepers and produced sugar beets. He is of Jassic descent. When he was 14 years old, he moved from rural Hungary to Budapest.
After graduation he worked at the Revenue Directorate and then at the Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance. Between 1983 and 1986, he was a departmental head at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry. From 1986 to 1989 he worked as a head of department at Magyar Hitel Bank. He was deputy CEO of Kereskedelmi és Hitelbank from 1989 to 1992. In 1992 he became Chairman & CEO of OTP Bank Group and fired a number of managers. He is responsible for the Bank's strategy and overall operation. After the privatization of OTP Bank in 1995, he started focusing on questions of broader strategic development. He is a member of the European Board of Directors for MasterCard and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of MOL Group, Co-Chairman of the Hungarian National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers and until April 2011 was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Banking Association. He has been Chairman of the Hungarian Football Federation since July 2010. In 2015, he was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee, and in March 2017 he was elected as a member of the FIFA Council, before being named Vice President of FIFA in February 2018. It is said, that he is the biggest investor in agriculture and that his Bonafarma operates the 2nd biggest slaughterhouse in the nation. He maintained personal friendships with leading politicians, such as then Minister of Finance, later Prime MinisterPéter Medgyessy and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. His net worth is estimated at over US$1 billion. Together with other rich people of the country, he was implicated with the leaked documents Panama Papers in 2016. He justified his connection with the argument that it had been necessary due to international cooperation.
Personal life
He is married to Erika Csányi, and they have five children.
