Name: Zoltán Katona
Date and place of birth: May 30, 1969; Pécs, Hungary
Marital status: married with one child

 

Education

My basic profession is engineering. I hold a M.Sc. (Master of Engineering Sciences) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest (1994). I prepared my M.Sc. thesis at the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) in 1994 on modern coal-fired power generation technologies.
I also undertook education in economics and company management: I received my MBA from the Technical University of Budapest in a joint course with the Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh (UK) in 1997.

 

Professional experience

I started my professional career in 1987, after secondary school, as a boiler and steam turbine operator at a coal-fired power plant in Pécs, Hungary (Pécs Power Plant).
While studying at the University of Technology, Sydney I also worked in the research and development department at Pacific Power, the New South Wales (Australia) power utility in 1993 and 1994.
After university I stayed at the Department for Energy, Technical University of Budapest as a teaching and research assistant. Research interest: coal-fired fluidized bed boiler technologies.
I am the coauthor of a university textbook titled Environmental Protection in the Energy Industry.
Between 1997 and 1999 I was employed at the Pécs Power Plant as an energy expert responsible for the process steam market, technical controlling and power plant development projects.
Since 1999 I have been employed by the E.ON group (Bayernwerk Hungaria at the time of my entry and E.ON Hungaria afterwards) in Budapest, Hungary. As a project manager I was responsible for several smaller scale power producing projects (e.g. gas engines). Since 2004 I have been the managing director of NYKCE Ltd. (a subsidiary of E.ON Hungaria), which is presently undertaking a 46 million euro combined cycle power plant investment in Nyíregyháza in eastern Hungary. The plant will go on line in early 2007.
Since July 2006 I have also been the managing director of E.ON Erőművek Kft., a subsidiary of E.ON Kraftwerke of Hannover. The company is a newly founded enterprise with the goal of developing, owning and operating large power plants (400 MW per unit) in Hungary.
I still keep close ties with my former university, where, as a visiting lecturer, I teach - what else? - coal-fired power plants.

 

Personal interests

In the very little free time I have left, I am fully engaged in the management of engineering societies. I have been a member of the management board of the Hungarian Scientific Society of Energy Economics (I was formerly the chairman of the society's supervisory board) since 1999 and member of the supervisory board of the Hungarian chapter of the US registered Association of Energy Engineers. I am also secretary of the Energy Utilization Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In my private life, my wife and I are fully immersed in the life of our daughter born in 2005. I sincerely believe that having a child is the best thing that could happen to anyone. We definitely will want some more.
I used to love traveling around the world, visiting different cultures and nations. Now I try to do it together with my family. It is good to show them around the places I already know. My former extensive traveling resulted in a wide network of friends, so it is rare when we do not have a guest from some far-away place in our home.
Reading books, especially historical ones, has also been a favorite pastime, but it is now restricted to holidays.
I still keep very close ties with my hometown, Pécs, where both my and my wife's parents live. We visit them regularly at least once a month.
On my agenda there is a long queue of activities waiting to be done: from playing an instrument to scuba diving and horse riding. If not me, maybe my children will fulfill them.