Sándor Csányi (banker)

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.[4]

When he was 14 years old, he moved from rural Hungary to Budapest.[5]

He graduated from Budapest Business School in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and in 1980 from the Budapest University of Economics with a degree in economics and thereafter received his doctorate.

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 (which was unheard of in a formerly socialistic country). He is responsible for the Bank's strategy and overall operation.[6] After the privatization of OTP Bank in 1995, he started focusing on questions of broader strategic development.[5] Through a series of acquisitions and steady organic growth, OTP Group has become one of the major financial institutions in Central Eastern Europe with a footprint in 11 countries; through its 1 656 branches and online channels OTP Group offers universal banking services to over 18.5 million customers.

He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of MOL Group, Co-Chairman of the Hungarian National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ) and Co-Chairmn of Chinese-Hungarian Business Council.

He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of "Soproni Egyetemért" (Pro Sopron University) Foundation and MATE (Hunagrian Agricultural and Life Science University) Foundation. He is member of the Board of Trustees of the Media Union for Social Awareness Formation Foundation and Vice Chairman of the International Children's Safety Service. He is the Chariman of the Board of Prima Primissima Foundation. He set up Csányi Foundation for Children with 5 million USD and has invested 15 million USD since then to help highly talented children coming fom underprivileged families.

He has been Chairman of the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) 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.[7] He is the Chairman of the UEFA National Team Competition Committee and member of the UEFA Finance Committee. He is the owner of MOL-PICK Szeged Handball Club.

Mr Csányi is one of the largest investors in agriculture and food industry in the CEE region through Bonafarm Group and KITE generating aggregated annual revenue of EUR 1.8 billion with over 9 000 employees and with 34,000 hectares cultivated land in total. Dr Csányi has significant investments in real estate through his minority holding in Gránit Pólus and Limedale (portfolio of USD 1 bn), in VC (Bonitás Venture Capital Fund) and asset management (CSAM in Singapore).

He maintained personal friendships with leading politicians, such as then Minister of Finance, later Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.[5] His net worth is estimated at over US$1,33 billion.[5]

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.[8][9]

He is married to Erika Csányi and has five children.