The Expat CEO Award 2026 shortlist comprises Xaviera Sancho (general manager for BT Hungary), Paweł Tokarzewski (country manager for Eli Lilly and Company) and Nikos Zois (managing director of Heineken Hungária).
Italian national Xaviera Sancho has been a senior manager and country leader at BT Hungary since February 2024, having worked for the company for 19 years, including time in the London operation. A Polish citizen, Pawel Tokarzewski, has worked at Eli Lilly for almost 14 years and has been the country manager for Hungary since June 2023. He has also been a member of the board of directors of the Hungarian Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry (AIPM) since December 2024. Our final Expat CEO nominee is Nikos Zois, a Greek national who has been Heineken Hungária’s managing director since October 2021. He has worked for the brewer for 30 years.
The Expat CEO Award isn’t the only prize we hand out on the evening. We introduced the CEO Community Award in 2023. It is presented to the company leader, who we believe has gone above and beyond in supporting others while also looking after their own business. The 2026 shortlist, meanwhile, is made up of Orsolya Erdődy (managing director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra), Péter Noszek (CEO of Nestlé Hungária), and Rezső Rózsai (managing partner of KPMG Hungary).
Orsolya Erdődy has been managing director of the award-winning BFO since January 2020, having previously been deputy managing director from November 2011. Amongst other things, she is also the chief music advisor to the Pannonhalma Archabbey, where she says she has the opportunity to learn from the monastic community and experience the naturalness and joy of inclusion. Péter Noszek has held his current role since January 2018. During his Nestlé career, he has worked in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, as well as Hungary. He was voted “Manager of the Year” in 2023 by the Managers Association of Hungary and “Company Manager of the Year” in 2024 by Behaviour Magazin. Rezső Rózsai is a frequent guest panelist for our CEO Boardroom Meeting roundtable discussions. He has been the national senior partner and CEO at KPMG Hungary since October 2019, having begun his career there almost three decades ago, in September 1997. He is a board member of the Hungarian Business Leaders’ Forum and the Joint Venture Association, and a member of the International Corporate and Institutional Council of Corvinus University of Budapest.
Our two award winners will be decided in the minutes before the black-tie, invitation-only CEO Gala, which will be held, as usual, in the Grand Ballroom of the Corinthia Hotel Budapest. We offer all six of our candidates our congratulations and wish them the best of luck on the evening of Friday, March 27.
Robin Marshall
Editor-in-chief
This editorial was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of February 27, 2026.
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