Szabolcs Mezei and Balint Gombkoto join PwC in Hungary

Months after adding Farkas Bársony and Zsolt Wermeser to its team, PwC Hungary has brought two new senior professionals on board. Szabolcs Mezei has joined the firm’s Hungarian Advisory division, while Bálint Gombkötő has been added to the Corporate Tax service line. 

Before joining PwC in Hungary, which launched in 1989, Szabolcs Mezei worked for nearly twelve years at IFUA Horváth & Partners as a management consultant, and later as a principal responsible for the public sector. Prior to that, he served at Hungary’s Ministry of Interior as an accounting manager, where he was in charge of accounting support and supervision of institutions under the ministry’s authority.

During his career, Mezei, a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), led successful consulting projects at several public institutions, including the central government, healthcare, higher and public education, and local governments.

Besides his role at PwC, where he has been appointed a director, Mezei serves as vice chairman of the Association of Management Consultants in Hungary (VTMSZ) and regularly gives lectures on management consulting work in Hungary’s public sector. 

Meanwhile, Bálint Gombkötő has joined the Corporate Tax group of PwC Hungary as a director – he made the move from KPMG. At the Big Four rival, he gained more than 18 years of experience in international corporate tax issues, acquisition planning including consideration of withholding tax issues, obtaining tax deductions for debt and goodwill, and thin capitalisation. Bálint, who spent part of his career at KPMG in London within the international tax group, has an extensive understanding of EU law topics such as tax litigations, especially in relation to the direct taxation systems and their connections to EU legislation.

He has worked with clients in many sectors, including energy, commerce, real estate and financial services. In his new role at PwC, Gombkötő will advise the firm’s clients in Hungary and the region on domestic and international tax planning.

According to a recent study by PwC Hungary, CEOs in the country are markedly more optimistic about the future compared to twelve months ago, despite major challenges such as labour shortage and over-regulation. 

Meanwhile in Hungary’s consulting industry, Accenture last month named Tomáš Volek as Country Managing Director for Hungary and Slovakia, succeeding Peter Škodný, who has joined telecom giant T-Mobile as Chief Commercial Officer for the company’s B2B business in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.