Béla graduated in 1992 at the Faculty of International Relations of the Budapest University of Economics as an economist (MSc) – he is the founder, managing director and senior consultant of MEGAKOM Development Consultants, Hungary.

In his first job he was involved in preparing investment projects for inward investors, then he worked with various regions to support the preparation of their development projects as a junior consultant of PRIMOM-Lancashire, a British-Hungarian consultancy firm. From 1994 Béla worked for the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Development Agency, focusing on the design of the county’s development strategy, and creating the international network of the agency.

As a founder of MEGAKOM Development Consultants and EX ANTE Consulting Ltd. he has worked as an urban development consultant since 1998, supporting numerous cities from Hungary and abroad in solving their problems and implementing European Union programmes and projects. He has unparalleled experience in designing and implementing transnational and cross-border cooperation programmes. Currently he is working as a thematic expert of the European Union’s URBACT Programme, supporting the cooperation of several European city networks, and holding trainings on integrated and participatory urban development at national and international level. He was the mastermind and lead expert of the CityWalk project supported by the Danube Transnational Programme – aiming for the development of sustainable urban mobility – which won the Regiostars Award (the Academy Award of European development projects) in 2019.

Urban development is not just work for him: he is following the international trends of urban development avidly and constantly seeks innovative solutions that can make our cities better places to live. He strongly believes that the future of our cities highly depends on their creativity, openness, and ability to mobilize the local community to deal with the various challenges.