During his career János Csák worked in executive and board positions for several companies in Europe, the USA and Australia including Matáv, MOL Group, T-Mobile Hungary, Creditanstalt Investment Bank, Budapest Bank Falcon Oil and Gas, and Wildhorse Energy Ltd. He worked as treasurer of Matáv playing an instrumental role in Matáv's $1 billion listing on the New York Stock Exchange, a deal seen as the model for future privatizations winning the International Financing Review Award in 1997. János Csák also crafted and negotiated the biggest mobile deal in the Central European region to its date: the acquisition of Westel for $885 million from MediaOne in 1999. Under his leadership in finance Matáv won the World’s Best User of Syndicated Loans Award In 1996 he was a Senior Treasury Advisor at Ameritech Corporation. During his tenure as Chairman of the Board at MOL in 1999-2000, he orchestrated a comprehensive growth strategy which resulted in the reconstruction of the leadership and the strategy of the group. As a result MOL Group became a top-notch enterprise in the oil industry and a regional leader. He was an executive board member of Creditanstalt Investment Bank, a Vienna-based comprehensive investment bank focusing on Central-Eastern Europe in 2001-2003, where he supervised the energy and telecom practices. In 2003, János Csák started his own management and strategic advisory practice. As an entrepreneur, he turned around a number of companies, notably he revitalized Helikon's, and Heti Válasz's brand strategy, and successfully sold both as efficient companies. János Csák was a visiting fellow in political economy and energy security at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC in 2009-10. He served as Hungary’s Ambassador accredited to the United Kingdom between 2011-14. Currently, he serves on the board of Gedeon Richter Plc. and Bank of China Ltd. as non-executive director. Since 2016 he is the Chairman of Design Terminal, a non-profit incubator, Chairman of Arete Ltd., an early-stage investment company, and part-owner of Brain Bar, a major European festival on the future. He is a member of the supervisory board of the Saint Francis Foundation of Déva. In 2003 he founded the Kálmán Széll Foundation an association of business leaders.
He is married to Júlia Márton, they have four children. In his spare time, János Csák enjoys literature. In addition to writing essays, he also translated several books to Hungarian including novels and professional literature.
