Peter Záboji facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peter Záboji
Born	25 December 1943
Died	3 July 2015
Nationality	Hungarian, German
Alma mater	INSEAD
Occupation	business angel

Peter (Balazs) Záboji (born December 25, 1943 – died July 3, 2015) was a special kind of investor called an angel investor. He was also an entrepreneur, which means he started and ran businesses.

Many people say that Peter Záboji helped make Budapest a successful place for new businesses, often called a startup hub. He did this through his organization, the European Entrepreneurship Foundation (EEF). He even received a high award from the president of Hungary for his work.

Peter Záboji helped create the first European Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program in 2006. This program helps new companies grow quickly. He also brought the first Seedcamp event to Hungary in 2012, which connects startups with investors.

He founded and led the European Entrepreneurship Foundation. This foundation is the oldest business incubator in Eastern Europe. A business incubator helps new companies get started by offering support and resources.

Peter Záboji lived and worked in many countries, including Germany, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He was a manager in the telecom industry and invested in private companies. In 2008, he returned to Hungary after setting up his foundation. He often spoke at conferences about business and investing.

Peter Záboji's Early Life and Education

Peter Záboji and his family left Budapest in 1956. This was during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a big event in Hungary's history.

He went to school at the European Gymnasium Burg Kastl in Bavaria, Germany. After studying at universities in Leuven and Munich, he earned an MBA degree from INSEAD. An MBA is a special business degree.

He also had degrees in Physics and Mathematics. He earned a Master of Science in business from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.

Peter Záboji's Career Journey

Peter Záboji started his career in 1970 at IBM Germany. Later, he worked for Siemens for 18 years in both the US and Germany.

In 1991, he became a managing director at GPT Communications in the UK. In 1993, he helped start a company called Schoeller International. They created a new packaging system that later became famous as IFCO.

In 1997, Peter Záboji became the managing director of o.tel.o, a new telecom company in Germany. Two years later, he founded European Telco Exchange AG. This company launched in 2000 and became a public company in 2005.

Around 2000, a large private equity firm called Kohlberg, Kravis, and Roberts bought Bosch Telekom. Peter Záboji helped with this deal and became the CEO. He helped turn the company around, renamed it Tenovis, and later sold it. In 2004, he was a main investor in buying European Mobile Telephone Services Germany. This company was renamed Bitronic and now helps people with computer and communication products.

He was also a board member for the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He advised many other groups, including the Common Sense Society Budapest.

Teaching and Mentoring

After leaving his active management roles in 2003, Peter Záboji was invited to teach at INSEAD. He became one of the first "Entrepreneurs in Residence." This meant he shared his real-world business experience with students.

A few months later, he became a professor of entrepreneurship. He helped organize business competitions and spoke at conferences about starting businesses and investing.

In 2009, Peter Záboji started a pilot course on entrepreneurship at the St Ignatius College in Budapest. He also lectured on entrepreneurship at CEU Business School in Budapest for over two years. In 2013, a Startup Accelerator Course he designed was launched at ESSCA. He also held workshops in other cities like Bratislava, Cluj, Prague, and Sofia.

Helping New Businesses as an Angel Investor

During the early 2000s, when many internet companies were starting (the dot-com revolution), Peter Záboji was asked to join the boards of several venture capital companies.

In 1999, he helped ACG, a company he chaired, go public on the Frankfurt's stock market. Since then, he actively worked as a business angel. An angel investor is someone who provides money for a startup, usually in exchange for ownership equity. He served on the boards of many new European companies.

In 2005, he created the European Entrepreneurship Foundation (EEF). In 2006, they launched their first business accelerator program at INSEAD. This program helped many new companies get started. Since 2009, EEF has offered many programs and events in Central and Eastern European cities. Their goal is to encourage entrepreneurship and build a strong environment for new businesses. He also helped build Europreneurs.org, which supports entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe.

In October 2013, the National Innovation Office of Hungary chose Peter Záboji as one of four technology incubators. These incubators would receive funding from the Hungarian state. Their mission was to help the local startup scene grow even faster.

Books Written by Peter Záboji

In 2002, Peter Záboji wrote a management book called “CHANGE! Shape today your company of tomorrow.” In this book, he shared how he transformed Bosch Telekom into Tenovis. Later, in 2014, he published another book in Hungarian, called Startup, Felnőtteknek! (Startup for Grown Ups).

Peter Záboji's Personal Life

Peter Záboji moved back to Budapest in 2008. He spent the rest of his life in the Central and Eastern European region with his wife and three children. He was very good at languages and could speak English, German, French, and Hungarian.

He passed away on July 3, 2015, in Budapest. As he wished, the Budapest Festival Orchestra played Mozart's Requiem at his memorial service. Ivan Fischer led the performance.