Guest post by Anikó Vágvölgyi and Dániel Galambos
In August 2012, we completed the first Software Edison Engineering Development class at GE Healthcare in Hungary. The two year program certainly kept us busy, from participating in groundbreaking GE Healthcare projects and meeting GE experts, to spending time in Chicago, painting the walls in a US school, and dodging hurricane Irene.
Ágnes Berzsenyi is a senior executive at GE Healthcare who was responsible for commercialising Vscan, a device that redefines the process of physical examination.
GE for CEE, the first corporate blog in the region, has been running for a year. So far it has reached tens of thousands of readers in and outside the region. We have run 200 posts, 30% of them by external experts such as bloggers from the MEP, CEPS, Bruegel, American Corners, Partners for Democratic Change, and the American Chambers of Commerce.
Guest post by Miklós Konkoly, Head of Private Banking, Budapest Bank
At a time like this, the task of investment advisors and private bankers is not to offer complicated products to investors, but to convince them of the importance of self-provision and that this is something that one should spend time thinking about. A good financial advisor works like a “financial doctor”: he/she provides information on the possible treatment methods, points out their advantages and risks, and tries to find the best solution together with the “patient.”
“How can leading companies contribute to the conservation and protection of water in the agricultural sector within the Danube River Basin?” This was the main question at the Business Friends of the Danube - Agricultural Forum in Budapest recently. The Forum gathered stakeholders from 14 Danube countries such as experts, governments, large corporations and NGOs. The conference was organized by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), which is the efforts coordinator to protect water resources and improve water quality in the Danube region. The goal of the program was to foster dialogue and facilitate transfer of know-how between countries and companies, while increasing awareness about agricultural concerns and challenges.
When Formula One car racing team Caterham tied up with GE in the summer of 2011, the F1 team gained access to GE's leading-edge technological, R&D and manufacturing resources. "They're a fantastic company to work with," says Caterham's chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne. "Speaking as an engineer, their technology and innovation centers are very inspiring places to be and they're very strong in areas that are highly relevant to us.
253 days prior to what London 2012 organizers claim to be the greenest-ever Olympic and Paralympic Games, we highlight the sustainable solutions that GE will be providing to support the host city and the Games. GE’s software has improved the efficiency and reliability of the smart grid serving East London, where the Olympic Park is being built, while other businesses within GE have provided advanced energy systems, high-tech lighting solutions, uninterruptible power supplies, state-of-the-art healthcare equipment and electric car charging points.
Partnership between industries and universities is a key aspect for EU sustainable competitiveness towards the US and Asian economies. In support of this policy, GE Aviation Czech offers a GE Engineering Trainee program for university students. “Participation in the program provides me more than just knowledge, I can also observe how an international company works”, says Filip Archalous, a student at Czech Technical University and an intern in GE Aviation Czech. Filip fell in love with flying as a kid and always wanted to become an engineer.
Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. According to the World Health Organisation estimates, 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 in the absence of any intervention. GE, as a leading healthcare company, is in the very centre of the fight against these miserable figures. The company focused on tackling breast cancer first, with a new healthymagination initiative – a $100 million open innovation challenge to find and fund ideas to accelerate the detection of breast diseases and enable a more personalized treatment.
Follow today’s plenary session on the future of our region at the Krynica Economic Forum - “EU 2020 for CEE: a Catalyst to Empower the CEE Region? Between Reality and Wishful Thinking”. During this plenary session, initiated by GE, the debate will focus on key issues that will set the ground for what the CEE region should look like in the EU 2020 context.
