October 2011 - Round 2

Winner - Gerard Lucey

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in Ireland, Gerard Lucey decided to escape auditing and took up a two-year assignment in Hungary. That was 1996, and he's still here. Apart from his love of Budapest and Hungary, the major attraction in staying on was - as with so many expats - a woman! Gerard is married to Szilvia and they have three Irish-Hungarian sons, so he is kept busy at home  when not counting beans at work, or for the IHBC where he is a Board member and treasurer. A native of Dublin,Gerard also has a bit of Cork in him – so surely the Blarney effect is there in the blood somewhere.

October 2011 Competitors

Born shy, introverted and tongue-tied, Steve Carlson was surprised to discover that he enjoys speaking in public. He occasionally puts the skill to good use in his career as an online marketer. A native of Southern California, Steve has spent more than 20 years explaining to Hungarians why he enjoys living in Budapest.

After studying physics, which he recovered from by studying film, Donegal-born Declan Hannigan has spent the last 13 years writing and directing short films, corporate films, and commercials. His film for the European Parliament is being distributed throughout the EU and he won the Bronze medal at the 2008 IVCA awards in London for his work with astronauts for the European Space Agency. Declan's short film Csapás has won several prizes, including the main prize at the Madrid Film Festival. He is also in development on a feature film.

Hailing from Armagh in Northern Ireland, Pat Loughran found his way to Budapest just over two years ago and is finding it hard to leave. He is regularly accused of being mad for learning Hungarian without the pre-requiste Hungarian wife, girlfriend or granny. Pat is a sportman trapped in an engineers body, you name the sport and he has tried it.Public speaking is not Pat's thing but then neither was marathon running until very recently, so here goes.

 Anna Laszlo is a Budapest native. She has lived in Germany and the USA for a while. An ex - as well as a future English and American Studies student - she wrote   a humorous thesis about humor, and is planning to do a Phd in the same field. Her interests include self-development, languages, psychology, philosophy, gender studies, aerobics, and all forms of humor. She is also interested in a special type of martial arts...