István Komoróczki

István Komoróczki is a Hungarian civil servant and former employee of Imperial Tobacco. His most recent role at Imperial was that of European Director for Regulatory and Corporate Affairs (2010-2013). Komoróczki’s career is an example of the revolving door between government positions and the tobacco industry.

Background

Komoróczki began his career as a diplomat for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, travelling across Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1979 until 1996.¹

Career with Tobacco Industry

Komoróczki began working at Imperial Tobacco Hungary Ltd. in 2002 as Corporate Affairs Director. In 2010, he was promoted to European Director of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs in Belgium. From 2010 to 2013, he was based at Imperial’s EU Affairs office in Brussels.¹

Career in Diplomacy and Government

After leaving Imperial in June 2013, Komoróczki returned to Hungary to work as the Minister of State Secretariat for Planning Coordination in the Ministry for National Economy until 2014.² In 2015, he became Advisor to the President of the National Federation of Consumer Co-operative Societies and Trade Associations (AFEOSZ-COOP), Hungary,³ a Hungarian trade organisation,⁴ and member of the European region of the International Co-operative Alliance.⁵

Komoróczki also became a member of the Hungarian delegation to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in 2015. In 2018, he became President of both the EESC’s EU-Georgia Domestic Advisory Group on sustainable development and trade in Georgia⁶ and the EU-Georgia Civil Society platform, whose purpose is to coordinate and invite comment from civil societies from the both the EU and Georgia.³⁷ Though it is not a member of the EU, Georgia has had a special economic agreement permitting free trade between Georgia and the EU since 2016⁸ and in 2019 demonstrated further interest in achieving full member status.⁹

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Revolving Door
• Imperial Tobacco