Captain Béla SZALMA President Hungarian Federation of Danube Ports Director Centroport Ltd. Chairman Danube Ports Network’s Advisory Group

Captain Béla SZALMA is a well reputed member of the shipping and port community in the Danube Region and beyond. A native of Budapest, Bela has dedicated his entire professional life to ports, shipping, and logistics affairs. He has more than 13 years’ experience at sea, where he started in 1980 as a deck boy -- later to become a deck officer and master mariner. He received his Master mariner licence in 1990.

Since 1992, he has been at the helm of major international freight forwarding and logistics companies e.g. Dunaferr Portolan Ltd, Plimsoll Ltd, Centroport Ltd. etc. In this capacity, as of 2004, he has been involved and contributed to many EU-funded projects in the field of inland navigation and ports. Since 2012, Capt. Szalma has been the President of the Hungarian Federation of Danube Ports. Since February 2019, he serves as the Chairman of the Danube Ports Network’s Advisory Group.

Béla graduated in 1980 from the University of Technology in Budapest, Faculty of Transportation, specialising in maritime transport, and later in 1992 from the Budapest Business School College of International Management and Business where he specialised in Forwarding & Logistics. He is a certified expert in port operations and logistics, merchant marine, yachting and transport engineering. He has been serving as President on the Board of State Examination at Business School Budapest (International College of Management), and holds teaching and academic positions at the BME University of Technology/Department of Aircraft and Ships, the BGE Business School and the Shipping Academy in Budapest.