János Ballai

After graduating from a technical school in mechanical engineering, he started working at Videoton. He began his computer engineering career at the Information Technology Industrial Research Institute (HKI) with a Honeywell 200 machine. He earned his engineering degree while working.

When the predecessor institution of the Kandó Kálmán Technical College (KKMF) launched the computer science major in the 1970/71 academic year (among the first in our country), he taught the subject Peripheral Devices as a lecturer. When the vocational training was transferred to the college's Székesfehérvár location, he was already a full-time instructor there; his task was also to maintain professional relations with Videoton.

He worked at the Technical Directorate of the Hungarian Airline Company (MALÉV) from 1975, and then, when the airline was renewed, he was assigned to integrate the scattered technical and economic data processing departments and to establish the central, company-level Computer Engineering Department, of which he was a successful leader between 1976 and 1990. The Computer Engineering (later known as Computer Engineering Development or Informatics) Department had an independent computer center and data recording department (the system organizers and programmers of the organization, which had grown to 100 people, developed approximately 30 major systems, which were successfully implemented and operated).

At the same time, due to international activity and aviation standardization, it was necessary for MALÉV to connect to large international telecommunications networks and group-user, advanced application systems. Choosing SITA, a global company producing aviation IT systems, as its strategic partner, MALÉV introduced - in a unique way in Hungarian computer technology and in the region at that time - the automated passenger reservation, the passenger management and flight launch system, and the air cargo transportation system, which were later followed by new international solutions and generations. In the computerization of aircraft technical maintenance and management, the SAGIL system was completed in a joint French-Hungarian development - under his leadership - by 1983. As a delegated member of MALÉV in the SITA development committee, he represented 18 airlines in the issue of joint developments between 1977 and 1982.

After 1991, he was a department manager at Leumi Bank, also overseeing IT. Later, he worked for other banks on large IT projects.

As a member of the NJSZT Informatics History Forum (iTF), he has been involved in the construction of the Informatics History Database since 2013: he led the processing of the history of Hungarian aviation informatics.