The total compensation of MOL Group’s Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi increased by 11 percent in 2024, according to the company’s latest remuneration report. Hernádi earned approximately 1.45 billion Hungarian forints (roughly $3.7 million USD) in 2025, including all elements of his compensation.
This figure is comprised of several components:
- 210 million forints in base salary,
- 394 million forints in short-term bonus (related to both 2023 and 2024 performance),
- 744 million forints in long-term incentive,
- 1.1 million forints in non-salary benefits,
- and 99 million forints in director’s fees.
Compensation varied among other members of the company’s leadership team.
- József Molnár’s total compensation decreased by 22 percent,
- József Simola’s was reduced by 20 percent (he assumed leadership of Mohu on August 15, 2025, so compensation is shown proportionally),
- Oszkár Világi’s decreased by 1 percent,
- while György Bacsa saw a 5 percent increase.
József Molnár, the company’s CEO, earned 814 million forints last year. This included a base salary of 146 million forints, 163 million forints in short-term bonus, 426 million forints in long-term bonus, 1 million forints in non-salary benefits, and 78 million forints in director’s fees.
The reported amounts in each case include all compensation related to the leader’s position – including the managerial role at the public limited company, fees from board membership, and, where relevant, positions held at other affiliated companies. In Oszkár Világi’s case, for example, the compensation package for the Chairman-CEO of Slovnaft is also part of the total remuneration.
Timing of Incentives Influenced the Numbers
The structure of the short-term incentive program, with its differing payout schedules, primarily influences the evolution of paid compensation each year.
The company operates a short-term incentive system in two ways regarding the payment schedule:
- one option is the MRP Short-term Share Ownership Program (Employee Share Ownership Program – Short-term Incentive, MRP STI),
- the other is a cash bonus; these are different programs with different payment timelines.
The performance indicators for each bonus year also differ, which can cause significant differences in the evolution of annual payments. The short-term incentives paid in 2025 had lower corporate performance indicators compared to the corporate performance multipliers paid in previous years.
Director and Supervisory Board Remuneration Differed
However, the remuneration of MOL’s board members decreased by 2.4 percent compared to 2024, attributable to changes in the euro-forint exchange rate and the MOL share price. The remuneration of the company’s supervisory board members increased by an average of approximately 5.5 percent in 2025.
The increase compared to 2024 is due to several factors:
- changes in the euro-forint exchange rate used for payments,
- the holding of an extraordinary supervisory board meeting in 2025,
- and changes in the number of meetings attended by the chairman and vice-chairman of the board of directors and its committees.
Significantly Different Orders in International Comparison
Executive compensation reaches much higher levels in the international energy sector. It was recently revealed that Shell CEO Wael Sawan’s pay increased significantly despite a decline in the company’s profits. The executive earned the equivalent of 6 billion forints in 2025.
Similar high figures are seen in the region. OMV CEO Alfred Stern, for example, received compensation equivalent to approximately 1.6 billion forints as of the 2024 report. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Romanian OMV Petrom, Christina Verchere, earned approximately 702 million forints last year.
In the case of BP CEO Murray Auchincloss, we are talking about an even more significant order of magnitude: his remuneration was equivalent to approximately 2.5 billion forints.
Key People Define the Company’s Strategy
Vilmos Szabó, Managing Partner of global consulting firm Korn Ferry International, says that the remuneration of large corporations’ leaders is always determined by the weight of the company and global competition.
“The incomes that seem unattainable to the average person only seem high at first glance – the top management of large energy companies actually operates according to the logic of the international labor market. Remuneration packages must simultaneously reflect the leaders’ responsibilities and the competition that exists between large companies in the region and Europe for experienced managers.”
– said the expert.
He added that performance-based incentives and share-based programs are playing an increasingly important role in remuneration systems, which can cause significant fluctuations in annual payments.
(Cover image: Zsolt Hernádi on August 1, 2025. Photo: Péter Papajcsik / Index)
