József Vida obtained his diplomas at the University of Pécs, the Budapest School of Economics, Szent István University and at Université Paris X-Nanterre.
He started his career in finance at Citibank in 1999, and in 2001 he became Head of Department at the Hungarian Savings Bank. In 2003, he joined Szentgál és Vidéke Takarékszövetkezet, where he was first Director of the active business unit and then President and CEO.
He played a key role in the renewal of the domestic savings cooperative sector. From 2007 to 2014, as a member of the Board of the National Association of Savings Cooperatives, he represented his region in the savings cooperatives’ representative body for two terms. Since 2014, he has been CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Magyar Takarék Befektetési és Vagyongazdálkodási Ltd. In 2015, under his leadership, ten savings cooperatives merged to form B3 Takarék Szövetkezet. In July 2016, he was elected Chairman of the Szövetkezeti Hitelintézetek Integrációs Szervezete (SZHISZ) (Integration Organisation of Cooperative Credit Institutions), the central governing body of the Savings Bank Group, and in December he was appointed CEO of the Group’s central bank, Magyar Takarékszövetkezeti Bank. Under his leadership, FHB Bank and FHB Jelzálogbank were integrated into the Takarék Group in 2017.
Under József Vida’s leadership, twelve regional credit institutions were created in 2017 through the merger of fifty-two savings banks, which were merged in two steps in 2019 into a single universal commercial bank, Takarékbank. He became the first CEO of the new national bank. Under his leadership, the process of merging Budapest Bank, MKB Bank and Takarékbank within Magyar Bankholding was launched in 2020, and the strategy and timetable for the merger were adopted in 2021.
Since 2017, he has been Chairman of MBH Jelzálogbank.
In addition to his banking activities, he has been a liquidation and reorganisation advisor to Ariadné Válságkezelő Ltd. since 2015, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Deposit Insurance Fund since September 2016 and a member of the Supervisory Board of STATUS Capital Venture Capital Fund Management since December 2016. The General Meeting of Opus Global Plc., listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange, elected him as a member of the Board of Directors from 19 June 2018 to 2 May 2022, and he was elected Chairman of the Board in 2022.
In June 2021, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the University of Physical Education, which manages the University of Physical Education, and in July 2021, he was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Foundation for the Land of the Future Generation, which manages the Mezőhegyes Ménesbirtok. From July 2022, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of MKIF Infrastruktúra Üzemeltető Ltd. and MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Ltd. Since March 2023, he has been the CEO of Abraham Goldmann Bizalmi Vagyonkezelő Ltd. Since February 2024, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of CONCORDIA Közraktár Ltd.
Since 2019, the Abraham Goldmann Bizalmi Vagyonkezelő, in which he holds an interest, has owned the TV2 Media Group.
Moreover, he is also a farmer and holds leading positions in several social organisations: he is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Hungarian Dog Breeders and the Chairman of the National Association of Hungarian Dog Breeders in Leonberg. He is a passionate charioteer, a professional chef and the producer of several nature-themed films.