Éva Hegedüs was born in Eger, Hungary. She graduated with honors from the Budapest University of Economics and began her career in 1979 as a research fellow at the Institute of Industrial Economics and Business Organisation. Between 1981 and 1996, she worked in various governmental institutions, serving from 1993 as Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance.

In 1997, she was involved in the founding of the Land and Mortgage Bank, where she served as Deputy CEO, overseeing risk management and securities. She organized Hungary’s first mortgage bond issuance. Between 2000 and 2002, she was Deputy State Secretary for strategic and energy affairs at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, leading Hungary’s energy liberalization efforts and housing finance regulation.

From 2002 to 2006, she led the retail division of OTP Bank and simultaneously chaired the board of OTP Home Savings Ltd. In 2006, she became Chairperson & CEO of BG Hungary Real Estate Finance Ltd. and BG Hungary Leasing Ltd.

Since May 2010, she has served as CEO and Vice-Chair of the Board of GRÁNIT Bank. She is a co-founder and Chairperson & CEO of GRÁNIT Bank. Under her leadership, the bank has grown from a greenfield project into Hungary’s fastest-growing and most cost-efficient financial institution. She is credited with developing the country’s first fully digital banking model.

She has been a member of the Board of the Hungarian Banking Association since 2013 and Secretary General of the Hungarian Economic Association since 2014. Her work has earned numerous domestic and international awards.

In 2015, Hungarian bank executives voted her Banker of the Year at the MasterCard – Bank of the Year Awards. In 2017, she received the “Award for the Hungarian Economy” for her outstanding decades-long contribution to the financial and banking sector. The Hungarian Managers’ Association honored her with the “Manager of the Year” award in 2020. In 2024, for the sixth consecutive year, Forbes magazine named her the most influential Hungarian businesswoman.