March 17, 2026
Balazs Fejes – CEO – EPAM Systems
Balazs Fejes: Leading with Discipline in an Age of Disruption
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Most global technology companies start as tight-knit engineering teams, but only a few manage to scale into organizations of tens of thousands without facing moments that fundamentally reshape how they operate. Growth at that level is about navigating inflection points that test a company’s identity, resilience, and ability to adapt. Rapid expansion, unexpected crises, and shifting market forces all play a role, and in today’s landscape those pressures are accelerating as AI, geopolitical uncertainty, and enterprise-wide transformation redefine how companies build technology and compete.
On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, we speak with Balazs Fejes, CEO of EPAM Systems, to explore how the company transformed from a small Eastern European engineering shop into a $5.5 billion global leader in digital engineering and consulting. We unpack the leadership lessons that come from scaling through crises, the operational discipline required to build engineering organizations at global scale, and why companies that successfully industrialize AI—not just experiment with it—will define the next decade of enterprise transformation.
Wartime Crisis Navigation & Executive Judgement
The moment that most shaped Balazs Fejes as a leader didn’t unfold in a boardroom or during a planned strategy review. It arrived in the middle of the night in February 2022, when news of the invasion of Ukraine broke and instantly upended the center of gravity for EPAM. More than half of the company’s workforce was based across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, turning a geopolitical crisis into an immediate and deeply human operational challenge.
Thousands of employees suddenly needed relocation and support while global clients were depending on EPAM’s engineering teams to continue to deliver. As Balazs shared, “the most pivotal moment was when the war started. You are playing with the fact that you have so many employees relying on you. You need to relocate them and stabilize the business at the same time.” And that’s exactly what they did. EPAM quickly established war room-style coordination, mobilized relocation efforts across multiple countries, and maintained constant communication with customers to reinforce stability. Those actions protected employees, preserved delivery for clients, and strengthened trust with enterprise partners, allowing the company to maintain momentum and continue global relationships even during one of the most uncertain periods in its history.
From Experiments to Enterprise-Ready AI
While many technology companies rushed into the AI conversation, EPAM took a more deliberate approach under Balazs’s leadership. The company spent much of 2023 running internal experiments across nearly every function in the organization, testing how emerging models could improve engineering workflows and operational areas such as HR, legal, finance, and talent management.
As Balazs explained, “We ran a lot of experiments trying to figure out what we can use this thing for.” Those experiments helped EPAM identify practical use cases early, from automating routine internal processes to embedding AI directly into engineering workflows and enterprise solutions for clients. Instead of chasing hype, the company focused on building repeatable capabilities that could scale across its global engineering organization and position EPAM as a partner helping large enterprises move from AI experimentation to real implementation.
Advice For Leaders In The AI Era
Balazs offered a clear message for leaders navigating the current wave of AI disruption. While many organizations are rushing to adopt the latest tools, he believes the real advantage lies in getting the fundamentals right and staying close to the technology frontier. That means modernizing infrastructure, addressing years of accumulated technical debt, and ensuring that data systems are strong enough to support AI-driven applications.
As Balazs explained, “everybody is sitting on tons of technology debt,” and without fixing those foundations, companies will struggle to deploy AI effectively. More importantly, he encourages leaders to think beyond cost reduction and focus on growth. The real opportunity, he argues, is not simply automating tasks but using AI to build new products, unlock new capabilities, and drive entirely new revenue streams that will shape the next generation of enterprise innovation.
