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Draft:Heinz Kessler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinz Kessler (born 19 August 1938 in Vienna) is an Austrian businessman. He led the paper manufacturer Nettingsdorfer Papierfabrik AG as chairman of its executive board from 1982 to 2003, and was president of the Federation of Austrian Industry (Industriellenvereinigung, IV) from 1988 to 1996, the period in which Austria moved towards membership of the European Union.

Life

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Kessler studied in Vienna and completed a doctorate in political science (Dr. rer. pol.) in 1964.[1][2] The same year he published a study on the importance of the paper industry for Austrian foreign trade — the industry in which he would spend his entire career.[3] He had already worked as an intern at paper and pulp mills in Austria and abroad while still a student.[1][4]

Career

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Kessler joined Nettingsdorfer Papierfabrik AG, in Nettingsdorf (part of Ansfelden, Upper Austria), in 1964 and remained with the company for the rest of his working life.[4][5] He was appointed to the executive board in 1974 and became its chairman — the company's general director — on 1 January 1982, a post he held for more than twenty-one years.[4] He retired on 31 August 2003 and was succeeded as general director by his deputy, Ferdinand Fuhrmann.[4][6] Kessler then moved to the company's supervisory board as its chairman, a role he still held in 2013.[1]

His time at the top of the company spanned its shift from Austrian to international ownership: by the time of his retirement Nettingsdorfer was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dublin-based Jefferson Smurfit Group.[6]

President of the Federation of Austrian Industry

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Kessler was elected president of the Federation of Austrian Industry by its board on 21 April 1988,[7] took office that June, and led the organisation until 23 May 1996. He followed Christian Beurle and was succeeded by Peter Mitterbauer.[4] The federation he headed had some 2,000 members and represented, measured by employment, roughly 85 percent of Austria's private industry.[8]

His presidency coincided with the collapse of communism on Austria's eastern border and the country's push towards the European Community, and he used the office to argue for engagement with both. He called for an education system geared to European integration, telling a 1989 congress jointly organised with the Chamber of Commerce that integration concerned "not only trade, payments and economic policy... but also the education system".[9] He oversaw the federation's opening to the east, including a representative office in Budapest in 1991 intended to help Austrian companies into the newly opening Hungarian market; at its opening he described the IV as "non-partisan but by no means unpolitical".[8]

Towards the end of his term his tone sharpened. With industrial employment falling by some 40,000 in a single year, he warned in 1994 that Austria as a business location would "die, piece by piece" unless labour costs, operating hours and environmental rules were brought closer to international norms.[10]

Later roles

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In April 2000 the newsmagazine profil reported that Kessler — by then still general director of Nettingsdorfer and a former IV president — was under discussion in Austrian business circles as a possible lead negotiator on compensation for people forced to work under the Nazi regime, following a wave of lawsuits filed in the United States. He said he would take the role only "if there is enough support," and called the lawsuits "further proof that we can't keep pushing the problem aside".[11] The following year a member of the National Council described him on the record as "a well-known industrialist" involved in those negotiations alongside the government's chief negotiator, Maria Schaumayer.[12] From its founding on 19 May 2000 he chaired the working group ARGE "Plattform humanitäre Aktion".[4]

Kessler held a number of other board positions, including chairman of the board of the Stepski private foundation, chairman of the supervisory boards of Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG and Reform-Werke Bauer & Co GesmbH, deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Duropack AG, third deputy chairman of the supervisory board of UNIQA Versicherungen AG, and member of the supervisory board of Investkredit Bank AG.[4]

On Kessler's 70th birthday in 2008, Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer sent him a letter of congratulations thanking him for his services to the country, writing that both at the head of Nettingsdorfer Papierfabrik and as president of the Federation of Austrian Industry he had "brought about changes of direction that have had a very positive effect on Austria's economic and social development and on domestic industry".[13]

Honours

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  • Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria (Großes Silbernes Ehrenzeichen mit dem Stern für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich)[4]
  • Golden Decoration of Honour of the State of Upper Austria (Goldenes Ehrenzeichen des Landes Oberösterreich)[4]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Heinz Kessler – 75 Jahre". Holzkurier (in German). 2013-08-21. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  2. ↑ "Heinz Kessler – 70 Jahre". Holzkurier (in German). 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  3. ↑ Kessler, Heinz (1964). Die Bedeutung der Papierindustrie für den österreichischen Außenhandel (in German). Vienna – via Austrian National Library catalogue, shelfmark 992531-C.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Die Präsidenten der IV von 1946–2020". Industriellenvereinigung (in German). Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  5. ↑ "Kessler, Heinz". AEIOU Austria Encyclopedia, Austria-Forum. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  6. 1 2 "Wechsel im Vorstand bei "Smurfit Nettingsdorfer"". Der Standard (in German). Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  7. ↑ "Mittagsjournal, 21. April 1988". ORF Mittagsjournal, via Österreichische Mediathek (in German). 1988-04-21. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  8. 1 2 "Industriellenvereinigung "expandiert" nach Ungarn". Die Furche (in German). 1991-06-26. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  9. ↑ "Bildung für Europa". Die Furche (in German). 1989-06-30. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  10. ↑ "Jammern allein hilft nicht". Die Furche (in German). 1994-09-15. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  11. ↑ ""profil": Kessler: "Können Problem nicht länger wegschieben"". profil, via OTS (in German). 2000-04-16. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  12. ↑ "Stenographisches Protokoll, Nationalrat XXI. GP, 22. Sitzung, p. 32". Parlament Österreich (in German). Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  13. ↑ "Bundespräsident Dr. Fischer gratuliert Aufsichtsratspräsident Dr. Kessler zum Geburtstag". OTS / Office of the Federal President of Austria (in German). 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
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Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:Austrian businesspeople Category:Businesspeople from Vienna

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