Members of the Supervisory Board
The Supervisory Board had the following ten members as of 31 December 2019:
Günter Geyer
Chairman
Year of birth: 1943
Date first appointed: 2014
End of current term of office: 2024
Günter Geyer joined Wiener Städtische in 1974 and was appointed to the Managing Board in 1988. In 2001, he became General Manager and Chairman of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische. The insurance group’s entry into the CEE market, with the establishment of the Kooperativa insurance companies in Bratislava and Prague and expansion into other CEE countries to become a major international insurance group, began under his leadership. Günter Geyer received many national and international awards for his involvement in these countries. For example, he received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Economics in Bratislava for his contribution to the development of the insurance industry in the Republic of Slovakia. Günter Geyer resigned from his position as Chairman of the Managing Board of VIG Holding on 31 May 2012. He has held the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Wiener Städtische since 2009 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of VIG Holding since 2014. He is also the Chairman of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische Wechselseitiger Versicherungsverein, the principal shareholder of Vienna Insurance Group AG Wiener Versicherung Gruppe.
Rudolf Ertl
1st Deputy Chairman
Year of birth: 1946
Date first appointed: 2014
End of current term of office: 2024
Rudolf Ertl is Doctor of Laws and has been with the insurance group since 1972. He was a Member of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische until the end of 2008 and a Member of the Managing Board of Donau Versicherung until June 2009. He is a Member of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische Wechselseitiger Versicherungsverein, the principal shareholder of VIG Holding. The insurance expertise he has accumulated over many years, and his knowledge of the CEE region make Rudolf Ertl a major asset to the Company as 1st Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
Maria Kubitschek
2nd Deputy Chairwoman
Year of birth: 1962
Date first appointed: 2014
End of current term of office: 2024
After completing her studies in social sciences and economics at the University of Vienna, Maria Kubitschek began working for the Vienna Chamber of Labour in 1988. After holding a variety of management positions, she was head of the Economic Division at the Vienna Chamber of Labour starting in 2001, with an interruption from 2011 until 2013 as head of the cabinet for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology. She has been Deputy Director of the Vienna Federal Chamber of Labour since 2016, responsible, among other things, for coordinating the digitalisation strategy of the Federal Chamber of Labour and the digitalisation fund of the Vienna Chamber of Labour, and head of the European office in Brussels. She is also a member of the managing board of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO).
Martina Dobringer
Year of birth: 1947
Date first appointed: 2011
End of current term of office: 2024
Martina Dobringer held various management positions in the Coface group starting in 1989 and brings her extensive knowledge of the international insurance industry with her. As Chairwoman of the Managing Board of Coface Central Europe Holding AG, she laid the cornerstone for Coface’s successful expansion into this region. From 2001 to 2011, she was General Manager and Chairwoman of the Managing Board of Coface Austria Holding AG. In 2011, she was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria, and in 2006 she became the first Austrian businesswoman to receive the highest French honour (“Chevalier dans l’ordre de la Légion”).
Gerhard Fabisch
Year of birth: 1960
Date first appointed: 2017
End of current term of office: 2024
Gerhard Fabisch studied business administration and economics. He joined the Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen AG in 1985 and was made a member of the Managing Board in 2001 and Chairman of the Managing Board in 2004. Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen AG has a number of affiliated companies abroad, including in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Gerhard Fabisch is a member of the Board of Directors of ESBG (European Savings and Retail Banking Group) and WSBI (World Savings Banks Institute). He has been President of the Austrian Sparkassenverband since 2014.
Peter Mihók
Year of birth: 1948
Date first appointed: 2019
End of current term of office: 2024
Since 1992, Peter Mihók has been Chairman of the Slovakian Chamber of Trade and Industry, Chairman of the World Chambers Federation of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris and advisor in the EU Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, among other things. He studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava and received a Ph.D. degree in the area of East-West economic relations and an honorary doctorate from the University of Economics in Bratislava. In addition to numerous other awards, he received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria in 2013 from Heinz Fischer, the President of Austria at that time.
Heinz Öhler
Year of birth: 1945
Date first appointed: 2002
End of current term of office: 2024
Heinz Öhler joined the Tiroler Gebietskrankenkasse in 1970, where he initially held a position as head of the Finance Department and later held an executive position until 2011. In this position he managed country-wide projects and represented regional health insurance funds in a variety of ministerial committees, among other things. In March 2007, he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria for his work related to Austrian social security. He has held many positions in the sports world, including being appointed as a Member of the Tyrolean State Sports Council in November 2016.
Georg Riedl
Year of birth: 1959
Date first appointed: 2014
End of current term of office: 2024
After completing his legal studies at the University of Vienna, Georg Riedl has worked as an independent lawyer since 1991. His areas of expertise include company and tax law, mergers & acquisitions, as well as private foundation law and contract law, at which his activities cover national and international transactions.
Gabriele Semmelrock-Werzer
Year of birth: 1958
Date first appointed: 2017
End of current term of office: 2024
After holding positions at the Austrian branches of Chase Manhattan Bank AG and Crèdit Lyonnais AG, Gabriele Semmelrock-Werzer worked for Erste Group Bank AG in a variety of areas starting in 1995. She headed the Group Investor Relations department from 1999 to 2010, and in addition to international communications also actively assisted the expansion of the Erste Group into the CEE region and spent time in Prague and Bucharest. Since 2011, she has been Chairwoman of the Managing Board of Kärntner Sparkasse AG, which also holds a 70% interest in Sparkasse d.d. in Slovenia.
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell
Year of birth: 1952
Date first appointed: 2012
End of current term of office: 2024
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell was Vice Governor of the National Bank of Austria (OeNB) from 1998 to 2003 and member of the Board of Directors from 1997 to 2003. She also has many years of international experience, at the European level in particular. She was the Austrian Vice Governor to the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Economic and Financial Committee – the most important economic policy advisory committee of the European Union. Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell was responsible for the Economics and Financial Markets divisions at the National Bank of Austria. From 2003 to 2011, she was a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank.
The curriculum vitae of the members of the Supervisory Board are available online on the website at www.vig.com/management.
Changes during the reporting year
Bernhard Backovsky (year of birth 1943) was a Member of the Supervisory Board in financial year 2019 from 1 January 2019 to 24 May 2019 and left the Supervisory Board at the end of his term of office on 24 May 2019.