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Platzhalter Speakers
Walter Rothensteiner
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Chairman of the Managing Board & CEO,
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG

Biography

Walter Rothensteiner is Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich (RZB). ?RZB is the core company of RZB Group, one of the largest banking groups in CEE and the lead institute of the  Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria.


Other Group responsibilties:
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Raiffeisen Bank International , Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board Uniqa Group Austria and Member of the Board of Raiffeisenverband Österreich ( Austrian Raiffeisen Confederation).


Other business functions:
Chairman of the Federal Division for Bank and Insurance in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Member of the General Council of the Austrian National Bank, Member of the Federal Council of the Federation of Austrian Industries, Member of the Steering Committe of Unico Banking Group, First Vice President of the German Chamber of Commerce in Austria, Member of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Austria.


Other  functions:
Vice President of the Austrian Red Cross, Member of the Senate of the Austrian Academy of Science, Member of the Supervisory Board ?of the Vienna State Opera,  President of the Friends of the Grafenegg Music Festival,  Member of the Council of European Forum Alpbach and Member of International Salzburg Association. ?? 


He also serves as Honorary Consul-General of the Republic of Singapore in Austria.

Education, Professional experience, Personal details:
Doctorate from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Prior to to taking up the role of CEO at RZB  in 1995 he held several Management Board positions, including Raiffeisen Landesbank Niederösterreich-Wien ( where he started his professional career in 1975) and associated industrial companies.

Born on March 7th, 1953. Married to Dr. Charlotte Rothensteiner-Richter    

Presentation

DOWNLOAD as PDF

Welcome Address

by Dr. Rothensteiner

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very glad to be here with you and to address some words of welcome today. The Organizers have managed again to prepare a highly interesting programme. The fact that this is already the third Drucker Forum in Vienna clearly signals the success of this venture. Congratulations to Dr. Straub and his team. Raiffeisen has been a founding member of the Austrian Drucker Society and is a supporter of the Drucker Forum. This Monday the United Nations announced officially next year as the International Year of Cooperatives. The Drucker Society of Austria and Raiffeisen will team up to contribute to a broader discussion and dialogue about value creation models during the Drucker Forum 2012.

Today's conference does not purely take place to pay a tribute to one of the most important management thinkers. It takes place because Drucker's concepts can contribute substantially to the solution of many problems we are facing in today's business world, but also in politics and in society.

Peter Drucker's ideas and views influenced a huge number of leaders in many parts of the world and from a broad range of business. Among them, there have been many Raiffeisen executives, like myself.

There are good reasons for that:
Throughout his life Peter Drucker called for a fair balance between short term needs, short term thinking and long term sustainability.
Throughout his life Peter Drucker called for a fair balance between profitability and other obligations. He clearly stated that profit should not be the primary and even less the only goal. Short term profits are very often short term lived.

He also placed emphasis to look at the specific mission of individual organisations without disregarding common good and he made clear that freedom includes responsibility. In the first place Drucker held managers responsible for achieving the mission of the organisation or institution. Taking care of the human element he postulated as a second responsibility for management. Supporting and enabling people to realize their potential and to contribute to the common endeavour is of timeless importance.
The third key responsibility he defined is the management of impact at society at large, which is of even greater importance in times of economic stress with disruptive effect on our societies.

Peter Drucker's concepts and his legacy concure with the Raiffeisen Philosophy in many respect. Raiffeisen Austria of today is worldwide active, however with a clear focus on Austria and 17 markets in Central and Eastern Europe where a staff of 60,000 people serves 13.5 million customers.
Just few weeks ago the 125 year-anniversary of Raiffeisen Austria was celebrated. This event was not meant to point to the success of yesterday, something Peter Drucker always critized as a tendency of organisations (and governments). It was meant to highlight the timeless importance of Raiffeisen's specific characteristics and deeply rooted broad economic and social perspectives.

Since 2008 the waves of financial crisis have led to hypercritical assessment of rules, business principles and business models in banking. Governments and societies are calling for drastic adjustments from financial institutions. In some generalising views banking business is the major cause of any crisis. This includes the European sovereign debt crisis, although already before the Lehman collapse 11 out of 15 member states of the Eurozone did not fulfil the Maastricht criterias.

There are big efforts necessary to overcome the turbulences and complex problems we are facing right now in many parts of the world economy. I am sure that the knowledge of Peter Drucker's thinking and his concepts would be helpful for more differentiation and a better mutual understanding in all relevant discussions, debates and actions , wherever they take place:

among managers, regulators, politicians and not to forget journalists.
I am sure this conference will make some useful contributions and wish every success for the Drucker Forum 2011

Video