Franz Wohlfahrt (Manager)

Franz Wohlfahrt (2013)

Franz Wohlfahrt (* 1959 in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee ) is an Austrian manager who was General Director of the Novomatic gaming group from 2004 to 2014 . He is also Vice President of the Austrian Tennis Association , responsible for popular sports .

Life

Welfare grew up in Velden am Wörthersee and studied subsequently from 1978 to 1983 at the University of Vienna Law . After successfully completing his studies, completing the court year and passing the bar exam, he founded the law firm Brunner & Wohlfahrt in 1988 with Ernst Brunner , specializing in gambling law .

From 1996 to 1998 he completed the EURO-JUS Dual Degree program at the University of Krems for further education , specializing in European business law and training in general management.

For several years, Wohlfahrt was a corporate lawyer for the Novomatic gaming group, before he was appointed General Manager in 2004 by Novomatic owner Johann Graf as successor to Johannes Hahn . Under his leadership, the company's turnover increased by almost 300 percent from 470.8 million euros (2004) to 1.387 billion euros (2011).

In 2009 , Wohlfahrt was the first European to be voted “Gaming Executive of the Year” by the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL). Franz Wohlfahrt is also a member of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce , the Federation of Industry and the Vienna Economic Forum and a member of IAGA (International Association of Gaming Attorneys) and IMGL (International Masters of Gaming Law). Wohlfahrt is a board member at Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute .

Private life

Franz Wohlfahrt has mastered the accordion since childhood , with which he partly financed his studies as a musician at festivals. Other hobbies are playing chess , cooking and mushroom picking.

Public controversy

Novomatic affair

In 2010, Novomatic and Franz Wohlfahrt came into the public eye as their general director through the allegation of buying the law (report by Green MP Peter Pilz ). In 2006, Novomatic and Telekom Austria are said to have paid the lobbyists Walter Meischberger and Peter Hochegger to work with their friend and Finance Minister at the time, Karl-Heinz Grasser , to bring about the softening of Casinos Austria's gambling monopoly in parliament. From 2012 to the investigation of the involved Austrian Parliament established committee of inquiry to clarify allegations of corruption with the so-called Novomatic affair. Although Wohlfahrt confirmed there that he had consultancy relationships with Meischberger and Hochegger, he repeatedly affirmed that they only created marketing concepts for Admiral and Novomatic and provided advice on the company's approach to changing the law on the gaming monopoly. The amendment to the law has therefore failed because the BZÖ unexpectedly voted against it at the decisive finance committee meeting on July 5, 2006. This sudden change of decision is supposed to be directly related to an order for a study worth 300,000 to the BZÖ advertising agency Orange by Casinos Austria, which would have been disadvantaged by the amendment.

For Wohlfahrt, however, the behavior of his company was nothing unusual, he even underlined in his testimony to the investigative committee that Meischberger's good contacts with Finance Minister Grasser had spoken in favor of his commitment.

Peter Hochegger, on the other hand, stated in his interrogation with the committee of inquiry that he could well imagine that the draft law to soften the gambling monopoly came from Wohlfahrt himself.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Franz Wohlfahrt: Affiliated - Counsel. International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL), accessed on July 18, 2012 (English). 
2. ↑ Dr. Ernst Brunner. Attorney Dr. Ernst Brunner, archived from the original on October 27, 2013 ; Retrieved July 18, 2012 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} About the person. Wiener Zeitung , accessed on July 18, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Graduates of the EURO-JUS study programs. (PDF; 104 kB) University for Continuing Education Krems , November 29, 2011, p. 22 , archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; Retrieved July 13, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Annual Report 2006. (PDF; 2.8 MB) Novomatic , December 31, 2006, p. 7 , archived from the original on April 30, 2014 ; accessed on July 13, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Annual Report 2011. (PDF; 8.7 MB) Novomatic , December 31, 2011, p. 6 , archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; accessed on July 13, 2012 . 
7. ^ President's Message. International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL), October 1, 2009, accessed on July 18, 2012 (English). 
8. ↑ CURRICULUM VITAE: Dr. Franz Wohlfahrt. (PDF; 54 kB) Novomatic , archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; Retrieved July 13, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Dr. Franz Wohlfahrt. Vienna Economic Forum, archived from the original on September 1, 2012 ; Retrieved July 13, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Fried mushrooms as a game of chance. orf.at , accessed on July 18, 2012 . 
11. ^ Pilz: charges against Grasser, Meischberger, Novomatic. In: The press . May 11, 2010, accessed July 18, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Novomatic defends approach. In: News . July 11, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012 . 
13. ↑ Peter Pilz : HOW THE BZÖ WAS PURCHASED FROM THE CASINOS. June 26, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Stickler: Lotteries were threatened in their existence. In: The Standard . July 11, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012 . 
15. ↑ Thomas Jäkle: Hochegger: "It was the greatest stupid thing I've done in my life". (No longer available online.) In: Wirtschaftsblatt . July 10, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 18, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )