Hans Jörg Schelling

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Hans Jörg Schelling 2015

Hans Jörg Schelling, actually Johann Georg Schelling (born December 27, 1953 in Hohenems , Vorarlberg ) is an Austrian entrepreneur and politician ( ÖVP ). He was Federal Minister for Finance of the Republic of Austria from September 1, 2014 to December 18, 2017 .

Professional career

After graduating from the Bundesgymnasium Feldkirch in 1972, Schelling studied business administration at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and graduated in 1978 with a Magister rer.soc.oec (diploma thesis: The sales opportunities of Silhouette model glasses) and in 1981 with a doctorate (subject: Opportunities to promote the export of small and medium-sized enterprises). Schelling was awarded the Ed. Haas Prize and awarded the Rudolf Sallinger Prize . He stayed with the university until 1996 as examination commissioner and lecturer.

In 1981 he began his professional career as an assistant to the management in the Leiner / Kika group of companies. In 1988 he became managing director there. Two years later he founded the company Schelling GesmbH for management consulting. In 1992, after differences with CEO Herbert Koch , he switched from Leiner / Kika to the competitor XXXLutz on the strategic direction and was managing director there until 2005. After Lutz's legal reorganization in 2005, he became managing director of the new parent company and supervisory board of XXXLutz GmbH. On January 1, 2009, he resigned from his position as managing director as planned and served on the company's supervisory board until 2011.

Schelling was awarded the State Prize for Advertising and the State Prize for Marketing. He is also the managing partner of BIG DEAL brand and marketing consultancy in Vienna. Furthermore, he was on the supervisory board of Palmers Textil AG since 1999 ( resigned with the sale of Palmers AG), and since 2003 on the supervisory board of Österreichische Post AG (until February 5, 2007). In the same year he also became chairman of the economic advisory board of the SKN St. Pölten football club . Since 2006 he has also been on the Supervisory Board of Telekom Austria (seat resigned on February 6, 2007). He is chairman of the advisory board of the JGS private foundation. Schelling has been a committee member of the UBIT specialist group in the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce since 2000. He has also been a CMC (Certified Management Consultant) since 2006. In 2007 he also became chairman of the supervisory board of SKN St. Pölten (2nd Bundesliga Austria). He resigned from this position on the occasion of his election as chairman of the HVB of the social insurance institutions. Schelling is also chairman of the board of the Danubia private foundation in Krems.

Since May 1, 2008 he has been chairman of the General Accident Insurance Fund ( AUVA ). After he was nominated for the board of the Main Association of Social Insurance Institutions as employer representative, he resigned from this position at the beginning of 2009. On January 21, 2009, he was unanimously elected chairman of the board of the main association of Austrian social insurance institutions for four years . In January 2013, his term of office was unanimously extended for a further four years.

Since January 1, 2009, he has been running the Herzogenburg monastery winery as a winemaker , one of the oldest wineries in the Traisental in the Wielandsthal district of the Herzogenburg community . He has already won numerous prizes and awards with his wines; in 2012 his Traminer was nominated for the Austrian wine salon in 2011.

On April 26, 2012, he was elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Österreichische Volksbanken-Aktiengesellschaft (ÖVAG) . He resigned this mandate when he took office as Minister of Finance.

In March 2018 it was announced that he was working as a consultant for Gazprom on the Nord Stream 2 project . OMV is also involved in the project, whose owner representative he was Finance Minister. In addition, Schelling has been active in the furniture industry again since May 2018. He holds shares in the digital furniture platform Roomle .

Political career

In 2001 he became a member of the local council of St. Pölten and city ​​councilor for municipal companies for the ÖVP . He is deputy chairman of the economic association of the city and the district of St. Pölten, as well as a member of the federal and state management of the Austrian economic association.

Schelling has been Vice President of the Austrian Economic Chamber since April 1, 2004, where he is in charge of reforming the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. In 2010 he was confirmed as Vice President of the Economic Parliament for another five years.

From February 1, 2007 to October 28, 2008 he was a member of the Austrian National Council . He was appointed to the Constitutional Committee and the Education, Buildings, Research, Innovation and Technology committees of the National Council.

In the election to the National Council in 2008, he missed a direct mandate in the constituency of Lower Lower Austria. In January 2009 he was appointed a co-opted member of the ÖVP parliamentary club.

On September 1, 2014, he was sworn in as Minister of Finance after Michael Spindelegger announced his resignation on August 26, 2014. Shortly before the opening of parliament on November 9 , he renounced the mandate he won in the 2017 National Council elections , and Michaela Steinacker took his place .

criticism

Schelling came under fire for a tax-saving model from XXXLutz through a company construction with a subsidiary based in Malta . For example, license payments were invoiced to the individual group companies, and profits were shifted from countries with higher tax rates to Malta, where profits would theoretically be taxed at 35 percent corporation tax, but actually only at five percent due to refunds. In Austria, corporate income tax was 34 percent until the 2004/2005 tax reform, and 25 percent thereafter. The Greens presented in 2014 a parliamentary question to Minister of Finance Schelling Steuerentfall for Austria by these companies construction. The minister gave no information about this and invoked the duty of confidentiality. Schelling was managing director of XXXLutz GmbH from 1992 to 2005 and on the supervisory board from 2005 to 2011 .

Private

By selling his shares in the Lutz Group in 2009, Schelling became a millionaire. For his work in the main association of social insurance, he received an expense allowance of 3,000 euros per month. Schelling is married and has two daughters from his first marriage (* 1978 and 1980).

Web links

Commons : Hans Jörg Schelling  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. New ÖVAG Supervisory Board: The past "under control". In: The press. April 27, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2017 .
  2. ^ Upper Austrian News: Schelling's Russia Connection: Consultant for Gazprom company . Article dated March 26, 2018, accessed March 28, 2018.
  3. orf.at: Ex-Finance Minister Schelling advises Gazprom . Article dated March 26, 2018, accessed March 28, 2018.
  4. Ex-Finance Minister Schelling participates in Möbel-Plattform. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  5. Schelling waives his mandate in the National Council. ORF , November 9, 2017, accessed the day after.
  6. Lutz: XXX tax-saving model. In: The Standard. February 10, 2014, accessed May 21, 2017 .
  7. Schelling silent at the time at XXXLutz article. In: Salzburger Nachrichten. November 25, 2014, accessed May 21, 2017 .
  8. Thomas Prior: The millionaire as finance minister. In: Die Presse , August 30, 2014.