Martin Essl

Martin Essl (born March 5, 1962 in Austria ) is an Austrian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He headed the Baumax family company founded by his father, Karlheinz Essl senior , from 1999 to 2014, and moved to the Supervisory Board in March 2014 until the company had to be sold in 2015. Since 2016 Martin Essl has mainly dedicated himself to the Essl Foundation, philanthropic projects and is active as a real estate investor.

activities

His training took place at the Vienna Business School . After a year-long internship in retail in the USA, Martin Essl joined the management of bauMax AG in 1983 . In 1989 he became deputy chairman of the board; From 1999, as Chairman of the Executive Board, he was responsible for the strategic and operational management of bauMax AG . In March 2014 he switched to the supervisory board of bauMax AG. Under his management, the company expanded into Central and Eastern European countries. The company was represented in eight countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey) outside Austria and in 2011 employed more than 9,000 people, but had to be sold in 2015 due to major financial difficulties.

In 2008 Martin Essl founded the Essl Foundation together with his wife Gerda, whose main activity since 2011 has been the Zero Project and commitment to people with disabilities. The Essl Social Prize for the promotion of social projects, endowed with one million euros , was awarded from 2008 to 2014, but then had to be discontinued for financial reasons.

Essl is also a founding member of the Sinnstifter, an association of Austrian philanthropists and the House of Philanthropy, and is a member of the board of trustees of the ProChrist evangelical association , which organizes mass evangelizations .

Awards

• 2006: Ernst & Young Austria: Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 in the Service & Trade category

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bauMax: Personnel decisions on the board
2. ↑ Tiroler Tageszeitung Online: bauMax: The rise and fall of a hardware store giant | Tiroler Tageszeitung online - news from now! In: Tiroler Tageszeitung Online . ( tt.com [accessed March 12, 2020]).
3. ↑ Martin Essl: From DIY store boss to philanthropist . In: The press . ( diepresse.com [accessed August 13, 2018]).
4. ↑ Makers of meaning . In: Sinnstifter . ( sinn-stifter.org [accessed August 13, 2018]).
5. ^ House of Philanthropy - Vienna. Modern offices in the stock exchange building. Retrieved August 13, 2018 . 
6. ^ ProChrist Board of Trustees
7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Ernest & Young winners & finalists 

Web links

• Entry on Essl Martin in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Milestones of the Zero Project