Peter Michaelis (Manager)

Peter Michaelis (born March 18, 1946 in Schwanenstadt , Upper Austria ) is an Austrian manager.

Peter Michaelis was born in Upper Austria as the son of a VÖEST manager. After primary school he attended high school in Salem Castle in Baden-Württemberg from 1956 to 1966 . After a traineeship at a private bank in London, he completed military service with the armed forces , which he finished as a lieutenant in the reserve . He then began to study law and political science at the University of Salzburg and received his doctorate in law in 1971. During this course he was a research assistant and assistant at Prof. Hayek's institute for two years. He then studied economics and business administration at the University of Kiel until 1975 . He finished his studies with a degree in economics. He completed his training with a qualification as a certified accountant.

He began his professional career at Mannesmann in 1975, first in accounting and later in corporate planning. In 1982 he moved to Mannesmann-Demag , where he was managing director at Demag Steelplant Technology in Duisburg from 1988 to 1991, and then at Mannesmann-Demag Fördertechnik from 1991 to 1996. From 1996 to 2001 he was general manager of Mannesmann AG and Atecs Mannesmann AG.

From 2001 to the end of June 2011 he was the board spokesman of ÖIAG . He was followed by Markus Beyrer after.

criticism

A number of privatizations took place during his term of office at ÖIAG. With this, and with efficient investment management, it was possible to completely reduce ÖIAG's debt mountain during this time. With economically necessary measures, Peter Michaelis often came into the field of fire of politics and some media. The sale of Austrian Airlines in 2008 in particular was one of the greatest challenges and polarized to an unusually large extent. Initially, politics and public opinion categorically refused to sell the “National Carrier”. As chairman of the supervisory board, Michaelis therefore had to mobilize all resources for a stand-alone solution. When this finally turned out to be unrealistic in view of the global economic conditions, the time window for another solution was extremely small. Upcoming new elections in Austria and the dramatic collapse of the global airline market severely restricted the opportunities for Austrian Airlines. Notwithstanding this, it was possible to carry out an EU-compliant bidding process, from which the German Lufthansa emerged as the winner. The "negative purchase price" realized in the process was heavily chalked up by Michaelis' opponents and the inferior competitors. In reality, however, it saved the Austrian state a lot of money. The airline carried a debt of around 1.5 billion euros and was no longer viable on its own. Lufthansa guaranteed the continuation of operations and assumed two thirds of the liabilities. With a one-off payment of 500 million euros, the Republic of Austria was able to save the company and thus the importance of the business location.

Web links

• ÖIAG - Curriculum vitae by Peter Michaelis ( Memento from January 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )