Hartwig Löger


Hartwig Löger is an Austrian politician and former business executive. From 2011 to 2017 he was chief executive officer of UNIQA Austria and since 2017 he served as Minister of Finance. On 22 May 2019, following the Ibiza affair, he was named vice chancellor, and on 28 May 2019, he was sworn in as acting chancellor after Austria's first ever successful vote of no confidence against a cabinet, leaving this post on 3 June 2019.

Early life and education

Löger was born in Selzthal in Styria and graduated in 1983 at the Stiftsgymnasium Admont. Originally striving for a career as pilot, Löger started an Offiziersanwärterausbildung at the Bundesheer and made the pilots entrance exam there. Because of a knee injury Löger failed the exam and randomly ended up in the insurance branch. 1987/88 he started visiting a course for insurance economy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and from 1999 to 2001 he completed an international management course at the University of St. Gallen.

Career

From 1985 to 1989 Löger worked as a customer adviser for an insurance agent. Subsequently, he started working for Allianz until 1996 as sales manager for the region Styria, then as assistant to the management at the Grazer Wechselseitige and until 2002 as sales manager at the Donau Versicherung AG. From 2002 to 2017 he worked for the UNIQA Insurance Group, first as managing director of the UNIQA International Versicherungs-Holding GmbH and later, until 2011, as head of the exclusive sales department. In 2011 he became a senior corporate officer at UNIQA and the chief executive officer of UNIQA Austria. In December 2017 he was succeeded as CEO by Kurt Svoboda.
From 2014 to February 2018 Löger served as president of the Sports Union. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Vienna state institutions of the People's Party Business Union.

Political career

Since 18 December 2017, Löger has been serving as Minister of Finance in the coalition government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. He was nominated by the People's Party for this position.
Alongside Gernot Blümel, Günther Helm und Wolfgang Leitner, Löger has been serving as member of the nominating committee of the Industrieholding since January 2018. The committee decides who is sent to the supervisory board of companies with state share participation.

Other activities

European Union organizations

Löger is married, has two children and lives in Vienna in Austria.