Image: VOLKER WEIHBOLD
Asfinag’s supervisory board unanimously appointed Hartwig Hufnagl as board member for construction and operations (COO) and Herbert Kasser as the company’s chief financial officer (CFO), as the company announced on Monday. A total of 42 people applied for the two positions; the advertising process was managed by a personnel consulting company.
Hufnagl, who was born in Upper Austria, will continue to hold the position of Chief Operating Officer, which he has held since February 2019, and will therefore remain Director of Construction and Operations for another term of office. Herbert Kasser will remain Secretary General in the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection until the end of May and will take over the role of Chief Financial Officer from Josef Fiala, who has not applied for another term, from June 1, 2024.
“With Hartwig Hufnagl and Herbert Kasser, two proven infrastructure experts are taking over the management of Asfinag,” says Christa Geyer, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board expressly thanked the outgoing CFO Josef Fiala, who will remain in his position until the end of May and has not applied for another term.
To the people
Hartwig Hufnagl can look back on a long career in the transport sector. After studying law, the lawyer from Vöcklabruck was part of the industrial association’s trainee program, worked in the European Parliament in Brussels, in the cabinets of transport and infrastructure ministers Hubert Gorbach and Norbert Hofer and has been at Asfinag in various functions since 2006 employed.
Among other things, Hufnagl set up traffic management and introduced traffic managers. The 47-year-old father of three children has been the board director for construction and operations at Asfinag for the past five years and has initiated a far-reaching strategic realignment of the company during this time.
Herbert Kasser has worked in the Ministry of Transport and Climate Protection since 2007 and is considered a proven infrastructure expert. The 59-year-old studied agricultural sciences and economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and can look back on a long career in public service. The native of Lower Austria has been in charge of the mobility section since 2008; previously he was head of the budget section of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
In this role, he was responsible for infrastructure financing as well as transport, innovation and technology. Herbert Kasser was Secretary General of the BMK from March 2007 to December 2017. He has been in this position again since January 2020, which he will now hold until May 31, 2024, before moving to Asfinag.
- Read here: Asfinag boss Hartwig Hufnagl in the OÖN interview: “Smart instead of broader”
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