The signs in the Linz Tourist Association point to personnel changes. Director Georg Steiner (64) and “his” supervisory board chairman Manfred Grubauer (70) will resign next year, and a new supervisory board and new chairman will be elected at the general assembly in March 2023. However, it is still unclear how the advertisement for the post of managing director will continue.
Officially, Georg Steiner, who has been managing director of Linz Tourism for 15 years and whose contract runs until 2024, has not yet announced to the supervisory board that he is leaving. “But informally we know that he will retire together with me,” says Grubauer: “The position will have to be advertised, but there are a few things to be clarified beforehand.”
“No recommendation”
At the next General Assembly, which will take place before the summer break, the requirement profile for the new director will be sharpened. “You have to coordinate with the state tourism beforehand, for example with regard to the other tourism associations,” says Grubauer. He himself will not make any recommendation for a person: “That would be unfair to my successor. It is important that it is a person who can withstand the pressure that may arise from politics or from an interest group. You have to be particularly careful that there is no party-politically motivated occupation.”
From the previous supervisory board, in which, in addition to Grubauer and the Linz City Councilor Doris Lang-Mayerhofer (VP), who is responsible for tourism, and Andreas Winkelhofer, head of the state tourism, so far also included Anton Gallistl (Pöstlingbergschlössl), Petra Riffert (Advertising Association Danube Upper Austria Tourism), Johann Kaiser (Ex- Director of the Star Inn), Thomas Ziegler (Design Center) and Klaus Pippig (Entrepreneur), at least the latter will no longer stand as a candidate: “I think it’s time to make the space available,” he says himself.
Who will move up and who else will run again is open. It is clear that all around 3000 members of the tourism association can make nominations, which are agreed in advance. The members are divided into two groups, each of the groups then elects three supervisory board members from the proposals received. Fixed (at least as of the moment) are Lang-Mayerhofer and Winkelhofer as representatives of the city and state. (fawn)
Source: Nachrichten
