Press release, September 23, 2020

Two new directors complete the ÖBAG management team.

The Austrian Federal Holding and Investment Company (ÖBAG) is strengthening its management team. Christine Catasta and Maximilian Schnödl have been appointed as new ÖBAG directors, enhancing ÖBAG's expertise in the areas of capital markets and digitalization. Both will be granted power of attorney to represent the company.

ÖBAG CEO Thomas Schmid: “In recent months, ÖBAG has been able to make important strategic decisions regarding its portfolio companies. These include, firstly, the introduction of a focus on experts for key management and supervisory board positions, and secondly, the conclusion or renewal of shareholder agreements for key holdings such as OMV and CASAG. At the same time, ÖBAG also sees itself as a source of ideas for strategic questions and challenges facing its portfolio companies. Thanks to the proven expertise of the new ÖBAG directors, I am confident that ÖBAG, with its broadly based team of experts, can make a valuable contribution to our portfolio companies, and I look forward to working with them.”

Head of Investment Management

Christine Catasta (born 1958) will be responsible for managing the investment portfolio at ÖBAG. A proven business expert, Catasta was most recently CEO of PwC Austria, a company with over 1.200 employees, where she worked for 38 years in auditing and tax consulting. She joined the leadership team in 1994 and subsequently built up the management consulting division, which she headed until 2018. Catasta studied accounting and auditing at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and is a certified public accountant and tax advisor in Austria. She holds supervisory board positions at the energy supplier Verbund and at Erste Bank der österreichischen Sparkassen AG.

Christine Catasta: “After many years in consulting, I am now looking forward to this new challenge at ÖBAG. It is a responsible task to work together with the ÖBAG team to secure and strengthen Austria as a business location, especially in these uncertain times. Despite the current challenges, ÖBAG has so far been very successful in steering its domestic state-owned holdings safely through turbulent times. As the new Head of Investment Management, I want to continue this course and actively advocate for the interests of the portfolio companies.”

Management Strategy

Maximilian Schnödl (born 1983) brings valuable international experience to the ÖBAG management team. A proven digitalization expert, Schnödl has led several leading technology companies on the US West Coast in recent years: Springbrook Software, where he served as President/CEO since 2018, provides an ERP and payment platform to over 1.000 US cities. At Accela, a global market leader in e-government solutions for 275 million citizens, Schnödl held leadership positions as COO, CFO, and CSO, managing more than 500 employees across the group since 2014. Prior to that, Schnödl built up financial expertise at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Moscow, New York, and San Francisco, where he most recently served as Vice President, Group Technology/Strategy. Schnödl studied law at the University of Vienna and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He holds supervisory board positions at Austrian Post, the Federal Computing Centre and Springbrook Software.

Maximilian Schnödl: “After exciting experiences abroad in Europe and internationally, I am delighted to return to my homeland and actively contribute to the further development of Austria as a business location. It is particularly important to me to bring the entrepreneurial approach and the professional and open working methods that I learned firsthand in Silicon Valley over the past few years to ÖBAG and its portfolio companies.”

https://www.oebag.gv.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20201016-Personalia-OeBAG-Team.pdf