Management
A Gaia-X Management Board, consisting of a Chair, Vice-Chair, and additional members along with their deputies, has been elected as the central governing body for the Gaia-X Hub Austria.
For specific inquiries, feel free to reach out to our Board Members.
Chair
Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Leopold, PhD
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Vice chair
Mag. Georg Hahn
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Hahn started his professional career at Nixdorf Computer. From 1996 to 2001 he was on the board of Netway Communications AG. At the same time, he was President of the Internet Service Provider Association (ISPA) and on the Advisory Board of the Austrian Web Analysis (ÖWA).
In the period from 2002 to 2013, he was first Chief Operating Officer of Raiffeisen Informatik GmbH and later Managing Director of Raiffeisen Solution GmbH.
Since 2014, Hahn has been co-owner of Business Design OG and Secretary General of OSJBIG Austria since 2018.
Ayett Dhaoui, Msc
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Career
She currently works in digital transformation consulting, supporting companies in the development and implementation of digital initiatives. Over her career, she has led projects across the public sector, oil and gas industry, and e-commerce, where she conducted comprehensive strategic analyses and developed and implemented digital platform solutions.
Dr. Mario Drobics
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Michael Fälbl
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Fälbl's area of responsibility includes cooperation with important global and European technology developments and the derivation of implications for Austrian industry. Cross-company data exchange and the associated initiatives (especially Gaia-X) are a focus of the Industry 4.0 platform.
Dr. Verena Halmschlager
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Career
Verena Halmschlager studied process engineering at the TU Wien and focused on digitization in the industry in her dissertation and as a post-doc, with emphasis on the topics energy optimization of industrial plants and data-driven modeling. Since 2023, Verena Halmschlager has been working at the Platform Industry 4.0, where she is responsible for overseeing activities related to the topics of circular economy, Digital Product Passport, and the European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) AI5production.
Mag. Agnes Jodkowski, BA
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Dipl.-Ing. Roland Sommer, MBA
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He holds degrees from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences and the University of London. Sommer started his professional career at Technologie-Impulse Gesellschaft (now part of FFG), was responsible for research and innovation policy at the Federation of Austrian Industries and then Director of Public Affairs at AVL.
Dr. Sabine Ringhofer
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Sabine Ringhofer is Chief Operation Officer at Cineplexx Group. She studied Chemistry focusing on Computational Chemistry at the University of Vienna and continued her research in Theoretical Biochemistry as a post-doctoral research fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California.
Since 2001, Sabine worked for T-Mobile Austria as a group leader in Network Operations and was also responsible for the T-Mobile-wide European Service Operation Center SMS. Between 2008 and 2015 she was CIO at the Austria Patent Office and was awarded the Confare Top CIO Award in 2014 for achievements in e-government. Sabine is since 2015 CIO of the Cineplexx Group with Headquarters in Vienna and is responsible for IT Management in Austria and Southeast Europe.
DI (FH) Gerald Steiner, MBA
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Dipl.-Ing. Christian Tauber
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He holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Vienna University of Technology and an MBA from LIMAK Austrian Business School. He also completed postgraduate training, for example at the Stanford Graduate School for Business.
Tauber started his professional career in the innovation department of Infineon Technologies Austria in the development of digital hardware and software. From 2017, he went through a management graduate programme in various key positions at the Kapsch Group in Austria and the USA. During his studies, he was also involved in the founding phase of a prop tech to revolutionise the marketing and search of real estate.
Dr. Stephan Winklbauer, LL.M
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He is also the author of numerous publications on IT law, a board member of the ADV (Austria Digital Value) association, and a member of the International Network of Privacy Law Professionals, the German Association for Law and Informatics (DGRI), and the ITechLaw Association.With all this experience, Stephan Winklbauer advises companies that want to face the challenges of digitalization. Recently, he has been working on AI and related legal issues, the EU Data Act, and other topics of the EU Digital Agenda.
Mag. Annette Trawnicek
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Career
Annette Trawnicek holds a Master's degree in Economics from WU Vienna and a specialisation in Marketing from Universitá Commerciale Bocconi, Milan. With HP/HPE since 2004, she has held various positions in CEE and Austria in the areas of sales management, business development, consulting and business management.
