On April 7, 2011 the Vienna University of Technology organized a top-class business evening in the House of Industry in Vienna in the framework of postgraduate MBA program “Professional MBA Automotive Industry” in cooperation with STU Bratislava and Mobility Cluster of the Vienna Business Agency.

Prof. KR Ing. Siegfried Wolf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Machines gave a lecture on “Global Challenges in the Automotive Industry”. In his lecture he emphasized the importance of well-educated managers in the company. Due to this the future-oriented continuing education for the managers is absolutely necessary to be able to meet the global challenges. Additionally companies have to support as well as promote the innovative capabilities of their employees. One of his reasons to go to Russiais without any doubt it will be one of the important markets in the world. In four years the sales and production volume in Russia will be bigger than that of Germany. He always uses opportunities to build up companies up and manage them successfully. Apart from this he is trying to build a bridge between people, different countries and cultures. In the open discussion he talked to more than 150 guests about his work and challenges as well as the actual situation of the automotive industry in Russia. He spoke about the actual situation in Japan and its consequences for the automotive industries.

To the person Prof. KR Ing. Siegfried Wolf
In 1994 Prof. KR Ing. Siegfried Wolf joined Magna Europe, then a young company with approximately 1,000 employees. 1995 he became President of Magna Europe. In 1999 he was nominated to the Board of Directors of Magna International as Vice Chairman. In February 2002 he resumed additional responsibilities as Executive Vice Chairman of Magna International Inc. until April 2005, when he was appointed Co-Chief Executive Officer (Co-CEO). As member of the executive management team he was leading a global company with more than 74,000 employees in 238 manufacturing operations and 79 product development and engineering centres in 25 countries. In 2010 Siegfried Wolf became Chairman of the Board of Directors at Russian Machines JCS - the industrial and engineering company of Basic Element (Russia).

In this new function Siegfried Wolf took strategic responsibility for the company’s core business lines of commercial and passenger vehicles, railway transportation and aircraft manufacturing. In addition to these roles, since September, 2010 Mr. Wolf also oversees Basic Element’s construction assets. In recent years during his time at Magna, Mr. Wolf established a close working relationship with Basic Element through his position on the board of OJSC GAZ Group (the Russian Machines’ automotive company), a role he’s undertaken since 2008 and in 2010 this relationship was deepened when he became a board member of Glavstroi Corporation, Basic Element’s principal construction division. In 2010 he was appointed a chairman of the Board of Directors at GAZ. In addition to his role for Basic Element he also sits on the boards of a number of leading European businesses

Professional MBA Automotive Industry
The postgraduate part-time program is structured in modules and lasts 4 semesters. To ensure optimum integration between the course of study and participants’ professional obligations, the teaching units are arranged in blocks that take place every three to six weeks in Vienna or Bratislava. The lectures are conducted exclusively in English by major researchers and experts and are carefully designed to ensure a balanced combination of theory and practice. This university-level postgraduate Master’s program is part-funded by the EU and accredited by the FIBAA (The Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation) quality assurance body.

More information: http://automotive.tuwien.ac.at, opens an external URL in a new window

This event is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Slovak-Austrian cross-border cooperation programme 2007-2013.