Guido Schmidt-Chiari
 Guido Schmidt-Chiari    (financier) | |
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| Born | 13 September 1932 |
| Died | 21 August 2016 (Age 83) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Parents | Guido Schmidt |
| Spouse | Stephanie Strachwitz |
| Member of | Trilateral Commission |
Austrian financier. CEO of Creditanstalt. Trilateral Commission. Bilderberg 1988 and 1991
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Guido Schmidt-Chiari was an Austrian banker and CEO of the Austrian bank Creditanstalt. Schmidt-Chiari was born in Vienna, Austria, the eldest child of Guido Schmidt. He married Countess Stephanie Strachwitz in 1974, with whom he has six children. He attended the 1988 and 1991 Bilderberg meetings. He as leader of the Austrian delegation to the Trilateral Commission.
Contents
Family background
His father, Guido Schmidt (1901-1957) was an Austrian diplomat and politician, and one of the German Nazi government's two main contact men in the Austrian government. On 12 February 1938 Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg under pressure from Hitler elevated Schmidt to the rank of a Foreign Minister, a post he held until the Anscluss in March 1938, whereafter he retired from politics. Hermann Göring appointed his personal friend Schmidt as director of the Hermann Göring steel works in Linz on July 1, 1938.[1]
Eight months after the end of the war, in December 1945, Guido Schmidt was arrested and charged with high treason. On June 12, 1947, the trial before the People's Court of Vienna ended with an acquittal. Since, according to the court decision, the suspicion of high treason was not sufficiently refuted, Schmidt was not awarded any compensation. In the mid-1950s he became general director of the Austrian-American rubber works Semperit AG.
Per 2022, neither the German nor the English Wikipedia mentions the career of Guido Schmidt-Chiari's father.[2]
Early career
In 1952 Guido Schmidt-Chiari moved to Brazil to work for a subsidiary of Alpine-Montan in Rio de Janeiro and in 1953 set up the São Paulo distribution branch for Jenbacher Werke products. He returned to Austria and in 1956 received his PhD in law from the University of Vienna. In 1957 Guido Schmidt-Chiari worked for the Belgian-American Banking Corporation in New York City.
Creditanstalt
In 1958 he began work at Creditanstalt in Vienna, in1971 he was appointed to the Executive Board and further promoted to CEO in 1988. After the Fall of the Iron Curtain Schmidt-Chiari initiated the expansion of Creditanstalt into Central European countries. Following the acquisition of Creditanstalt by Bank Austria Schmidt-Chiari resigned in 1997.[3]
Under the direction of Guido Schmidt-Chiari, the Creditanstalt Group grew manifold and saw net profit after tax grow from 1.2 billion ATS in 1991 to 5.8 billion ATS in 1997, an increase in return on equity from 6% to 19.2%, making Creditanstalt by far the most profitable bank in Austria at the time.[4][5]
Family business
The Schmidt-Chiari family have a large equity stake in two family businesses: Joseph Schmidt's Erben (founded in 1887) an industrial distribution company and the Arlberger Bergbahnen AG (founded in 1937),[6] a ski lift operator with resorts in Austria and Poland. The main lift business operates the world-renowned ski resort of St. Anton am Arlberg
Schmidt-Chiari has also chaired the supervisory board of several leading Austrian companies (inter alia: Wienerberger AG,[7] Semperit AG, Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG and Andritz AG) and held a wide variety of other posts including being on the Morgan Stanley European Advisory Board and the General Council of Assicurazioni Generali, Trieste. He was the President of the Austrian Bankers Association and founded the Austrian Delegation to the Trilateral Commission.[8]
Aside from his involvement in the financial world, Guido Schmidt-Chiari and his wife, Stephanie enjoy collecting turn of the century Viennese Jugendstil, with a focus on those by the architect and designer Josef Hofmann and his contemporaries.[9] Stephanie Schmidt-Chiari is a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)[10] and Guido Schmidt-Chiari is an Advisory Board Member of Mumok,[9] Vienna as well as on the Board of Directors of the Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna.[11]
Schmidt-Chiari died in Sankt Anton am Arlberg, Austria on 21 August 2016.[12]
Decorations
Among other decorations Guido Schmidt-Chiari has been appointed an Honorary Senator of the Business University of Vienna[13] and an Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Vienna[14] as well as Officier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1988 | 3 June 1988 | 5 June 1988 | Austria Interalpen-Hotel Telfs-Buchen | The 36th meeting, 114 participants |
| Bilderberg/1991 | 6 June 1991 | 9 June 1991 | Germany Baden-Baden Steigenberger Hotel Badischer Hof | The 39th Bilderberg, 114 guests |
References
- ↑ https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118795236.html#ndbcontent
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guido_Schmidt-Chiari&oldid=934017874
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140818093223/http://oenb.at/dms/oenb/Publikationen/Volkswirtschaft/Volkswirtschaftliche-Tagung/1992/Volkswirtschaftliche-Tagung-1992/fullversion/vowitag_1992_tcm14-247233.pdf
- ↑ Rathkolb: Bank Austria Creditanstalt: 150 Jahre österreichische Bankengeschichte im Zentrum Europas. ISBN 3-552053-5-65
- ↑ Frasl, Haiden, Taus – Österreichische Kreditwirtschaft: Von der Reichsmark über den Schilling zum Euro. ISBN 3-708304-6-83
- ↑ http://wirtschaftsblatt.at/archiv/wirtschaft/960287/print.do
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160304213232/http://www.wienerberger.com/de/gesch%C3%A4ftsbericht-1996.html
- ↑ http://trilateral.org/File/127
- ↑ a b https://www.mumok.at/en/advisory-board-members%7Ctitle=Advisory Board Members
- ↑ http://www.guidestar.org/ViewPdf.aspx?PdfSource=0&ein=13-6143744
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150404110411/https://konzerthaus.at/kuratorium
- ↑ http://kurier.at/wirtschaft/ex-banker-guido-schmidt-chiari-gestorben/217.062.191
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20100924062750/http://www.wu.ac.at/structure/about/honorarymembers
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120220160425/http://www.tuwien.ac.at/wir_ueber_uns/zahlen_und_fakten/akademische_wuerdentraegerinnen/
