Thomas Prinzhorn

Thomas Prinzhorn (born 5 March 1943 , (age 71) in Vienna) is an Austrian industrialist and politician of the national liberal party Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ).

Education

Prinzhorn was educated in engineering at the Technical University of Vienna, where he graduated in 1967 as Diplomingenieur, and subsequently studied business administration at Harvard University, graduating in 1973.

Business and political careers

Prinzhorn inherited his father's business empire and became one of Austria's leading industrialists in the 1970s. He served on the board of the Federation of Austrian Industry from 1978 . With a personal fortune of around 1.1 billion euro, he's considered Austria's richest politician and the 14th richest Austrian (as of 2006)[1]

A former member of parliament, Prinzhorn served as one of the three presidents of the Austrian Parliament from 1999 to 2006. In 1996, he was elected to parliament; becoming a member of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in 1998. In the 1999 legislative election, he was the top candidate of the FPÖ. He was originally slated to be part of the FPÖ-ÖVP coalition government, but his candidacy was rejected by President Thomas Klestil (due to his anti-immigration statements during the election). He was instead elected one of the three presidents (second president) of the Austrian Parliament. After the 2002 election, he became third president. He left the FPÖ in 2005, and joined the new BZÖ party in 2006.

Personal life

Prinzhorn adopted Karl Philipp Ernst Ferdinand Alwig Kilian Schwarzenberg (b. 1979), until then legally the son of Karel Schwarzenberg (the former Czech Foreign Minister). On 20 March 1990, Karl Philipp began using the surname "Prinzhorn".[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ Oesterreich; oe24 online.
  2. ↑ IPromi – Fanseite über Promis / VIP / Stars / Prominenten Verzeichnis – Star Lexikon. Ipromi.de. Retrieved on 6 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Note:By agreement 25 November 1987; registered in Vienna 16 May 1988. (Der in Bayern immatrikulierte Adel Band 21, page 70, Verlag Degener & Co. 1996)

External links