Official of the WKÖ Mining/Steel Association honored for his commitment to mineral raw materials policy as well as economic and industrial policy
Vienna (OTS) – “For more than 25 years of regional, national and international mineral resource policy and around two decades of economic and industrial policy commitment in the Chamber of Commerce, Franz Friesenbichler was awarded the Golden Medal of Honor for services to the Republic of Austria. I warmly congratulate him personally and on behalf of the members of the trade association,” said Andreas Henckel-Donnersmarck, chairman of the mining/steel trade association in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ).
Friesenbichler has been a member of the mining and iron-producing industry representative of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce since 2005 and a member of the Mining/Steel Association of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, of which he was chairman from 2010 to 2019, and is currently deputy chairman. As chairman of the trade association, Friesenbichler was also a member of the divisional conference of the federal industry division of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
At the European and international level, he is involved in EUMICON, the leading European network platform for mineral raw materials and metals. In 2020, Franz Friesenbichler was elected to the Executive Board of the “European Institute of Innovation and Technology on Raw Materials” (EIT Raw Materials). There he is the only Austrian to represent and promote the interests of the Austrian mineral raw materials industry, including the steel and non-ferrous metals industries.
In addition, Friesenbichler worked, among other things, as an employer representative in the Insurance Company for Railways and Mining (VAEB) as well as in the Austrian Social Insurance Sponsors’ Conference and was involved in the merger of the VAEB with the Civil Service Insurance Company (BVA) to form the new Insurance Company for Public Employees, Railways and Mining (BVAEB ) with. Since 2019 he has been a member of the board of directors and a member of the general meeting of the new BVAEB.
Trade association managing director Roman Stiftner thanks the awardee “for his many years of activity in the trade association, in social insurance as well as at Eumicon and EIT and for the positive and always respectful cooperation, which is a real benefit for the interest group and the red-white-red mineral raw materials industry.”
The Mining/Steel Association in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) is the Austrian-wide representation of the interests of industrial steel and mining companies. (PWK057/JHR)
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