Now it's official

Chamber of Commerce gets new head

Karlheinz Kopf (left) will succeed Wilfried Hopfner (center) as President of the Chamber.(Bild: Cornelia Hefel)

ÖVP veteran Karlheinz Kopf will become the new president in 2025. The 67-year-old from Altach is thus moving from the WKÖ Secretary General's chair to the head of the chamber in the federal state. Wilfried Hopfner is retiring.  

Retirement my ass! Kopf intends to relinquish his position as Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber at the end of the year and the former member of parliament did not run in the National Council elections either. But just a few weeks after his departure from parliament, it was announced yesterday that the busy man from Altach is taking on new tasks: He will succeed Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce President Wilfried Hopfner in office, who took over the leadership of the chamber two and a half years ago during difficult times.

"Offer not expected, but gladly accepted"
The Vorarlberg Chamber President will be delegated by the Vorarlberg Economic Association as the strongest faction. Kopf has already been unanimously nominated by the board of the Wirtschaftsbund to take over the office of President on January 1, 2025. At the press conference in Feldkirch on Tuesday, Karlheinz Kopf said that he had not expected the offer from the Vorarlberg Economic Association, but had gladly accepted it. This would allow him to contribute his political experience "in economically extremely challenging times" for the economy of his home state.

I would like to contribute my experience in challenging times in my home state

Karlheinz Kopf

He cited excessive bureaucracy and rising unemployment coupled with a shortage of skilled workers as well as rising labor and energy costs as particular challenges, some of which could also be tackled regionally. Marco Tittler, Chairman of the ÖVP Wirtschaftsbund, sees Kopf as "the ideal person" to lead the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce into the election. Kopf "knows the Economic Chamber organization from a wide variety of perspectives: he was a member of the National Council, ÖVP Club Chairman, Second President of the National Council, Secretary General of the Economic Association and most recently Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber."

"Didn't want to run for a whole term"
WKÖ Chairman Harald Mahrer congratulated Karlheinz Kopf on his nomination in a press release and praised his "authoritative manner". "Many years of experience, substantive expertise, strategic vision and a clear view of where the shoe pinches in the companies" are qualities that are now urgently needed. Outgoing President Wilfried Hopfner, who, like Karlheinz Kopf, is already 67 years old, explained that after careful consideration, he had decided not to stand in the Chamber of Commerce elections in March 2025 because he no longer wanted to stand for the full five-year term.

Hopfner, Chairman of the Managing Board of Raiffeisen-Landesbank Vorarlberg and Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce in 2020, took over the office in April 2022 for the remainder of the term after Chamber of Commerce President and Chairman of the Economic Association Hans Peter Metzler resigned as a result of the scandal surrounding advertising transactions and a tax audit of the Vorarlberg Economic Association.