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Dornauer’s Fiancée Runs for ORF Top Job

Eva Schütz with former SPÖ Tyrol chairman Georg Dornauer(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

The list of candidates for the ORF top job has grown by one. Media executive Eva Schütz, who is in a relationship with Georg Dornauer, is throwing her hat into the ring, as she announced on Tuesday. 

Schütz will submit her application in the coming days, according to a press release on Thursday. The publisher of a tabloid website hopes for “a clean and economically managed ORF,” the statement continued. The 52-year-old has been in a relationship with former SPÖ Tyrol chairman Georg Dornauer since 2025; the wedding is scheduled to take place on June 13 in Tyrol. 

“Staying Close to License Fee Payers”
“The ORF is one of our country’s most important democratic institutions. Especially in turbulent times, we need a public broadcaster that remains independent, financially sound, technologically modern, and at the same time close to the license fee payers,” Schütz explained. In the future, the broadcaster must better justify its size and public funding—“not through explanations, but by demonstrating every day that it is needed.”

Schütz, who has served, among other roles, as deputy chief of staff to ÖVP Finance Minister Hartwig Löger and as a member of the ÖVP’s government negotiation team for justice, described her candidacy as “expressly independent”: “I am not a candidate of the federal government or the coalition; I am not a candidate of circles of friends or individual committees. I am the candidate of the viewers and the license fee payers,” she clarifies. Schütz currently serves as publisher of eXXpress.at; she has also been its editor-in-chief since January 2024. 

The law graduate was, among other things, an active track and field athlete, but was unable to compete in the 2009 European Championships due to an unreported use of asthma spray. Her first husband, investor Alexander Schütz, served on the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank AG for several years until he was forced to resign his seat in the wake of the Wirecard scandal.

Schütz expands the pool of potential candidates for the ORF director-general position. In addition to ORF Magazine editor-in-chief Lisa Totzauer, streaming platform head Johannes Larcher, APA boss Clemens Pig, and former ProSiebenSat1 board member Markus Breitenecker have also been mentioned as possible candidates. Larcher, who is considered the preferred candidate of former ORF and RTL boss Gerhard Zeiler, and Pig have not yet officially applied.