ÖGV Entrepreneur 2012 Award

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On Monday evening, the Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation of the Austrian Trade Association (ÖGV) honoured three outstanding researchers who completely uphold the principles represented by Wilhelm Exner. They have produced findings which form the foundation for the growth of trade and industry:
Nobel prize winner Ted Hänsch (Max Planck Institute)
Material scientist Friedrich Prinz (Stanford)
Biotechnologist Robert Langer (MIT)

Their research results always have a bearing on business practice. Courageous entrepreneurs who think sustainably overall and lead their companies successfully in the long term due to constant innovations are needed to implement the results of such research on an industrial or commercial basis. Consequently, as part of awarding the Exner Medal, the ÖGV also honours these entrepreneurs in appreciation of the responsible successful entrepreneurial activity they have carried out during their life’s work.

The following people were honoured:
Enamel specialist Friedrich Riess
Major press distributor Emmerich Selch
Bio-pioneer Werner Lampert

Following the welcome by Austria’s President Heinz Fischer, Minister of Science Karlheinz Töchterle presented the awards

Friedrich Riess together with Julian Riess and Susanne Rieß manage one of Austria’s oldest family-owned companies which is the last of its kind that understands the enamelling of crockery and signs – who is not familiar with the blue-and-white road signs of Vienna or those of Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, Trieste or even here in the Eisenstrasse?
Riess also forms metal and keeps companies such as BMW, KTM and Steyr Daimler Puch rolling with its small items. Injection moulding of plastics is also one of its technologies.
Friedrich Riess and his family have proven that they think in generations.
The company has been producing according to the basic principles of sustainable business management since it was founded.
The most important factors for type of management are people and the environment plus society and the economy. They strive to reconcile ecological, economic and social aims in the sense of holistic development. It is the Riess family’s desire not to endanger the natural and scarce resources of our planet while at the same time producing guaranteed high-quality products that are environmentally compatible.
They drive their wonderful company forward ecologically and economically and, in the social context, holistically and successfully.

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