PRESS RELEASE
FORMER AUSTRIAN VICE-CHANCELLOR DR. ANDROSCH TO RECEIVE A UNO HONORARY DOCTORATE DURING THE SPRING COMMENCEMENT ON MAY 15.
Dr. Hannes Androsch has been one of the most distinguished Austrian and European public servants of the post-World War II era. In 1970 Austria’s iconic Chancellor Bruno Kreisky appointed him Minister of Finance at the age of 32 – Austria’s youngest minister of finance ever. He remained in that position for 11 years and also served for 5 years as Vice-Chancellor. Dr. Androsch also was appointed the general director of Austria’s largest bank the Creditanstalt-Bankverein and served as a consultant to the World Bank. In 1989 he founded the highly successful AIC Androsch International Management Consulting and became an industrialist in the 1990s.
While in office, he was a distinguished advocate of "Austro-Keynesianism" during a recessionary economy -- an economic theory that is enjoying a revival again. The state does still have a role in the public arena to secure the welfare of all citizens, the less privileged included. Dr. Androsch also has been a strong advocate of the state's responsibility for generous funding of public education to raise the young to a full level of informed citizenship. He has been a major contributor to the venerable old Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna. Dr. Androsch has remained in the public arena as a major public intellectual, regularly commenting on economic and political issues in Austrian and European media.
Dr. Androsch has visited University of New Orleans before as the keynoter at UNO CenterAustria's "Americanization of Europe" conference. He then praised the role of the American "Marshall Plan" in the rebuilding of postwar Europe. He thinks the Marshall Plan still can serve as model for economic reconstruction after times of crisis. Dr. Androsch’s role as a public intellectual long after his political career ended may serve as a model of engaged public servants everywhere.
Androsch holds a doctorate in economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. His honorary doctorate from UNO will be in economics.