Wolfgang Leitner

Wolfgang Leitner (born 27 March 1953) is an Austrian billionaire and former CEO of Andritz AG, an Austrian plant engineering company.

Early life
Leitner was born in 1953 in Graz. His father was a metal worker, who worked for Andritz AG. He received a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Graz, Austria in 1978.

Career
After university Leitner worked in research for Vianova, an Austrian subsidiary of Hoechst AG. In 1981, he started working as a management consultant for McKinsey. In 1986, he founded the pharmaceutical company Genericon together with his former classmate Martin Bartenstein, who would later become an Austrian Minister. Genericon’s Hungarian subsidiary Pharmavit achieved great success with effervescent tablets and generic drugs. In 1995 the company was bought by the US pharmaceutical group Bristol Myers Squibb for USD 110 million.

Leitner joined Andritz AG as Chief Financial Officer in 1987. In 1994, he became Chief Executive Officer. In 1999, when Andritz AG was sold, Leitner acquired a 26 percent stake. In July 2021, Joachim Schönbeck was appointed as Leitner's successor as CEO of Andritz AG starting in April 2022. Leitner subsequently moved to the Supervisory Board.

Private life
Leitner is married, with two children, and lives in Graz, Austria.

Leitner made the 2024 Forbes Billionaires List with an estimated wealth of USD 2.7 billion, which made him the sixth richest in Austria and 1238th richest person in the world.

Honours

 * 2006: "Man of the Year" by Austrian business magazine Trend
 * 2015: Honorary Senator of the Graz University of Technology
 * 2022: Erzherzog-Johann-Award