Having an insightful conversation in Vienna about Austrian creativity and start-ups and Austria’s strategic importance across Europe and the world.
Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen was inaugurated as the Federal President of the Republic of Austria on January 26, 2017. As a member of the Green Party, he served as Federal Spokesperson from 1997 to 2008, as well as the Chairman of the Greens’ Parliamentary Group from 1999 to 2008. President Alexander Van der Bellen is the current president of Austria. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna, & after joining politics, as the spokesman of the Austrian Green Party. As a descendant of the Russian Imperial aristocratic Van der Bellen family (Aleksander von der Bellen) of patrilineal Dutch ancestry dating way back, he was born in Austria to Russian and Estonian parents who were refugees from Stalinism, and became a naturalized citizen of Austria together with his parents in 1958. He was a member of the National Council representing the Green Party there from 1994 to 2012, and served as both leader of the party as well as its parliamentary group.