The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology mourns the death of Richard Schenz, who recently passed away at the age of 83. Schenz was a long-time companion of the Institute in the numerous functions he held over decades in public life and industry in Austria. From February 2002 to March 2006, Schenz was chairman of the supervisory board of the then Austrian Research Centers (ARC), one of the predecessor organizations of today's AIT.
In a way, this also marked Schenz's return to the starting point of his career: he had studied technical physics at the TU Wien and had dealt with the topic of nuclear physics during his diploma thesis at what was then the Seibersdorf Reactor Center. After several years of scientific work, Schenz moved to OMV in 1969, where he had been a member of the Executive Board since 1988 and General Director since 1992. At the same time, he was also active in the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV), specifically as President of IV Vienna and as a member of the IV Federal Board. Schenz was in constant exchange, both professionally and personally, with the AIT management in his function as head of the IV's infrastructure committee.
Schenz continued to hold public offices after his retirement from OMV in 2001, for example as Vice President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (2000-2022), as Capital Market Representative of the Federal Government (2002-2012) and as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ARC.
Our condolences go out to his family.
Anton Plimon, Wolfgang Knoll, Managing Directors AIT Austrian Institute of Technology