Standart News

After 16 years in Mobilkom Austria Group and four years at the helm of Mobiltel, the current CEO of the biggest Bulgarian operator Josef Vinatzer decided to continue his professional career in Austria.
Under the management of Vinatzer Mobiltel started the first working UMTS network in Bulgaria and thanks to it the company became the fifth operator in the world to offer HSDPA services; M-Tel signed a partnership agreement with Vodafone and this allowed its clients to use one of the most innovative products and services of the world giant such as BlackBerry, mobile phones at preferential prices, live TV on your mobile phone through the multimedia platform Vodafone Live! and attracted more than 5 million customers. During his management Mobiltel started LOOP - the youngest mobile network in the whole country, implemented the SMS car parking and made a step on the fixed market through the unique home and office products M-Tel HomeBox, M-Tel OfficeBox and M-Tel VoiceBox. The company positioned itself on the television market too through QUARTO - the first service in Bulgaria that offers high-quality digital television.
Thanks to Josef Vinatzer Mobiltel followed extremely active policy in the sphere of the corporate social responsibility. This was recognized also by the Presidency of the Republic of Bulgaria and Mr.Vinatzer was given the Honorary Mark of the President of Republic of Bulgaria. The award is given for exceptional merits in the area of the corporate social responsibility and for supporting of culture and sports.
"During Josef Vinatzer leading Mobiltel had excellent performance. The company maintained a stable position as the market leader and a role model among the business players in Bulgaria. The list of company achievements is really long and I would like to extend our gratitude to Sepp not just for his excellent leadership and the results of his team, but also admiration to an individual who spent a significant part of his life as an expert working in Bulgaria", commend Hannes Ametsreiter, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Telekom Austria Group and Chief Executive Officer of mobilkom austria AG.
Since July 1st the Supervisory board of TAG nominated Andreas Maierhofer for the new CEO of Mobiltel. He will continue to be in charge of the company marketing as well.
Andreas Maierhofer started working in the sphere of the mobile communications since the very establishment of the business 13 years ago. He is a jurist by education but has not worked a single day in this field and bravely attacked all the key spheres in the industry: risk management, special projects management, a technical director, marketing director, CEO. He has worked in different countries and on different markets - big and highly competitive, small and monopolistic, developed and developing, in Western and in Eastern Europe.
Andreas Maierhofer was born in Austria in 1967. During his law study in Vienna, he started his career at Telekom Austria AG where he worked mainly in the start-up project for mobilkom austria, responsible for the Debt and Risk management department. Andreas graduated from Management School of St.Gallen in the field "General Management training for Juniors and Executives". Since 1999 he was responsible or the Customer Service Division at mobilkom austria. In June 2004 Andreas joined the Si.mobil Management Board as a COO responsible for the market area and in August 2006 he became CEO. Under his leadership, Si.mobil`s net income was positive for he first time. In May 2007 Andreas left for Mobiltel, Bulgaria, to become a CMO.
The initial priorities of the new CEO will be the activities related with innovative products and services, the social projects and the loyal customers' programmes. "We shall be active and provocative and for sure we shall fight to keep the market stable and the loyal competition. I promise the customers and the clients that together we shall witness some interesting innovations - by increasing the types and the quality of the products and services offered and by making them more versatile and accessible to the people not only in relation to the prices, but as convenience of usage as well", explained Maierhofer his future plans.