Dr Franz Wohlfahrt, CEO, Novomatic Group of Companies.
Running a global conglomerate with more than 22,000 employees worldwide cannot be an easy job.
And yet Dr Franz Wohlfahrt, Chief Executive Officer of the Novomatic Group of Companies, arguably the most significant force in the gaming industry, exudes calmness. His philosophical approach to business - and life - complements his position as one of gaming’s most important figures.
In eight years under his watch, Novomatic’s profitability has rocketed from around €420m to €3.5bn and yet this modest man puts this impressive achievement down to “being in the right company at the right time.” Dr Wohlfahrt is a lawyer. That is how he defines himself and, if he was to leave the gaming industry tomorrow, that is what he would continue to be. He was born in Klagenfurt in Austria’s rural Carinthia province in 1959 and decided as a young man that law was the path he wanted to follow.
And so he studied law at the University of Vienna from 1978 to 1983 and began practising in the Austrian capital in 1984. By 1988 he had started his own law firm. His first contact with Novomatic came in 1987 when he served as legal advisor to the company, which at that time was a small outfit with just 50 employees.
This article can be read in full in the February issue of InterGaming.
