The Austrian business travel association ABTA elected Roman Neumeister as its new president at the annual general meeting last week. He succeeds Andreas Gruber, who retired after four years at the helm.

Neumeister is currently the OSCE Travel Officer. He is assisted by two vice presidents, Sabine Toplak (Accor) and Angela Lille (Erste Group). Other members of the Management Board are Monika Milde, Global Travel Management Wolf Theiss Rechtsanwälte GmbH & CoKG (treasurer), Markus Emhofer, Delivery Manager Amadeus Marketing GmbH (deputy cashier), Marion Würtz-Schmiedberger, Assistant Management/Travel Management at cargo-partner GmbH (Secretary) and Alexander Schnecke, Head of Business Sales Austrian Airlines AG (Deputy Secretary).

The extended board consists of Klaus Kretz / Sales Manager Corporate Travel Europäische Reiseversicherung, Peter Tolinger / Managing Director Verkehrsbüro Business Travel GmbH, Andreas Weingartner / Director Marketing & Sales Austria & Slovenia Hertz Car Rental and Wilfried Kropp / Kropp Kommunikation in an advisory capacity.

“We will strengthen international cooperation with the newly founded European platform BT4E (DACH organization of European business travel associations) and GBTA (Global Business Travel Association). With the BT4E, a necessary representation of the interests of the business travel market was created before the European authorities," explained Neumeister. 

The pandemic has shown that uniform standards, such as entry requirements for business travel, are missing and can obviously only be negotiated through a joint representation in Brussels.