Alexander Van der Bellen is present President of Country Austria since 26 January 2017
Date of Birth: 18 January 1944
Birth Place: Greater Vienna, Alpine and Danube Reichsgaue, Third Reich (now Vienna, Austria)
Preceded by: Heinz Fischer
Party: Independent
Family: Brigitte Hüttner (married in 1962, divorced in 2015) and two Sons, Doris Schmidauer (married in 2015) and Parents are Alma Sieboldt, Alexander Van der Bellen
About: Van der Bellen studied economics at the University of Innsbruck and obtained a master’s degree in 1966. With his dissertation, Kollektive Haushalte und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmungen: Probleme ihrer Koordination, he was awarded the title of Dr. rer. oec in 1970. From 1968 to 1971, he served as scientific assistant to Clemens August Andreaeat at the Institute for Public Finance and, from 1972 to 1974, as a research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). He was a university assistant at the Institute for Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck and was awarded the qualification of university lecturer (habilitation) in 1975. In 1976, Van der Bellen became an associate professor at the University of Innsbruck, where he remained until 1980. During this time, he moved to Vienna to study and conduct research from 1977 to 1980 at the Federal Academy of Public Administration. From 1980 to 1999, he was an extraordinary university professor of economics at the University of Vienna. Between 1990 and 1994, he also became dean of the faculty of economics at the University of Vienna. In October 1999, he became parliamentary leader of the Greens in the National Council and thus resigned as a university professor in January 2009. Van der Bellen retired in February 2009. His research focused on planning and financing procedures in the public sector, infrastructure financing, fiscal policy, public expenditure, government regulation policy, public undertakings, and environmental and transport policy.
