Ambassador Dr. Erich Hochleitner

Former Executive Chairman AIES (in Memoria 1930-2019)

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The AIES mourns the death of its founding director Ambassador Dr. Erich Hochleitner

Erich Hochleitner was born in Vienna on 24th of July 1930 and holds a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna. In addition, he received a degree from Stanford University, which he completed with a Master of Arts in Economics.

In 1956 he joined the Austrian Foreign Service, where he spent his career abroad in Cairo, Brussels, London and Geneva. He was the Austrian Ambassador to Portugal from 1979 to 1985 and Head of the Development Cooperation Section between 1988 and 1993. From 1993 to 1996 he was the Austrian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and Permanent Representative to the Western European Union (WEU) and NATO.

On his initiative, the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) was founded in September 1996. As the founding director of the institute, Ambassador Hochleitner has written numerous publications on topics related to the European foreign, security and defense policy. Ambassador Hochleitner has always been a committed facilitator of the European integration efforts.

We offer our condolences to his companions and especially to his family members.