Group Executive Board
Andreas Brandstetter, 56
has been in the insurance industry for 28 years and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2002 and its Chair since 2011. Before joining UNIQA, he was head of the EU office of the Austrian Raiffeisen Association in Brussels. He holds a doctorate in political science, having studied in Vienna and the U.S. and completed an Executive MBA at California State University, Hayward/IMADEC. Andreas Brandstetter completed his postgraduate studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. From 2018 until 2024 he served as President of Insurance Europe, the representative body in Brussels of European insurance and reinsurance companies.
Wolf Gerlach, 46
has been in the insurance industry for 21 years and has been a member of the Executive Board and responsible for the function Operations and Data & IT since 2020. A graduate in business administration, he began his career with the Allianz Group before joining UNIQA’s International Bancassurance in 2008 and subsequently headed the department of Group Strategy from 2010 until 2012. He then served as Chief Operations Officer of our Romanian subsidiary for four years, before joining the Management Board for Retail at UNIQA Hungary in 2016. Wolf Gerlach completed his postgraduate studies at Harvard Business School.
Peter Humer, 54
has been in the insurance industry for 29 years and has been responsible for the function Customers & Markets Austria since January 2020. With a doctorate in social and economic sciences, he started his professional career at UNIQA in 1996 in sales, followed by various national and international positions within the Group. In 2009, Peter Humer took over the functions of Management Board member at Salzburger Landes-Versicherung AG (wholly owned subsidiary of UNIQA) and of Regional Director in Salzburg, and in 2017 he was appointed Member of the Management Board for Sales at UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG. In 2019 he completed postgraduate studies at the IMD in Lausanne and at Harvard Business School.
Wolfgang Kindl, 59
has been in the insurance industry for 29 years and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2011, where he is responsible for the function Customers & Markets International. Wolfgang Kindl has worked for the UNIQA Group since 1996, managing our subsidiary in Geneva from 2000 to 2004 and acting as Managing Director of UNIQA International from 2005. When he was appointed to the Group Management Board in 2011, he was also appointed Chairman of the Management Board of UNIQA International. Since 2024, he has also been a Board Member at Eurapco, a strategic alliance of mutual insurance companies in Europe. With a doctorate in social sciences and economics, he graduated from a postgraduate programme in environmental management. He also completed postgraduate studies at the IMD in Lausanne and at Harvard Business School.
René Knapp, 43
has been in the insurance industry for 18 years and has been a member of the Executive Board since January 2020, where he is responsible for the functions Asset Management, Personal Lines and People & Brand. The mathematics graduate and recognised actuary began his career at UNIQA in 2007 and took over responsibility for the life insurance actuarial department in 2010. From 2012, he headed the Group Actuarial department, which was expanded to include Group Risk Management in 2015. In addition to his activities for UNIQA, René Knapp is not only committed to the actuarial profession as a member of the Management Board of AVÖ, but has also held numerous guest professorships at Austrian universities. He also completed executive programmes at Harvard Business School and the Sloan School of Management (MIT).
Sabine Pfeffer, 53
has been in the insurance industry for 32 years and took over as head of the function Customers & Markets Bancassurance Austria in April 2023, where she has since been responsible for the Raiffeisen Insurance Austria brand. The graduate in Business Administration, who has also completed a Master’s degree in Legal Studies as well as a university course in Insurance Management at the WU Executive Academy, started her professional career in 1993 at Generali, followed by senior positions at Wiener Städtischen Versicherung AG, where she was most recently responsible for the personal insurance administration department, before switching to UNIQA. She has more than 25 years of management experience.
Kurt Svoboda, 59
has been in the insurance industry for 29 years and has been responsible for the functions Finance and Risk Management on the Group Executive Board since July 2011. He was also CEO of UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG from December 2017 until June 2020. He began his career at KPMG Austria GmbH in 1992, before joining the Group as Managing Director of UNIQA Finanz Service GmbH in 2003 after holding management positions at various insurance companies. Kurt Svoboda studied business administration, specialising in international taxation and insurance management, and completed an international management course at the University of St. Gallen, as well as postgraduate studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School.