AUSTRIA: ÖBB has opened the search for a successor to chief executive Andreas Matthä, whose term ends on 30 June 2027. The group is also adding a chief operating officer (COO) to its holding board to steer train operations group-wide. Applications close on 12 October.
ÖBB‘s holding company has advertised both posts, and its supervisory board expects to have selected candidates by the end of the year. The chief executive will have led the group for 11 years when his term ends.
The board of ÖBB-Holding currently has two members. Chief financial officer Manuela Waldner, whose term runs to June 2028, stays in place. The new post brings the board to three.
What the new board member will run
According to ÖBB, the COO will rebuild the process it calls “Bahn-Produktion” – everything from the timetable to having trains ready for service – and steer it at group level. Group IT management moves under the same board member.
The job advertisement asks for extensive experience in a large group and knowledge of the railway sector. It names five fields in particular: IT governance, operational technology, digitalisation, information security and data management.
For the chief executive post, ÖBB seeks candidates with several years of practice in a mobility company, economic competence and international expertise. The group is active in 18 countries, by its own count.
Why the board is being enlarged
Supervisory board chair Brigitte Ederer tied the enlargement to a structural reform of the group that is already under way.
“ÖBB faces major challenges such as rising passenger numbers, network load and the big topic of artificial intelligence,” she said in the announcement.
The reform is meant to strengthen the holding’s function within the group, according to the supervisory board chair. The chief executive has already begun that transformation, she said. Advertising the posts now is meant to let him put the new structures in place together with his successor and secure a handover.
One holding, three railway businesses
ÖBB-Holding owns the infrastructure manager ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, the passenger operator ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG and the freight business Rail Cargo Group. The outgoing chief executive has led the group since 2016.
In December 2025 the supervisory board extended his contract to June 2027. Since 1 January 2026 he has also chaired the supervisory board of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.
EU law permits integrated groups of this kind, provided the infrastructure manager decides train path allocation and track access charges independently of the group’s operators. ÖBB’s announcement does not say how the COO’s group-wide remit over the timetable relates to ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.