On December 10, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business honored Georg Kapsch, CEO of Kapsch TrafficCom AG, as WU Manager of the Year 2025.

“The WU Manager of the Year award is our way of honoring personalities who have made a lasting impact through their strategic thinking, long-term dedication and commitment, and strong sense of social responsibility,” says WU Rector Rupert Sausgruber. “Georg Kapsch is a prime example of these qualities. His career has been characterized by a clear vision, continuous innovation, and impact far beyond his own business,” Sausgruber said about Georg Kapsch’s achievements.

“We need empathy for other people!”

Georg Kapsch was honored to be named WU Manager of the Year 2025. He said, “It’s a great honor and pleasure for me to receive this award from my alma mater today. It was at WU Vienna where I laid the groundwork for my career in business, and it has always been very important to me to stay in touch with this university. I firmly believe that business leaders and policymakers have a great deal of responsibility towards society. This means that our thinking and our actions must be guided by facts and not by arbitrary steps for securing our own position. We must serve the people, not the other way around. This requires a lot of courage and the resilience needed to resist social media firestorms.” Rather than a manager, however, Georg Kapsch prefers to see himself as a leader and a creative mind. He said he felt indebted to WU in many ways, and he stressed that assuming responsibility for guiding other people is always a big challenge. “Managers need a great deal of empathy,” he said.

Putting people first

Samuel and Jakob Kapsch, the two sons of WU’s Manager of the Year 2025, gave the laudatory speech. They said, “Our father goes through life with a deep sense of curiosity and a lot of courage. He puts people first in everything he does.”

About the WU Manager of the Year award

WU launched the WU Manager of the Year award in 1993 to honor WU alumni who have distinguished themselves as senior managers driving the development of their companies and the entire business world with extraordinary enthusiasm and vision. Previous recipients of the WU Manager of the Year award include Susanne Baumann-Söllner, CEO of IAKW-AG, technology manager Christopher Schläffer, museum director and art manager Max Hollein, Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek, and Silvia Angelo, member of the board of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG. The 2024 WU Manager of the Year award went to Patricia Neumann, CEO of Siemens AG Austria.

Link: Markt. Macht. Moral. | WU matters. WU talks.