Management
Managing Director Dkfm. Elisabeth Gürtler
Elisabeth Gürtler is not only the director of the renowned Hotel Sacher in Vienna and the Sacher in Salzburg, she also holds the reins of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The entrepreneur and mother of two grown children is also a horse expert and used to be an enthusiastic rider herself until 1990. Miss Gürtler was Austrian vice-champion in dressage and part of the Austrian dressage team at the CHIO (Concours Hippique International Officiel) in Aachen in 1979. As managing director, she is responsible for the strategic development of the company and the representation of its traditions.
Economic Director Mag. Erwin Klissenbauer
In December 2007, Erwin Klissenbauer left the office of the board of management of the Austrian Federal Forests to join the management of the Spanish Riding School. Born in Lower Austria, the 43-year-old jurist is responsible for the finances, controlling, administration and staff of the Spanish Riding School. Among his responsibilities lies also the location development in Vienna, the Federal Stud Piber in Western Styria and the Lipizzaners’ summer residence at the Heldenberg (Lower Austria).
Director of the Riding School Ernst Bachinger
Ernst Bachinger was a rider at the Spanish Riding School for nearly 20 years and has now come back to his old school as “Director of the Riding School”. He is an important link between the management and the riders. Among his main duties is the preservation of the orally transmitted tradition of the High School of classical riding and assuring the quality of the riders’ and horses’ education. Furthermore, Mr Bachinger is expected to bring the international world of dressage and the Spanish Riding School closer together.