Gebhart Ottacher (43), co-CEO of Teach for Austria

Prior to joining Teach For Austria in 2012 he worked as investment manager for Raiffeisen Holding NÖ-Wien and as strategy consultant for Booz & Company (now part of PWC). 

He holds degrees in history and public administration from the University of Vienna and Harvard´s Kennedy School of Government​.

At AIESEC he served as LCP of LC WU Vienna in 2000/2001 and loved facilitating and chairing at conferences in Germany, Slovakia, Latvia and Costa Rica​.

 

Firas Saedaddin (44), multi-entrepreneur 

Firas is a seasoned global executive with more than 16 years of international expertise in the telecommunications, enterprise networking & communication as well as contact center industry. He has a solid track record in sales management and operations, marketing and product management. Firas grew as high-potential with Alcatel-Lucent (now Nokia) up to 2014 with mid- and long-term assignments in France, USA, China and Malaysia and managed a US-based subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent as COO for 4 years.

He’s an established entrepreneur in the fields of management consulting as well as training and coaching, food wholesale and production, real estate development and fitness.

Since 2016 Firas works as management consultant amongst others for the Vienna Business Agency via start-up workshops and coachings in particular with refugees from arabic countries. In 2017 the program to train interested founders was expanded to include workshops in 3 regulated business areas - carpenter, bakery and cake shop, gastronomy also thanks to his “Gründerinitiative für Asylberechtigte”. Firas is currently involved in the creation of a socially responsible production facility in Kenya for cashew and macadamia nuts involving the local society. He’s also part of the extended board of “Sozialdemokratischer Wirtschaftsverband Wien”. 

In AIESEC he was in charge of Exchange Outgoing at LC WU Vienna in 1995/96 and of External Relations at the NC of Austria in 1996/97. He was also in charge of the 50 year celebration of AIESEC Austria, which is unforgettable like most AIESEC experiences and remained engraved in his memory until today.