The Austrian Trade Commission will move its regional headquarters for the Southeast from Houston to Atlanta in July.
Gustav Gressel, the current commissioner, said in a telephone interview from his Houston office on Friday, March 31 that Atlanta’s strong growth during the past 13 years favored the move. Houston beat out both Atlanta and Dallas when the decision to open the regional office was made in 1982.
“I have been coming to Atlanta every month for a trade show or some other urgent business,” he explained, “and there is an important concentration of Austrian companies in Georgia and the Carolinas.”
He also pointed to the strong growth of Austrian exports to Georgia, Florida and Alabama, and an increase of Austrian investments in the region.
Mr. Gressel will be replaced by Heinz Seitinger, who served as Austria’s trade commissioner in Chicago during the 1980s. Mr. Seitinger also has served in Australia and the Sudan.
A location for the office in Atlanta still has not been chosen.
The Austrian commission has been represented in Atlanta by Burke Marketgrowth International, which recently was selected to represent the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland. Burke Marketgrowth will continue to represent the region of Salzburg, but its activities in the Southeast on behalf of Austria will be assumed by the new Austrian office.
For more information, Mr. Gressel may be reached at (713) 850-8888; fax (713) 850-7857.