“With Harald Chrstos, an experienced generalist with excellent sales and marketing experience is taking the helm. His special knowledge will be of great value for positioning of the company in the Slovakian market,” states UNIQA international chairman Dr. Andreas Brandstetter.

After studying business administration with the specialties personnel management and insurance, Mr. Chrstos began his career in 1977 in the sales department of Raiffeisen Insurance. For five years, he led the advertising and marketing department before he advanced to head of sales promotion in 1995. In 2002, he was also entrusted with project management of international bank sales. His primary duties included interfacing between the international subsidiaries of UNIQA and the corresponding RZB subsidiaries with the goal of preparing and establishing the sale of insurance products through banks, initially in the Slovak Republic and in Croatia.

As General Director of UNIQA poistovna, Mr. Chrstos will be responsible for marketing and sales, personnel, training, auditing and the general secretary. Together with the two sitting executive board members, Radomir Hácik and Jozef Paska, he will meet the challenges of an extremely active market: “I receive from my predecessor an agile, healthy company at a very exciting time characterized by the approaching EU accession as well as a strongly growing market with some intensely competitive sectors. Waiting for us, among other things, are the cost-sensitive expansion of the sales organization and the realization of bank sales.”

UNIQA poistovna, a company of UNIQA Group Austria, has been active in the Slovak Republic since 1991. The company has over 290 employees and resides in sixth place with a premium volume of approximately 30 million euro. The focus of the business activities lies in property insurance, particularly in the intensely competitive sector of automobile collision insurance. In addition, UNIQA poistovna participated directly and successfully in the demonopolization of the automobile liability market. In recent years, the portfolio has been strengthened in the direction of elementary and life insurance. The intensive customer care is performed by a dense sales network of the company’s own field employees, independent brokers, agents and automobile retailers.