Today Paul Borrow-Longain joined an economic overview presentation from Vienna, Austria,
remotely via Zoom, given by a leading Austrian economist.
Ms Barbara Kolm, President of the Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute in Vienna, Austria, Founding
Director of the Austrian Economics Center and Vice President of the Oesterreichische
Nationalbank (OeNB), gave an informed and informative presentation on some of the big
challenges (from an economic standpoint) that face Europe over the near term, which have the
potential to impact us all.
According to her biography on the website of Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) “Barbara
Kolm (born 1964 in Innsbruck, Austria) was appointed as Vice President of the Oesterreichische
Nationalbank in September 2018. Ms. Kolm is also the President of the Friedrich August von
Hayek Institute and the Director of the Austrian Economics Center (AEC).
She is the founder of the Free Market Road Show, an initiative which brings conferences in
economics to dozens of cities each year. She holds several positions in the executive management
of private enterprises and NGOs. Her major focus is on questions related to the efficiency,
financing, and positioning of public institutions, public infrastructure and administration. She
provides surveys and analyses about public finance, the national budget and structural reforms.
Her academic activities include an associate professorship for Austrian Economics at the
University of Donja Gorica in Podgorica, Montenegro. She is also a renowned public speaker at
international conferences.
Barbara Kolm holds supervisory board positions e.g. at VIG-Wiener Städtische
Versicherungsverein AG. She is also a member of the university board of WU-Vienna University
of Economics and Business.
In 2016, Barbara Kolm received the Global IP Champion Award for Excellence in Advocacy by
the Global Intellectual Property Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2017, Newsmax
voted her into the leading position among Europeans, and she was ranked 64th among the top 100
most influential liberal thinkers globally, as one of only 15 women, for her initiatives in providing
free market solutions to today’s challenges.
The Austrian Economics Center and the Friedrich August von Hayek Institute have reached top
international rankings under her leadership.”