Rewards

Congratulations!

VIVATIS and the innovation community are really happy to announce the winners of the VIVATIS Innovation Contest!

Thank you all for your creative contributions. With your innovative ideas you were an important part of our successful contest.
We already showed you a picture of the jury meeting in our blog.

At the 20th January, VIVATIS invited the submitters of the outstanding top 7 ideas to a hearing.

All 7 presentations were superb, so it was really tough to find the winners. In the end VIVATIS and the LIMAK Austrian Business School were convinced by two aspirants for the second place. So they spontaneously decided to offer a second certificate course for Innovation and Product Management and allowed two second places, each worth 5.900€.

Now here are our lucky winners:

1st Place: Congratulations traumfänger! His idea “Milchflocken und Milchperlen” won the VIVATIS Innovation Contest. He receives the funding for the MBA Innovation and Product Management, worth 20.690€.

Congratulations also to Kate Rushton!
She won our special award with the idea "Gourmet Ice Lollies/Popsicles".
She receives EUR 500,- + a VIVATIS-Productbag + 2 concert tickets (“Wiener Stadthalle”)

The VIVATIS Innovation Contest was a great success for all of us, so thank you for your ideas and your dedication!

Jury

The Jury members are:

Mag. Gertrude Suschock, MBA (Managing Director Maresi Austria GmbH)

Mag. Gertrude Suschko is since September 1st 2013 as Managing Director responsible for Sales and Marketing. Suschko started her career 1991 as Trade Marketing Manager for Procter & Gamble. In more than two decades at P & G she gained a funded Marketing-Know-How and a large experience, among others in the disciplines of Trade Marketing, ECR, Innovation management and Category Management. As speaker of the Maresi-Management she is very engaged and is always looking for innovative Ideas and creative solutions for the customers of Maresi.

Mag. Gerald Hackl (CEO VIVATIS Holding AG)

After graduating in Business Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business and the JKU Linz, he laid the foundations for his successful career in the food sector. Until 2004, Mr. Hackl was in the bakery and dairy sector, operating mainly in the areas of organization, marketing, sales, logistics and personnel. In 2001, he started being a member of the board. In 2005, Mr. Hackl took over the management of the efko-group and successfully stayed in that position until recently. As of the beginning of 2013, he has been bringing his passion for the food and beverage industry into the VIVATIS group with great energy.

Mag. (FH) Heidrum Girz (Innovations Manager VIVATIS Holding AG)

Mag. (FH) Heidrun Girz is responsible for the new installed division Company-Innovation Management at VIVATIS since 1. October 2013. She accompanies VIVATIS subsidiaries for the installation- and developing of innovation management process, from finding the idea (conception und moderating workshops) till market-ready innovation. Her extensive field of activity contains product launch, service- and marketing innovations and the development of strategic business model innovations. Mrs. Girz studied extra-occupational Corporate Management & Management at the FH in Vienna. Since 20 years she is working in the field of FMCG (Consume, Merkur-Emma, Kleider Bauer, GS1 Austria, Coca-Cola). Since 2002 Girz is involved in the ECR (Efficient Consumer Response) field as industry representative in the working team Demand Side.

Dr Romana Hackl (HR-Managerin VIVATIS Holding AG)

Since April 2011, Dr. Romana Hackl is leading the Human Resources Management Department with responsibility for personnel development, design, realization of strategic HR projects, and the implementation and evaluation of HR instruments within the Group. Romana Hackl studied economic science in Linz, specializing in corporate finance. At last, Ms. Hackl was employed at the Vienna Insurance Group, where she was in charge of personnel development at the company headquarters in Austria.

Mag. Gerhard Leitner MSc (Managing Director Limak)

Mag. Gerhard Leitner is manager of the Limak Austrian Business School since 2011. Before becoming the manager of Limak he was working for more than eight years in the consumer products industry. He was responsible for the alpine field of Fischer Sports as part of the management board. Before that he managed the Marketing- and Logistic Division of an international logistic company. Leitner graduated from Johannes Kepler University. He studied Business Administrations with focus on Marketing and Organization.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Fink (Academic Director MBA Innovation and Product Management & Director of the Institute for Innovation Management at Johannes Kepler University Linz)

Matthias Fink is head of the Institute for Innovation at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria and a Professor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Institute for International Management Practice at ARU Cambridge, UK. Matthias previously worked as a Professor for International Small Business Management and Innovation at Leuphana Univerity Lüneburg Germany and was Head of the Research Institute for Liberal Professions at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. Matthias holds a Ph.D. and a postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business and was a Visiting Professor at several universities e.g. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain and University of Twente, The Netherlands. In research, Matthias’ focus is on the role of innovation in new venture creation and small business management.