AUSTRIA - Josef Papousek has been named as chief executive officer of consultancy Mercer's Austrian operations.

Walter Weinwurm, chief actuary, and Michaela Plank have also been appointed as members of the senior management.

Papousek succeeds an international Austrian Operating Committee which was running the operations over the last months.

The committee, which included Papousek and Weinwurm as well as international Mercer representatives, was put in place as an interim solution in October 2006.

Until then, the old management team of Austrian consultancy ‘Constantia, Neuburger, Bednar & Partner' which Mercer acquired in 2001, had led the international consultancy's Austrian operations.

These new appointments are part of Mercer's global rebranding under which Mercer also renamed its 18-staff operations in Vienna "Mercer (Austria) GmbH". (see earlier IPE article: Mercer takes implemented consulting to Europe)

The former name ‘Mercer HR Consulting GmbH' did not describe all of Mercer's consulting branches, Papousek noted in a press release.

He added Mercer will be offering additional services in the fields of Human Capital, Investment Consulting and Health & Benefits Consulting.

"We will continue to focus on management consulting including retirement provision," he told IPE.

"But we will also offer new consulting services such as health management which are not new to Mercer but will be offered for the first time in Austria."

Mercer's Austrian operations had around 800 clients in 2006, including many of the country's large companies , and reported turnover of €2.1m.

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