Andreas Bierwirth, the CEO of Deutsche Telekom's Austrian subsidiary Magenta Telekom, will move to Erste Group as of 1 October 2022.

In a first step, Bierwirth will assume responsibility for the retail banking business together with Erste Group CEO Willi Cernko. It is planned that after a familiarization period of several months and following the fit and proper assessment established by regulatory requirements, Andreas Bierwirth will be appointed to Erste Group's management board as Chief Retail Officer. In this role, Bierwirth will be responsible for managing the retail agendas of the entire banking group.

Andreas Bierwirth Andreas Bierwirth ?Marlena Konig [JPEG; 2500x1667; 1 MB]

Friedrich Rodler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Erste Group, on the appointment of Andreas Bierwirth: 'I am very pleased that in the person of Andreas Bierwirth, we have succeeded in gaining such a prominent and, at the same time, highly competent manager for Erste Group's retail agendas. He will work closely with our Chief Platform Officer Maurizio Poletto to ensure that the strategy in the retail segment is rapidly applied to the benefit of our customers in all our markets. Andreas Bierwirth's extensive retail experience in the telecoms sector, which has also become a highly digitalized market in recent years, makes him ideally suited for this position. He will make a valuable contribution to the further development of our retail business.'

Andreas Bierwirth on his new role: 'This is a hugely exciting challenge and one that I am looking forward to immensely. The retail business is my absolute passion and I was always fully focused on customers and meeting their needs during my work at Magenta over the past decade. That's exactly what I want to do at Erste as well: place the customer at the very center of everything we do and provide solutions that really add value - whether digitally, remotely, or in a branch. Every initiative should tangibly contribute to an even better customer experience.'

Willi Cernko, CEO of Erste Group: 'I am extremely excited to be working with Andreas. The immense experience that he brings with him from completely different industries means that he will offer valuable new perspectives and impulses for our retail business. And that is exactly what is important to me: learning from other areas and on that basis, bringing new inspiration and expertise to the bank. Customers and their financial health are the core of what we do - and that's why we need people like Andreas who understand that focus and are passionate about it.'

About Andreas Bierwirth

Andreas Bierwirth has many years of management experience in the retail and digital sectors. Most recently, he has been CEO of Magenta Telekom, where he successfully built up the brand over the course of ten years. From 2008-2012, Bierwirth was on the management board of Austrian Airlines, first as Chief Commercial Officer and later as CFO and Co-CEO. Prior to that, he served as Vice

President Marketing at Germany's Lufthansa. Bierwirth started his managerial career in 2002 as Managing Director at Eurowings. Andreas Bierwirth, who trained as a banker and earned a doctorate degree in business administration, is a passionate pilot with a license for commercial aircraft and helicopters.

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