Just in: Salzburg Festival names new chief

The Board of the Salzburg Festival has unanimously chosen Kristina Hammer to be the new president of the Salzburg Festival.

A German-Swiss with long-standing Salzburg links, Hammer’s concept and connections won her the post, in succession to the long-serving Helga Rabl-Stadler.

‘The decision to appoint Kristina Hammer the new president of the Salzburg Festival is a conscious step taken by the Board in order to further internationalize the Salzburg Festival, to secure, hone and expand the special radiance associated with the Salzburg Festival brand and demonstrate the determination to rise to and master new challenges facing the Salzburg Festival as the world’s leading classical three-genre festival. Her successful career, her ability to integrate, her long-term connection with the Salzburg Festival and her cultural track record as a board member of the Friends of the Zurich Opera convinced us to make this decision,’ said local governor Wilfried Haslauer.

Hammer’s company CV reads as follows:

Dr Kristina Hammer has been in leading international marketing and public relations management positions for more than 15 years.

The early years of her professional life were spent at Gerngross, Austria’s largest department store chain in the 1990s. Kristina was in charge of concept development and later also responsible as managing director for “Steffls”, Vienna’s most prestigious luxury department store. From 2000 onward, she spent seven years in England working for Premier Automotive Group (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Volvo), then also worked for the parent company Ford starting in 2006. She then headed the global Marketing Communications Team at Mercedes-Benz motor cars at their corporate headquarters in Stuttgart from 2007 to 2009. At the end of that year she founded her own consulting company: HammerSolutions, an internationally active brand consulting firm based in Herrliberg/Zurich, Switzerland. Ms. Hammer has also been a supervisory board member at Switzerland’s biggest ski manufacturer, Stöckli Swiss Sports AG.