2026-02-09
With entrepreneurial foresight, he played a decisive role in driving the development and international expansion of the corporate group, which operates worldwide today. On February 5th, just days before his 78th birthday, he passed away surrounded by his family.
Wolfgang Welser was born on February 7, 1948, in Ybbsitz, Austria. He joined Welser Profile, the family business, early on after graduating from a technical high school, HTL.
As a young man, he gained extensive experience in roll forming abroad and soon established the first international sales subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and many other European markets.
The name Wolfgang Welser remains inseparably linked with the establishment of the German production site in Bönen (North Rhine-Westphalia), a development that significantly strengthened the company’s position. This is still considered a key milestone for the company’s growth in the 2000s.
He served as Managing Director for more than three decades. Before his departure, he was responsible for the three production facilities in Gresten, Ybbsitz, and Bönen, as well as thirteen sales subsidiaries across Europe. Today, Welser Profile is one of the largest employers in the region, with more than 2,400 people employed worldwide.
Many of the company’s values, which are lived out today — especially the personal “first-name culture” and the guiding motto “There’s no such thing as impossible” — bear his unmistakable signature. Wolfgang Welser was a visionary, a creator, and an entrepreneur who rolled up his sleeves. His instinct for emerging market opportunities, and above all, his ability to build excellent relationships with business partners and employees alike, made him a defining figure at Welser Profile.
His teams consistently regarded him as goal-oriented, fair, generous, and sociable.
Even beyond the company, Wolfgang Welser demonstrated deep commitment. He served on the supervisory boards of ÖIAG (Austrian State Holding Company) and ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways); as chairman of the Association of the Iron and Metalware Industry; as vice president of the Federation of Austrian Industries; and as chairman of the Federal Industrial Division of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.
After stepping down from his role as Managing Director, he remained closely connected to the Welser Group — as a shareholder, a valued interlocutor, and a keen observer of developments he had helped shape for many years.
