Martin Schlaff

He has one brother, James, born in 1952.

Martin Schlaff (born 6 August 1953) is an Austrian investor, networker and philanthropist.

Martin Schlaff studied at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and completed his studies with a master’s degree in 1975.

In 1976, he took over the Robert Placzek AG in Vienna, founded by his father, Chaim Schlaff, and partners.

The firm traded with goods from Eastern Europe, mainly wood, cellulose and paper.

In his first years he continued trading with several CEE countries, mainly Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, thereafter also with East Germany.

Step by step he expanded the business, first offering textiles, then also computer parts.

In his business deals, he was always audacious and clever in finding the right loophole.

For example, his trading with computer spare parts were strictly legal, as the embargo concerned only US products and products listed in the embargo treaty.

He got merchandise from Singapore that was not listed, bought it and delivered it via countries that had not signed the CoCom embargo treaty.

According to a Bundestag commission report from 1998, Martin Schlaff and Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (KoKo) later-on circumvented the Western embargo when building a hard drive storage factory in Meiningen shortly before the collapse of the GDR.

Though, the commission did not succeed in finding the secret treaty between KoKo and Schlaff.

The code name of the project was Objekt Wappen.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Schlaff had to reinvent his business models.

In 1998, he opened a casino and a hotel in Jericho, a Palestinian city on the West Bank.

Named "The Oasis", it was aimed at guests from Israel, where gaming is not legal.

The project was partly owned by the Palestinian National Authority.

The project was immediately a huge financial success - for the founders as well as for the community.

In 1998, he helped Bank Austria survive the Rubel crisis.

The casino was closed during the Second Intifada in September 2000 and never reopened.

In the first years of the century, he has purchased Bulgarian Mobiltel, and resold it after several years of restructuring for big profit.

Similar deals were thereafter executed in two other emerging markets, but with less profit.

After restructuring the companies, the Serbian Mobtel was sold to Telenor, a Norwegian company, and the Belarussian Velcom was bought by Telekom Austria.

The profits from these deals were subject of bitter controversies and criticism in Austria.

In 2002, he helped Jörg Haider and Ariel Muzicant broker a deal to end a law suit after Haider's anti-Semitic insults.

Only three of his endeavours on the international level became known:

Since 2006, he is a major shareholder of RHI Magnesita.

His net worth is estimated between €3.2 and €8 billion.

Schlaff was born in Vienna, Austria, to Jewish refugees from World War II.

His parents lived in a camp for displaced persons.

In 2006, a foundation attributed to Schlaff bought about 6% of the shares of RHI AG, the world's largest supplier of refractory products.

By September of the following year the MS Privatstiftung already owned 26,47% of the shares.

In 2010, he established a bank in Liechtenstein called Sigma Bank.

Martin Schlaff is known as a skillful networker.

Although a socialdemocrat, he was also on good talking terms with conservative leaders, be it Ariel Sharon in Israel or Wolfgang Schüssel in Austria.

Although a Jew, he was respected by Arab leaders such as Yasser Arafat or Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2016, Schlaff intended to install Christian Kern as CEO of the company, but Kern recused himself when his party nominated him to become chancellor of Austria.

Also in 2016, Schlaff managed the merger of RHI with a major competitor, the Brazilian Magnesita.

While the headquarters of the company remained in Vienna, RHI Magnesita left the Vienna Stock Exchange.

The company is now listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.