16. Oct 2017

The celebration took place at the 61st EOQ Congress, in Bled/Slovenia.

Mr. Gerd Hartinger – winner of the 2016 EOQ European Quality Leader Award

The European Organization for Quality (EOQ) celebrated the winner of the European Quality Leader Award 2016 at the 61st EOQ Congress, in Bled/Slovenia on October 11, 2017.

Photo l.t.r.: Konrad Scheiber, CEO Quality Austria; Dr. Gerd Hartinger, winner European Quality Leader Award 2016

The European Quality Leader (EQL) Award is granted annually by EOQ. EOQ ‘Quality Leaders’ are individuals who have succeeded in guiding their organizations to success for the different stakeholders through their leadership and  through the change and quality improvement processes, in the broadest sense, which they have implemented directly through their teams.

The EQL Award winner for 2016 is Mr. Gerd Hartinger of Austria, who has served as CEO of the Geriatric Health Centres of the City of Graz since 2000. Mr. Hartinger was selected as the winner of the EQL award due to his significant and exceptional achievements in the health and social services sector, wide national and international recognition and especially for successfully turning a weak organization into a European centre of excellence by creating a competence centre in the niche sector of geriatric medicine and nursing.

After acquiring extensive experience working as an engineer and economist in various fields (e.g. dam and power plant construction industry, paper and pulp industry), Gerd Hartinger developed his education and competencies in the field of health and social services by working as a Zone Manager for Economy at Graz University Hospital and becoming a member of the Supervisory Board of the KAGes - Health Care Company in Styria (the Iargest Styrian Health Care provider) in 2000.

Photo: EQL Award Contestants 2016

His greatest achievement has been his successful efforts as CEO of the Geriatric Health Centres of the City of Graz (GGZ). Although the Geriatric Health Centres of the City of Graz already had nearly 300 years of history at the end of the 20th century, its leadership was in complete disarray, there was no functional strategy, and costs were distributed across several locations in Graz. The organization was heavily in debt, and no investments had been made for decades. In 1999, the organization even lacked a uniform name, phone number or signage system in Graz. The goal was to turn this "derelict" organization into a European centre of excellence by creating a competence centre in the niche sector of geriatric medicine and nursing, and then to carefully but aggressively develop it into an outstanding organization by drawing on A.T. Kearny's "Stages of Excellence". In line with this goal, the portfolio of essential services for geriatric patients has grown from two in 2000 to twenty in 2016, and employee motivation and competence have increased significantly.

Mr. Hartinger articulated his essential mission as “Getting the best out of teams through transparency and accountable decision making, role-model behaviour, viewing professional communication structures as a prerequisite for knowledge management, developing significant goals together, and providing support during implementation, while also fostering autonomy”.

Under the passionate and committed leadership of Mr. Hartinger, the efforts of the GGZ team have been recognized via several well-known national and international awards, such as the KTQ Awards in 2010 and 2013 (the first European Group Certification based on KTQ 2010), the EFQM Awards (2014, 2015) and the Austrian Quality Award (across all industries) in 2014.

Apart from the organization’s outstanding achievements under Mr. Hartinger’s leadership, his expertise in quality management in healthcare services has been acknowledged by his serving as a university lecturer for 20 years, as well as his receiving a wide variety of other honors, including IIR Speaker-of-the-Year 2006, Hon. Prof. (FH) for health studies since 2015, Manager-of-the-Year at the Klinik AWARD 2015 in Berlin and various honorary functions in voluntary associations.

EOQ President Torolf Paulshus awarded Mr. Hartinger the European Quality Leader trophy and certificate during the Gala Dinner of the 61st EOQ Congress in Bled, Slovenia on October 11, 2017.

Photo l.t.r.: Konrad Scheiber, CEO Quality Austria; Dr. Gerd Hartinger, Winner EQL Award 2016; Niyazi Akdas, EOQ Past President; Torolf Paulshus, EOQ President 

The European Quality Leader Award recognizes outstanding individuals who devote their time, energy and knowledge by sharing their beliefs for the benefit of the European Society. The European Organization for Quality (EOQ) includes more than 70,000 members and 500,000 companies within its member and partner organizations in Europe and worldwide. EOQ is an interdisciplinary European organization that strives to promote effective improvement in the sphere of quality management as the coordinating body and catalyst of its Member Organizations, with the ultimate goal of improving European society by promoting quality in its broadest sense.

News & Events

The basis for long-term success!

08. Feb 2023

New International training program 2023

Start your next career adventure!

Learn more
10. Jan 2023

QMD Services obtains designation as a Notified Body for in vitro diagnostic devices

Milestone for the Medical Device Industry

Learn more
03. Jan 2023

Christian Matzku (50) takes over the Management of “Sales Steering” at Quality Austria

Sales professional starts at certification organization

Learn more
14. Oct 2022

The new EU Guideline on the implemen­tation of Food Safety Management Systems published

New developments for Food Businesses

Learn more
05. Oct 2022

What’s in for an Assessor?

Experience report from Mario Mauracher

Learn more
16. Sep 2022

New cooperation with ENFIT for highest standards

HQF Certification in supply chains acc. to the ENFIT Standard

Learn more
08. Aug 2022

The Many Uses of Lean Six Sigma

Guest article by Mischa Lucyshyn

Learn more
26. Jul 2022

Ransomware & other potential threat scenarios

07. Jul 2022

Building up Competency as Change Management

Continual Improvement Process

Learn more
07. Jun 2022

The five stumbling blocks you should dodge on your way to a management system

Mind the step!

Learn more
16. May 2022

25th anniversary of successful cooperation in certification

Alkaloid celebrates 25 years of successful cooperation

Learn more
03. May 2022

IFS Food Version 8 – first DRAFT version published

What changes and new features are coming

Learn more
+43 732 34 23 22