A coffee with board member Sabine Pfeffer

Dear Sabine, you have been responsible for Customer & Market Bank Austria in your new Board function for about five months. Have you already arrived at the topic? 

Sabine Pfeffer: Not only have I arrived, but we have also set sail for a long time and it's full steam ahead. The first weeks were very intense. I have already been on the road to all the regional state banks, and I have also had the pleasure of welcoming primary banks and the regional managers to the UNIQA Tower. These many valuable conversations have given me the opportunity not only to get to know Raiffeisen Versicherung, but to immerse myself in the entire Raiffeisen world. It's no longer an onboarding, I'm already in the middle of it and we've already really picked up speed. 

What areas will you focus on, considering that the main topics at Raiffeisen Versicherung have recently revolved around financial provision and green investments

Pfeffer: A major focus, which I have already defined in my approach, is to further increase the presence of Raiffeisen Versicherung in the Raiffeisen banks. We want to become more visible. I still see a lot of room for improvement in raising this great potential in bank sales. On the product level, health insurance is a major concern for me. The pandemic has shown us how important it is to have the right insurance partner at your side. UNIQA can draw on a wealth of experience in this area, and I would like to place this more strongly with customers and address them accordingly. There is also a strong focus on financial security. For example, we want to further strengthen biometrics – this concerns the areas of death, occupational disability, survival, and accident. We have planned our own autumn campaign for this. Another important topic is long-term pension provision. Sixty seven percent of Austrian women are intensively concerned with the financial topic. Therefore, we will also take special initiatives in this area. Another essential element is housing. Any housing finance must also address the issue of insurance. I am not interested in aggressive selling. We must point out to the customer what possibilities there are to take out appropriate insurance and make provisions. I see this as a strong social mandate and a responsibility that we have. And finally, in spring we discussed the existing cooperation agreement and the business development with the Raiffeisen regional state banks. I intend to optimise the cooperation model and reach a mutual agreement with the regional state banks. Let's go into a strong common future, let's raise our potentials, let's mobilise the sales power and let's raise awareness that it's all about a total package that includes insurance in addition to banking products. 

In your new function, you are on the one hand a Board member of a group and at the same time responsible for bank sales at Raiffeisen, a decentrally organised sector. How will you manage this balancing act? 

Pfeffer: I am convinced that we can profit enormously from each other. UNIQA and Raiffeisen Versicherung have extensive know-how and top products. The Raiffeisen banks are very close to their customers, their daily lives, their needs, and concerns. And we can combine the one with the other and develop a joint force from it. My goal is to strengthen this sales power again – after the difficult Corona years – and to proactively address our customers personally or digitally, to listen and to act according to their needs. UNIQA's claim sums it up: living better together. That's exactly where we want to be.

We know that the share of women in higher management positions is comparatively low in our company. In your work at UNIQA, will you have an influence on strengthening women and this proportion? 

Pfeffer: Definitely! That is very close to my heart. We all know that companies are more successful when women are at the decision-making table. Above all, I would like to encourage women to have more confidence in themselves, to go their own personal way with self-assurance. It would be great if more female role models in leadership positions at UNIQA would support me in motivating junior managers to also aspire to such a position. For this, many female managers should be visible and tell their story. Promoting the compatibility of family and career can also pave the way to a management position. In the short time I've been here, I've already seen that there are great initiatives by my board colleague René Knapp, and Ulli Kienast-Salmhofer, our representative for inclusion and diversity, is also enormously committed here. I, too, am passionate about getting involved. 

With your great commitment to so many projects and issues, where do you draw strength for the job? 

Pfeffer: When you are happily working on many fronts and meetings and projects determine your professional everyday life, then you appreciate the private side more. I like to be out in nature, in my forest. As a hunter, I get a lot of pleasure from observing wild animals. But I am also very interested in art and culture, music plays an important role in my life. And - perhaps somewhat unusually - I also do physical work to balance myself out: it does happen that I am out and about with a tractor or a chainsaw. That grounds me and makes me grateful and happy. I also like cooking, everything that the forest, meadow and my pond give me. But my deepest happiness is when I can watch my goats grazing on a beautiful summer day at my home in Türnitz in Lower Austria. That gives me an incredible amount of strength.