Treasurer

Axel Hofmann graduated in 1983 from Vienna University with a Masters degree in social sciences and economics. His professional career began in a major multinational electronics corporation, where he soon attained the position of business executive with responsibilities over several European countries. In 1989 he joined a world leading business consulting firm as senior consultant. His main clients were blue chip corporations, advising their CEOs and senior staff members in times of strategic change, and during mergers and acquisitions.

In 1998 his interests expanded to medical economics, especially in transfusion alternative strategies and their clinical implementation. In 2002, together with the Austrian Ministry of Health, the Vienna Hospital Association and clinicians from Vienna University Hospital, he initiated the 1st Austrian Congress on Blood Conservation, followed by the 1st European Congress on Blood Conservation in 2005. From 2004-2005 he was the lead partner in a ground-breaking Austrian government study and planning project titled, ‘Strategy for the Optimization of the Use of Blood and Blood Components in Austrian Hospitals’. Currently, he is conducting a series of process cost analyses in transfusion medicine and hemotherapy.

He is a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management where he served on the Board of Directors from 2001-2004. In 2003 he initiated the founding of the Medical Society for Blood Management. As an economist with a special interest in blood and blood management, he was invited to participate in the first international consensus conference on the cost of blood. The multidisciplinary conference was held together with world renowned experts and the results were published in early 2005 in Transfusion Medicine Review. Axel has co-authored several articles published in the medical literature and has been an invited speaker on cost of blood and blood transfusion at numerous health institutions, government agencies and international symposia.