Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Austrian Central Bank, delivered a public talk, "The Financial Crisis: Lessons Learned - The European View," on Tuesday, April 27, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. at Prospect House on the Princeton University Campus. The talk was co-sponsored by LISD, the Woodrow Wilson School, Department of Economics, and the European Union Program.

Professor Ewald Nowotny is the Governor of The Austrian Central Bank - Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) - and a Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB). Before taking on his current position in September 2008, Nowotny held a number of high-level positions in financial institutions. He was CEO of the Austrian BAWAG P.S.K. banking group from 2006 to 2007, served as Vice President and Member of the Executive Board of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg from 1999 to 2003 and, between 1971 and 1979, was first a Member and then President of the Governing Board of Österreichische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.). Moreover, from 1992 to 2008 Ewald Nowotny served as member of the supervisory board of several banks and corporations and was a member of the OeNB’s General Council from 2007 to 2008.

Nowotny studied law and government sciences at the University of Vienna and economics at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna. In 1967, he received his doctorate in law from the University of Vienna. After working as assistant to Professor Kurt W. Rothschild at the Economics Department of the University of Linz , Austria, from 1968 to 1973, Ewald Nowotny received his postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) in General Economics and Public Economics in 1973 and subsequently held research tenures and professorships at Harvard University , Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, and the University of Linz, Austria. From 1981 to 2008 Ewald Nowotny served as Full Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, where he also held the position of Vice-Rector from 2003 to 2004. In 2008, Ewald Nowotny received a honorary doctorate in Social and Economic Sciences from Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria.

Nowotny has published numerous articles in refereed journals. He is also the author or coauthor of nine books; the fifth edition of his internationally renowned textbook, Der öffentliche Sektor: Einführung in die Finanzwissenschaft was published in 2008.

Nowotny was an elected Member of the Austrian Parliament from 1979 to 1999 and served as chairman of the parliamentary Finance Committee from 1985 to 1999.