Disgraced former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is heading to Silicon Valley to start a plush new job as a “global strategist” working with his friend, the controversial German-American billionaire Peter Thiel.
Kurz, 35, fell from grace and resigned as Chancellor of Austria when a corruption scandal erupted in October as a result of raids that allegedly implicated the Chancellor in an alleged scheme to manipulate poll results.
And he is now reportedly set to become a “global strategist” at Thiel Capital in 2022, according to Austrian newspaper Heute.
Thiel Capital is owned by Peter Thiel, a German-American billionaire whom the Austrian Chancellor has reportedly known for years.
Thiel is no stranger to controversy himself, having voiced his support for Donald Trump in a move that raised eyebrows in largely pro-Democrat Silicon Valley.
Thiel and Kurz met at a security conference in Munich in 2017 and have since been in touch, according to local media.
It is currently unclear how much the Austrian politician will make, but the annual salary is said to be considerably higher than the EUR 312,000 (GBP 262,000) that he used to make as Chancellor.
There had been speculation in the past few days that Kurz might start working for US data analysis company Palantir, which is also owned by Thiel, the first person to invest in Facebook and a co-founder of PayPal along with Elon Musk.
But Jan Hiesserich, Head of Strategy and Communications at Palantir in Europe, made it clear: “Sebastian Kurz will not work at Palantir.”
Heute, citing “close confidants”, reports that Kurz will commute between the United States and Europe, with an emphasis on maintaining Vienna as the centre of his family life.
