He is a direct descendent of Maria Theresa – Empress of Austria, Catherine the Great – Empress of Russia, and of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. He spent his youth in Austria, the Dominican Republic, and Antigua. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in the United States with a focus on environmental protection and alternative Energy. His professional life has taken him from his work as a research engineer, through consultancy, entrepreneurship and from the founding of several companies to his philanthropic work with his wife Herta Margarete. Today he is on the Board of several companies and organizations. He is also the Chairman of the Habsburg Advisory Trust, a finance solution trust operation registered in Liechtenstein. My firm and I have been successfully working together with HAT for many a year now.
In monarchical circles, the correct appellation befitting Sandor Habsburg Lothringen would be that of HIRH (His Imperial Royal Highness) His ancestral titles include the title of Archduke of Austria and Prince of Tuscany. Together with his wife Herta Margarete, Sandor has been leading the International Flame of Peace Movement on an international basis.
Sandor is also the Supreme Grand Prior of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, which also operates and is registered under the auspices of the United Nations. The Order of Saint Lazarus is indeed one of the world’s largest chivalric organisations to date, with more than fifteen thousand members worldwide actively participating in humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives in various countries and jurisdictions.
As one can see, my connections with Sandor are both commercial and philanthropic. They are also diplomatic since the synergy of both our networks has facilitated a number of supposedly impossible scenarios on the worldwide stage to be executed by the players in question.
Sandor is well respected world-wide. In our various meetings at the Archduke’s apartment in Schonbrunn Palace or at the family summer castle outside Vienna, I have listened carefully to Sandor’s methodical dissection of any challenge headed our way. His systematic approach to solving conundrums is indeed fascinating and I have learnt a lot by merely noting his approach to solutions instead of his panic with problems.
Sandor and I have done our fair bit of business together. I am sure we will do more. But, most importantly, Sandor and I have worked extensively in the philanthropic and Hospitaller fields worldwide and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. His love for the environment was underlined in his keynote speech in the parliamentary plenary session on alternative energy sources held in the parliament of Malta. His keynote speech addressed to Prince Albert II of Monaco, in a jampacked imperial palace of Hofburg in Vienna further underlined his thinking as an international peace activist and green revolutionary without the t-shirt and bandana. There were other important keynote speeches which Sandor delivered throughout his career; I am fortunate that I was present in some of them.
I have always felt comfortable working with Sandor, irrespective of his titles and his illustrious lineage. As with other similar nobles, Sandor’s nobility is projected by means of his immersion in doing positive initiatives in favour of the community, the vulnerable, the needy or the environment. He does not use his noble status in a pretentious, God-given manner because of a supposed superior blue-blood dynasty. His status is used to aid and assist and to do good. It is primarily because of these factors that we work so well together, even though my lineage is not noble and my thoughts on most topics and issues are to the left of the political spectrum. But that is another story.