general of the Switzerland-based International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), will retire
at the end of 2006, having logged 37 years of service to the organization.
A native of Austria, Strolz graduated in 1961 from the University of Vienna as a doctor in
law. The following year, he joined the foreign trade department of the Austrian Federal Chamber of
Commerce; and in 1963 was named Austrian Trade Commissioner in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1968, he
moved on to the Austrian Foreign Trade Office in Montreal. That same year, Strolz was named
director of the Austrian Federation of Industries and also managed the textile and clothing
department of the Chamber of Commerce of Vorarlberg, Austria.
Strolz’s career at ITMF began in 1970, when he became director of the Switzerland-based
International Federation of Cotton and Allied Textile Industries, which changed its name to
International Textile Manufacturers Federation in 1978. Under Strolz’s leadership, the federation
has become the foremost global trade association for the basic textile industry, currently counting
among its membership textile trade associations and other entities from nearly 50 textile-producing
countries.
In recognition of his leadership in the global textile industry, Strolz received the
Schlafhorst Foundation’s Golden Jenny Award in 1991 and was named Textile World’s Leader of the
Year in 2001.
Dr. Christian Schindler, currently director, ITMF, has been named to succeed Strolz as the
federation’s director general. Schindler, a native of Germany, earned his doctorate from the
University of Cologne, Germany, where he studied at the Institute for Economic Policy. He joined
ITMF in 2004 as the federation’s economist.
December 5, 2006
