Career Biography

Eva is a highly accomplished General Counsel and Compliance Officer with over fifteen years of distinguished legal experience spanning elite private practice and senior in-house leadership. Combining deep expertise in corporate law, M&A, compliance, and international tax law with a strategic, business-oriented mindset, she has built a reputation as a trusted legal leader operating at the highest levels of Austrian and international business.

Since August 2018, Eva has served as General Counsel for the Schindler Group Austria — one of the world’s leading suppliers of elevators and escalators — where she is responsible for the full spectrum of legal affairs across the Group’s Austrian operations. In this role, she provides strategic legal counsel directly to top management, steers cross-border corporate transactions and restructurings, and ensures the organisation’s legal posture remains closely aligned with its broader business strategy. Her scope extends to leading all sustainability-related legal initiatives, including the structuring of green contracts and responsible procurement policies, reflecting her commitment to embedding responsible governance into commercial operations.

Since November 2019, Eva has additionally served as Managing Director of Schinac Verwaltungs GmbH, the Group’s Central & Eastern European holding vehicle. In this capacity, she oversees corporate governance frameworks across a diverse portfolio of international subsidiaries in the CEE region, coordinates cross-border transactions and restructurings, and serves as the primary legal contact for complex matters involving regulatory compliance, corporate reorganisation, and internal investigations. This dual mandate positions her as a pivotal figure at the intersection of legal strategy, corporate governance and international business management.

In August 2021, Eva assumed responsibility as Compliance Officer for the Schindler Group Austria, adding a further dimension to her leadership remit. She oversees all compliance matters, drives the continuous development of the Group’s Code of Conduct, and manages comprehensive training programmes designed to foster a strong culture of governance across all business units. Her work spans anti-corruption, competition law, and internal audit processes, ensuring regulatory integrity across every level of the organisation.

Before transitioning in-house, Eva spent several years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Vienna, where she rose to Principal Associate. There, she advised on complex national and international restructurings, family business succession planning, and corporate governance matters for an impressive client roster spanning the industrial, banking, pharmaceutical, and real estate sectors. Notable mandates included advising an Austrian entrepreneurial family on billion-euro investments into an automotive group, structuring a takeover offer for a real estate company, and providing legal counsel in the biopharmaceutical sector — managing the full investment structure and contractual frameworks.

Eva holds a doctorate in law from the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, awarded with distinction, an LL.M. in International Tax Law from Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, and passed the Austrian Bar Examination with excellence. She has published in leading legal and tax journals, spoken at prominent forums, and served as a lecturer at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.

Fluent in German, English, and proficient in French, Eva Hickl embodies the modern General Counsel: a strategic partner, governance architect, and trusted advisor capable of navigating complexity across borders and disciplines with clarity, integrity, and strategic vision.