I was very fortunate to receive in 1956 a Fulbright Scholarship to study "International Relations" as a postgraduate student at the Yale-University in New Haven. This year has been a wonderful experience for me in many respects, particularly as I received during my studies a very attractive career offer from a large USA group of companies with subsidiaries in Austria.

In May 1958 I joined the Austrian subsidiary, Österreichisch-Amerikanische-Magnesit AG, which later, with my help, arranged a Management Buyout to become an independent company listed on the Austrian Stock Exchange. Together with my colleague on the Board of Management, we completed successfully a number of large acquisitions and hereby managed to become the number 1 in the world of the Refractories Industry.

Later on I was appointed as the chairman of the Management-Board and subsequently as the President of the Supervisory Board of the Company listed under the name RHI at the Austrian Stock Exchange.

I am my lifetime grateful to the wonderful Fulbright Program which made a unique contribution to my successful professional career.

Walter Ressler studied international relations as an Austrian Fulbright Student at Yale University in 1956–57.