After working some time as an accountant, he joined his father-in-law's contracting business, Isola & Lerchbaumer in 1972. Through a series of takeovers, he expanded the company, now known as Strabag, into an international concern, which he controls through the holding company FIMAG, of which he is the majority shareholder.
Haselsteiner is shareholder and director of the Rail Holding AG, which operates the WESTbahn train, a passenger train competing with ÖBB between Vienna and Salzburg.
June 2012, Haselsteiner announced he would resign his executive position in Strabag in June 2014.
Political involvement
Hans Peter Haselsteiner was an MP in the Nationalrat from 1994 to 1998, under the banner of the Liberal Forum, of which he became club vice-chairman in 1996. Other positions included:
"Kammerrat" of the Austrian Federal Chamber of technical Economics
member of the Austrian association of the Building industry since 1994.
During the Austrian legislative elections in September 2008, Haselsteiner was responsible for finance for the Lif. He was also chairman of the support committee to the party leaderHeide Schmidt, who was chosen after the resignation of Alexander Zach five days before the election. The poll was lost, and Schmidt and Haselsteiner retired from political activity later that year, announcing the failure of the LiF project. In 2016 he funded a campaign against FPÖ politician Norbert Hofer, who candidated for President. He also gave financial contributions to NEOS Party in the Austrian national elections of 2017.
Philanthropy
After the failure of the LiF, Haselsteiner supported the Institut für eine offene Gesellschaft, founded by Heide Schmidt. Haselsteiner is also deeply involved in helping homeless people. He promoted the construction of 16 social housing projects in Vienna. His private foundation funds half of the budget of father Georg Sorschill's social center for elderly and needy people in Moldova. In Summer 2008, he gave a substantial donation to save the refugee project of Ute Bock in Vienna.
