Heinz Lachinger was born on 13 May 1967 in Vienna. After his matriculation, he began to work in the investment area of the former Creditanstalt (today Unicredit Bank Austria) in 1987. In 1988 he moved to the business area of Austrian Airlines. Parallel to his work at Austrian, Lachinger graduated in economics from the University of Hagen in 1999. In 2007 he earned an MBA for Controlling and Finance at the Executive Academy of Vienna University of Economics.