Dr.-Ing. Dirk Bernhard
Board of Directors
[email protected]
Dr.-Ing. Dirk Bernhard has been a member of the Executive Board of INU – Innovative University AG since January 2022.
As the sole director of the sponsor of the state-recognized “INU – Innovative University of Applied Sciences”, he is responsible as chancellor for the management of the university, which he also represents externally. Furthermore, as CDO (Chief Digital Officer), he is responsible for all digital matters of the administrative and academic online operations of the innovative INU.
In the period from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2021, Dr. Bernhard worked for 3P Assistant GmbH and AachenInstitut GmbH as a management and IT consultant with a focus on education and higher education. His core tasks included interim management projects in the IT and development sector of various companies, with a focus on education. The focus was primarily on business intelligence projects and process optimization in various companies of the COGNOS Group, which includes the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and the Ludwig Fresenius Schools as well as a number of other well-known national and international educational institutions.
Prior to that, he worked as a management consultant and authorized signatory at Bronk & Company GmbH from 2014 to 2017. In addition to IT management, the main focus of his activities there was on consulting mandates in the areas of business intelligence for dimensioning manufacturing, process optimization and simulation of production processes, and university administration programs in education.
Furthermore, Dr.-Ing. Bernhard looks back on many years of experience as a university lecturer in the fields of computer science, SAP and project management. In addition, he managed the cross-site implementation of a Salesforce-based sales platform at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and other educational institutions of the COGNOS Group as Head of IT from 2011 to 2014. This also included the migration of various legacy systems and the centralized introduction of a uniform university administration and student platform for all locations of Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.
After completing his engineering studies and in parallel to his doctorate at RWTH, he worked as a research assistant and group leader at the Foundry Institute of RWTH Aachen University from 1995 to 1999. This was followed by various professional positions from 1999 to 2011, including at DaimlerChrysler AG in the Ulm Research Center and PSI Metals Non Ferrous GmbH, before he then turned increasingly to the education sector.
Prof. Dr. Ute Gartzen-Wiegand
Founding President / Professor of International Business Administration
[email protected]
The INU welcomes its Founding President-Designate! Just in time for the start of 2023, and before the start of the official study operations for the summer semester 2023, we welcome Dr. Ute Gartzen-Wiegand as Founding President-Elect of the INU team. Welcome aboard!
After receiving a degree in Business Administration from RWTH University Aachen and a subsequent Master’s degree focusing on finance from the Hult Business School in London, Ms. Gartzen-Wiegand received her doctorate from the renowned WZL machine tool laboratory of RWTH Aachen University under Prof. Dr. Günther Schuh. As a research assistant, she played a part in the Chair of Production Systems in Teaching and Research and also in several industrial consulting projects.
Since 2009, she has supported the growth of “RWTH Aachen Campus GmbH”, which is responsible for the on-site development of cross-research and cross-industry networking and the close cooperation between science and industry in a total of 16 research clusters on an area of over 800,000 m².
After completing her doctorate at RWTH Aachen University in the field of university-related research clusters, Gartzen-Wiegand was responsible for the promotion of trade and industry as the working group leader of the Aachen city region. Within this field she initiated and was responsible for various regional and interregional funding projects concerning technology and innovation transfer.
In 2016 she was appointed Professor of Industrial Management at the European University of Applied Sciences (EUFH). The EUFH was acquired by the Klett Group in 2016 and merged with the Cologne Business School (CBS) in 2022.
In addition to her teaching activities as a professor, Dr. Gartzen-Wiegand helped set up the Aachen site of the EUFH, where she was also the head of the university’s fastest-growing study program. Parallel to her activities at EUFH, she also held further lectureships at RWTH Aachen University, FH Aachen and RFH Cologne.
Since January 2023, Dr. Ute Gartzen-Wiegand has been in action as the Founding President-Designate of the INU – International University of Applied Sciences. Welcome to the team!
Prof. Dr. Marcus Pradel
Prof. Dr. Marcus Pradel
Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Since September 2021, Prof. Dr. Pradel has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of INU – Innovative University AG, which is the sponsor of INU – Innovative University of Applied Sciences. He is also a designated member of the INU University Council.
Previously, he was a member of the Supervisory Board (from mid-2018 to April 2022) of COGNOS AG, where he was appointed as a member of the Executive Board from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2017. In the period between the termination of his Executive Board mandate and the assumption of his Supervisory Board mandate, he continued to actively support COGNOS AG in an advisory capacity. As a member of the board of COGNOS AG, he was responsible in particular for the Management & Design department as well as for the Business Development and Internationalization departments. In his advisory role, he has primarily been involved in various strategic development projects of the Group.
Dr. Markus Wollweber
Dr. Markus
Wollweber
Supervisory Board member
Dr. jur. Markus Wollweber has been a member of the Supervisory Board of INU – Innovative University AG since September 2021.
Since 2010, he has been a partner at Streck Mack Schwedhelm Rechtsanwälte Steuerberater Partnerschaft mbB in Cologne, where he works as a lawyer specializing in tax law. After graduating from the University of Applied Sciences for Taxes and Finances in Nordkirchen, Dr. Wollweber studied law in Greifswald and Cologne and completed his studies with the 2nd state examination and his dissertation as Dr. jur. In 2006, Dr. jur. Wollweber was admitted to the bar.
In addition to his work as a lawyer, he has been active for many years as a specialist author of numerous legal publications and specialist articles and regularly as a specialist speaker and expert on tax and legal topics.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hauke Müller-Späth
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hauke
Müller-Späth
deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Müller-Späth is co-founder of INU – Innovative University AG, as sponsor of INU – Innovative University of Applied Sciences.
Furthermore, he acted as a founding board member of the AG until the end of 2021 and then moved to the supervisory board of the sponsoring company as deputy chairman and designated member of the INU University Council from January 2022.
After completing his doctorate at RWTH Aachen University, he worked as a businessman, shareholder and entrepreneur in the fields of materials development and plant engineering worldwide. Since 2008, the focus changed to management consulting with a focus on M&A and strategy consulting as well as business development. Parallel to his professional activities, he has many years of teaching experience, and for many years he has also been increasingly active in the field of higher education.
Building on his many years of teaching experience in the key areas of “Change, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship” as well as “Quality Management” and “Business Mathematics” at various universities and educational institutions, Mr. Müller-Späth was appointed professor at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in 2007. In addition to his part-time teaching activities, he developed various internationalization strategies for a large educational institution and implemented a large number of international educational cooperations and exchange programs in this context. In addition, Mr. Müller-Späth has been involved in the field of start-ups for many years, in particular accompanying young company founders from the business idea to the implementation of the business concept in all steps towards independence.
Prof. Dr.
Eckehard Krah
Professor of International Business Administration
[email protected]
Prof. Dr.rer.pol. Eckehard Krah is Professor of General Business Administration at INU’s Cologne campus and teaches, among others, the lectures Fundamentals of Business Administration, Microeconomics, External and Internal Accounting, and Digital Marketing and Business Models.
As a constant contact person, he accompanies students digitally and personally through their studies until they successfully graduate. For Mr. Krah, activating and motivating communication with the students plays an important role for the future learning and study success of the students in addition to conveying the teaching content.
Previously, Mr. Krah gained extensive experience in teaching and student support as a long-standing Academic Director at EC Europa Campus in Frankfurt/M., Mannheim and Karlsruhe.
Prior to his teaching career, Mr. Krah was active in practice in an innovation technology company. In this context, he worked with international partners to develop prototypes for a self-sufficient water treatment plant for use in regions where drinking water is scarce. Following this activity, Mr. Krah completed his doctorate at the University of Siegen at the Chair of Innovation and Competence Management on the topic “Dialog-oriented product design: more inventive – more cooperative – more sustainable”. Since 2020, Mr. Krah has been working on a second dissertation in London on the topic of persuasive stakeholder communication in crisis situations. In addition, Mr. Krah is active as an author and editor.
Professor Krah is honorary chairman of the Anneliese Foundation and Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Waldemar Wittmann in Königstein (Ts.), Frankfurt/M., Burbach (Siegerl.) as well as President of the Jung-Stilling-Gesellschaft e.V. Siegen and member of numerous societies and associations for the promotion of literature and culture.
COGNOS is one of the largest private and independent educational companies in Germany and operates various colleges, technical schools and further education institutions in Germany and abroad. These include the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, the LUN:EX University in Luxembourg, the AMBIS University Group in Prague, the Carl Remigius Medical School, the Charlotte Fresenius Private University in Vienna, as well as the Charlotte Fresenius University of Applied Sciences – University of Psychology, the Akademie Fresenius and the Ludwig Fresenius Schulen (formerly the DIE SCHULE group of companies).
Within the COGNOS group of companies, Prof. Dr. Pradel, in addition to his academic responsibilities and his later board mandate, was, among other things, the initiator, developer and managing partner of the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences at the locations Cologne (from 2003), Hamburg and Munich (from 2008), Düsseldorf (from 2012), Berlin and New York (from 2014) from April 2003 to June 2017.
From 2003 to the end of 2020, he was also very successfully involved within the COGNOS Education Group, particularly in an entrepreneurial capacity, as a formative co-partner of various group and university operating companies.
In addition to his management and shareholder functions, Prof. Dr. Pradel was Vice President of the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences from 2005 to 2017, where he was responsible for university development, university marketing and international business development, among other things. As Dean of Studies in the Department of Business & Media at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences from 2003 to 2009, he helped establish academic teaching at the Cologne university location and was also involved in teaching as a professor thereafter. In December 2017, Prof. Dr. Pradel was appointed honorary senator for his many years of service to the development and promotion of Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.
Furthermore, he looks back on many years of experience as an independent management and strategy consultant, entrepreneur, lecturer, adjunct professor and dean of studies at various educational institutions as well as an author of reference books.
Prof. Dr.
Malte Albrecht
Professor of psychology
[email protected]
Dr. Malte Albrecht completed his doctorate in psychology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in cooperation with BASF SE under Prof. Dr. D. Memmert at the DSHS Cologne.
As part of his doctoral studies, he supervised the reorganization of operational qualification at the headquarters of BASF SE in Ludwigshafen in 2011-2013. Since 2014, he has acted in an advisory capacity for INEOS GmbH in Cologne, among others, in the chemical sector.
After completing his doctorate at the DSHS Cologne in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, Dr. Albrecht worked as a consultant in industrial projects.
In 2016, Dr. Albrecht became a lecturer at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, where he took over the management of the Business Psychology course in the part-time branch. Parallel to his work at the university, he was involved with the Skip Institute as a scientific director in virtual reality projects.
Since 2022, he has gained a wide range of experience in the areas of executive training and assessment centers as a senior consultant for a medium-sized management consultancy.
Anja Gaugigl
Research Associate
[email protected]
Anja Gaugigl has been a research associate at INU since February 2023.
She studied psychology at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg. She also completed her master’s degree there in 2022. She focused on topics of personnel development, leadership and health in the workplace.
As part of her master’s thesis, she developed a test procedure to record the leadership style “Servant Leadership”. She gained practical insights in the field of personnel development and corporate health management, as well as in group therapy and family and educational counseling. She gained experience abroad during a work&travel stay in New Zealand and through a semester abroad at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
Rebekka
Tail
Research Assistant/ Assistant to the Executive Board
[email protected]
Dominik
Walnut
IT Management / Development
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Sonja
Schleppinghoff
Marketing
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Lukas
Appel
Prospect and applicant management
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