As of April 1, 2024, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management can boast two new chairs,  held by two of the school’s former assistant professors. Dr. Priscilla Kraft will head the Chair of Strategic Innovation and Entrepreneurship,assigned to the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group, while Dr. Rainer Rilke will direct the Chair in Behavioral Economics, part of the school’s Economics Group.

Before coming to WHU, Dr. Kraft worked as an Innovation Project Manager in the strategy department at Commerzbank between 2010 and 2012, after which she pursued a doctorate at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2019. She has worked as an assistant professor at WHU since 2020. Her research interest focuses on how the personalities of strategic leaders can affect innovation and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Rilke completed his doctoral studies at the University of Cologne between 2010 and 2014, during which time he also took part in a Research Fellow Program on Negotiation at Harvard University. Between 2015 and 2016, he worked as a senior consultant at the management consultancy Baker Tilly. In May 2016, he became an assistant professor at WHU. His research primarily focuses on how people behave in within the context of an organization.