Honorary Professor Dr. Paul Achleitner

Honorary Professor Dr. Paul Achleitner, head of the Deutsche Bank supervisory board, was appointed honorary professor in 2001. WHU was able to bring him on board as a visiting lecturer for International Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Banking in 1999. Prof. Achleitner won the award for "Best Teacher" in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

He received his PhD at the University of St. Gallen in 1985. There he was a research assistant and co – operated on the research project "European Societal Strategy" with Prof. H. Igor Ansoff at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels. From 1982 to 1984 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Honorary Professor Dr. Achleitner was Manager for Strategic Consulting at Bain & Co. from 1984 to 1988. He later worked as Executive Director for Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York and London in the sectors Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Banking and became Managing Director at Goldman Sachs & Co. OHG in Frankfurt in 1994. He moved to Allianz AG (Allianz SE since 2006) as CFO in 2000. Honorary Professor Dr. Achleitner is on several supervisory boards and head of the Deutsche Bank supervisory board since May 2012. He has been a member of the board of directors of the WHU foundation from 2005 to 2010.
 

Honorary Professor Dr. Dr. hc. mult. Horst Albach

Honorary Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Horst Albach has been an honorary professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management since 1990. He was also significantly involved in the establishment of WHU. Honorary Professor Albach was born in 1931 in Essen an der Ruhr and studied business administration, economics and law at the University of Cologne. In 1956 he became the assistant of Professor Erich Gutenberg, who supervised 8000 students together with his colleagues. This meant that the assistants had to mark around 30.000 pages of work a year from exercises through to seminar papers, diploma and doctoral theses. Following his habilitation in business administration in 1960 and periods as a private lecturer in Graz and Kiel, he taught for almost 30 years at the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms - University Bonn, later at the Free University of Berlin and after the fall of the Iron Curtain he was instrumental in building up the economics department at the Humboldt University in Berlin. From 1987 to 1990 he did a sabbatical away from Bonn in order to take on the Endowed Chair of International Management at WHU. Visiting professorships took him to Kabul (Afghanistan), Uppsala (Sweden), Johannesburg (South Africa), Northwestern University (Illinois, USA), Alcala de Henares (Spain), Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan), Kauppakorkeakulu (Helsinki, Finland) and the German-Russian MBA-Program in Moscow (Russian Federation).

Nine universities in total have awarded Honorary Professor Albach honorary doctorates in recognition of his academic achievements. Alongside his activities on the German Science and Humanities Council, the German Council of Economic Experts and the governmental commission charged with the privatization of the German Railway, Albach advised the Federal Government on economic matters for almost forty years while on the advisory council of the German Ministry of Economics. Albach was also active on the advisory boards of renowned German enterprises. Thus, he was chairman of the advisory board of the Deutsche Bahn AG for five years and was involved, among other things, in the advisory boards of Dresdner Bank, AEG AG, Kugelfischer Georg Schäfer KGaA, the Treuarbeit AG (today PWC) and was also chairman of the advisory boards of RölfsPartner Wirtschaftsrüfungs-AG and the Mercedes Automobile Holding GmbH. He also belongs to the advisory committee of the company ProLogis European Properties Fund, which is listed on the stock exchange.

Honorary Professor Albach's outstanding commitment towards the Federal Republic of Germany was honored in 2001 with the "Highest Order of Merit". He is bearer of the Order of Merit of the State of Rheinland – Palatinate and North Rhine – Westphalia. In addition, several nations abroad have honored him with awards. In 2000 Albach was the first business economist to be accepted into the fraternity "Pour le merite". He is now the provost of this organization.

Honorary Professor David B. Audretsch, PhD

Honorary Professor David B. Audretsch is the Ameritech Chair of Economic Development and Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University, Bloomington. From 2003 until 2009 he was Director of the Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group at Max Plank Institute for Research into Economic Systems in Jena, Germany. From 1984 to 1997 he worked as a research professor and as acting director at the WZB in Berlin. Honorary Professor Audretsch studied Economics at Drew University New Jersey and at the University of Wisconsin.

Honorary Professor Audretsch has been published more than 100 times, mainly in the fields of industrial organization and innovation. His contributions have been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, the European Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Schmalenbach Business Review and the International Journal of Industrial Organization.

He also works as a consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the EU Commission and the U.S. State Department. His comments have been published in the Wall Street Journal and in the NY Times.

Honorary Professor Dr. Andreas Barckow

Honorary Professor Dr. Andreas Barckow was appointed Honorary Professor at WHU in January 2016. Between 2004 and 2012, he already became involved as a guest lecturer for international financial reporting in the Kellogg-WHU EMBA. From 1995 to 2000, he taught at Paderborn University, and, in 2008, he was appointed Honorary Professor for international financial reporting at Justus Liebig University Gießen.

From 1989 to 1995, Honorary Professor Barckow studied Business Administration at Monash University in Melbourne and at Paderborn University, where he also received his Doctorate in 2003. In October 2001, he joined the German member firm of Deloitte in Frankfurt where he built and led the IFRS Centre of Excellence until February 2015. From 2009 on, he concurrently was a member of Deloitte’s Global IFRS Leadership Team, the top technical body on IFRS of the network. On 1 March 2015, he became full-time President of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (ASCG). In that capacity he represents the standard-setter internationally at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) as well as at the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) where he is a Board member.

Honorary Professor Barckow is a member of several working groups of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft. He regularly speaks on a range of topics in national and international financial reporting and publishes in German accounting journals and handbooks. On the international stage he appeared as a speaker at annual and special conferences of the American Accounting Association, the European Accounting Association, the World Congress of Accountants, and the European Financial Reporting Research Group.

Honorary Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Klaus Brockhoff

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Honorary Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Klaus Brockhoff is honorary professor of WHU since 2005. From 1999 - 2004 he was Dean of WHU and Head of the Chair for Corporate Management at the same University.

Previously he was Full Professor and Director of the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management and the Institute for Business Administration at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel/Germany.

Honors: Karl-Heinz-Beckurts-Prize, Max-Planck-Research Award; Honorary doctoral degree Univ. of Berne/Switzerland; election to the Berlin/Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and to acatech (Academy of Technical Sciences).

Publication of approx. 300 articles and 20 books (list of publications).

Honorary Professor Dr. Horst G. Carus

Horst G. Carus, Honorary Professor Dr. rer. pol. is the holder of an honorary professorship at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.

From 1994 to 1999 Honorary Professor Carus was the  holder of the Chair of Corporate Policy at this university and in 1995/1996 Dean, as well as Assistant Dean for the following two years.

Prior to that he worked in industry and was, among other things, a member of the board of the "Metallgesellschaft AG" Frankfurt, as well as of various other advisory boards. Further he has had a leading involvment in management education in Germany for many years.

Honorary Professor Dr. Edgar Ernst

Honorary Professor Dr. Edgar Ernst has been an honorary professor at WHU since the beginning of 2006. He has been a visiting lecturer at WHU since 2003 and regularly lectures on themes regarding the orientation of controlling towards the money markets within the framework of the mandatory elective "Controlling". He therefore covers an area that will become increasingly important in the development of this subject in the future.

Honorary Professor Ernst studied mathematics with business administration as a subsidiary subject at the University of Cologne. After completing his studies in 1977, he completed one of the first master programs in Germany at the RWTH in Aachen where he was awarded the title Master of Operations Research in 1980. During the same period he took on a role as a research assistant at the Distance Teaching University Hagen which was followed by a corresponding position at the RWTH Aachen. He then did his PhD at the RWTH Aachen in 1982.

His working career began at the management consultancy company McKinsey & Company Inc. He then moved to the mail – order company Quelle as Director of Corporate Development in 1986. In 1990 he transferred to Deutsche Bundespost POSTDIENST where he became Manager of Planning and Controlling. From 1992 to 2007, he was responsible as CFO for the restructuring and planning of the company during the privatization and IPO. He has been a member of the board of directors of the WHU foundation from 2006 to 2008.

He has been President of the German Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (DPR e.V.) since 2011. In addition, he is a member of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of METRO AG, TUI AG, and VONOVIA SE.

Honorary Professor Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley

Karl-Ludwig Kley was born on June 11, 1951 in Munich (Germany). He is Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of E.ON SE (Essen, Germany) and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Cologne/Frankfurt, Germany) as well as Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Munich-based BMW AG. From 2006 to 2016, he was Chairman of the Board and CEO of Darmstadt-based Merck KGaA. Prior to that, Karl-Ludwig Kley served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Deutsche Lufthansa AG from 1997 to 2006.

In addition to his Supervisory Board positions, Karl-Ludwig Kley serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of BBUG (Baden-Badener Unternehmer Gespräche) and as Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council of the Goethe-Institute in Munich. He also serves as member of the Board of Trustees of acatech Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften (National Academy of Science and Engineering) in Munich and of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation in Cologne.

Over the course of the last 20 years, he has been a non-executive director of numerous boards, including Amadeus IT Group SA (Madrid, Spain), Bertelsmann AG (Gütersloh, Germany), MAN AG (Munich) and Verizon Communications, lnc. (New York, USA).

Karl-Ludwig Kley holds a Ph.D. in Law from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. He is Honorary Senator of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg and a member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).

In recognition of his outstanding services, he received the Order of Merit of the Republic of ltaly (Commendatore), the Order of Merit of Hessia (Germany) and the Weizmann Award in Sciences and Humanities. 

Honorary Professor Dr. Hartmut Leser

Honorary Professor Dr. Hartmut Leser was appointed Honorary Professor at WHU in November 2017. He studied economics at the Universities of Mannheim and Saarbrücken, the London School of Economics, and the University of Michigan. He earned degrees as Diplom-Volkswirt and Master of Economics before gaining a doctoral degree at Saarland University in 1990. In April 2015, he was appointed as WHU Senior Fellow.

Honorary Professor Dr. Hartmut Leser started his career as an asset manager at Metzler Investment GmbH. He then worked for Credit Suisse Germany as director and head of asset management. From 1997 to 2006, he was active as founding partner of FERI Institutional Management GmbH and Heubeck-FERI GmbH. Since 2007, Honorary Professor Dr. Leser has been with Aberdeen Standard Investments Deutschland AG where he was appointed CEO in 2010.

Since 2007, Honorary Professor Dr. Hartmut Leser has been teaching in WHU programs, such as the "Asset Management" class in the WHU Master and MBA programs. On various occasions, he has acted as speaker as well as a supporter of several Campus for Finance – WHU New Years’ Conferences. In addition, he regularly supports internships and theses.
 
His research comprises 33 publications between 1985 and 2017. These include refereed publications, e.g. in the Michigan Journal of Economics, the Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen, a book published by Gabler Verlag, as well as several contributions to practitioner journals and newspapers. 

Honorary Professor Dr. Edgar Löw

Honorary Professor Dr. Edgar Löw, Professor of Accounting at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and member of the supervisory board of FAS AG, was appointed honorary professor of WHU during an academic celebration in 2005. Honorary Professor Löw has been a visiting lecturer at WHU since 2002 and lectures on accounts analysis of international consolidated statements, group accounting, tax accounting and accounting in financial institutions.

After completing an apprenticeship as a bank clerk Honorary Professor Löw studied business administration at the University of Frankfurt where he later did his PhD thesis entitled "External Financial Accounting in Public Administration" at the Chair of Business Administration & Auditing. In 2001 he completed his examination as a tax advisor. His career path led to a post at the Deutsche Bank AG followed by a position as Manager of the Policy Department Banking & Finance of KPMG. In August 2010 he started as Head of Financial Accounting Advisory Services FSO at Ernst & Young. Since January 2014 he works as a Fulltime-Professor at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and is there responsible for the program Master in Auditing.

In the area of teaching Honorary Professor Löw can refer back to lecturing duties at the Hessischen Verwaltungs und Wirtschaftsakademie as well as at the Fachhochschule Frankfurt. His lectures at the WHU are repeatedly judged very favorably by students in teacher evaluations. In addition to this Honorary Professor Löw has found time to compile an exceedingly and unusually high number of diverse publications. He also has a formidable publication list.

Honorary Professor Dr. Peter May

The founder of INTES was owner of the Wild Group Chair for Family Business at IMD in Lausanne and is an honorary professor at WHU in Vallendar.

With the INTES principle, Hon.-Prof. Dr. May, who himself comes from a family business, has created the first integrated strategic concept for family businesses and their owners. On this basis, he advises well-known entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial families. Additionally, he is a member of various advisory and supervisory boards.

Peter May is Germany's leading consultant and a globally recognized expert for family businesses. He is the author and editor of numerous publications (including The Family Business Success Model, The Owner Strategy in Family Business), an inspiring speaker and founder of various initiatives for family businesses (including the Governance Code for Family Business, "Family Entrepreneur of the Year" award, FBN Germany, INTES Endowed Chair for Family Business at WHU).

Honorary Professor John Onto

According to his inaugural lecture "BUSINESS schools or business SCHOOLS? Some reflections of an academic and a sometime administrator" on September 15, 2010 Honorary Professor Onto received his Certificate of Appointment of an honorary professor.

As a Distinguished Professor in Management Honorary Professor Onto was on the faculty of the business school at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. In 1995 he was a BP Visiting Professor of International Management at UFSIA in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1995 and 1996 he was a Visiting Professor in Negotiations at the Singapore campus of INSEAD and in 2000 a Visiting Professor at Freiberg University in Germany. Since 2008 Honorary Professor Onto has taught the negotiations component (Negotiations – Process and Strategy; Industry Studies in Asia) of the WHU MBA program. 

Honorary Professor Onto has designed and led programs in international business and negotiations in Australia, the USA, Singapore, Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Trinidad and Mexico. He also conducted and / or consulted programs of several international companies, e.g. Clemenger, Fosters, Nilsens, Kraft, the Royal Australian Navy, South East Water, David Jones Ltd., Barclays Bank, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Honorary Professor Dr. Bolko von Oetinger

Honorary Professor Dr. Bolko von Oetinger was appointed honorary professor during an academic celebration. Dr. von Oetinger, Senior Vice President of the Boston Consulting Group has been lecturing Strategic Corporate Planning as a visiting lecturer at WHU since spring 1998. His teaching has been extremely positively judged by students in numerous evaluations. He will in future offer an extended course on the management of corporate strategies.

Honorary Professor von Oetinger studied political science at the Freien Universität Berlin. After his diploma examination he began his PhD studies in political science and business administration and was a research assistant at the John F. Kennedy – Institute for North American Studies. He completed his PhD in 1972 with a thesis entitled  "The importance of the Western system to the foreign policy of the  Grand Coalition with particular regard to the three Western powers", supervised by Prof. Dr. Arnulf Baring.In the following two years  he was able to study at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University with the Harkness Fellowship, where he obtained the qualification Master of Business Administration(MBA). Dr. Oetinger began his career pathway right at the front door of Stanford University, where he became an employee of the Boston Consulting Group in Menlo Park. His rise to Senior Vice President of the company involved moves to Paris and Munich. Honorary Professor von Oetinger has been running the company's Kronberger Strategy Conferences since 1991. In 1998 he founded the BCG – Strategy Institute, which he managed until April 2008.

Honorary Professor Dr. Jürgen Ringbeck

Honorary Professor Dr. Jürgen Ringbeck has been an honorary professor at WHU since 2014. Previously, he had been a guest lecturer at WHU since 2012. 

Hon. Professor Dr. Ringbeck teaches courses on various key management topics. He is active in the Master of Science Program with a course on Transportation Management and in the MBA Program with a course on Consulting Management. He also teaches strategic management of digitalization as part of the Executive Education Program. Hon. Professor Dr. Ringbeck has been publishing on management topics in renowned national and international journals for many years. He makes important contributions at important international conferences and is actively involved in supervising doctoral and master candidates in selected research topics.

After completing his doctorate at the University of Osnabrück in 1985, he initially worked as a university assistant at the University of Osnabrück and as a visiting professor at the University of Toronto. He received the prestigious Honorable Mention Award from the Marketing Science Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the World University Service Government of Canada Award for his dissertation.

From 1988 to 2014, Hon. Professor Dr. Ringbeck worked as a management consultant for leading international management consultancies. After an initial career as a partner at McKinsey & Company in Düsseldorf, he assumed global management responsibility for the transport sector at Booz Allen Hamilton (since 2008 Booz & Company) and was a member of the Global Board of Directors. During his long career as a consultant, he made significant contributions to the strategic transformation of the world's leading transport and logistics companies and assisted governments in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East in the strategic (de-)regulation and sustainable development of the sector. In addition, Hon. Professor Dr. Ringbeck can look back on many years of commitment as Strategic Advisor of the World Economic Forum and the UN WTO (World Tourism Organization).

As founder and CEO of Ricon GmbH, Hon. Professor Dr. Ringbeck has been an active investor and advisory board member of innovative, young companies since 2014. 

Honorary Professor Dr. Hanno Sowade

Honorary Professor Dr. Hanno Sowade, research assistant of  the foundation  Haus der Geschichte in Bonn has been an honorary professor for modern history at WHU since 2007.

Honorary Professor Sowade has been lecturing at WHU since 2000. He regularly lectures in Studium Generale of the diploma and bachelor programs on the history of the Federal Republic of Germany and contributes to the analysis of German economic history through his own research. He is covering an area here which is of great importance to WHU's integrated study concept, as Studium Generale is compulsory for all students. 

Honorary Professor Sowade began his career as a research assistant at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich. He has been a research assistant of the foundation Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn since 1990. The main focal points  of his interest are the analysis of German history since 1945 and various historical themes with economic relevance, such as post – war Germany or economic systems. In addition, he provides expert advice on various exhibitions in Haus der Geschichte in Bonn with his well informed essays. 

Alongside the time – consuming preparations for diverse temporary and permanent exhibitions in Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, Honorary Professor Sowade still finds time to bring out first – rate publications.

Honorary Professor Dr. Axel Wieandt

Honorary Professor Axel Wieandt has been an honorary professor at WHU since 2005. He has been a visiting lecturer on financial intermediaries since 2002.

Honorary Professor Wieandt began his studies at WHU in 1986 and achieved the qualification Graduate in Business Management. In addition, he achieved the qualification MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He then did his PhD at WHU in 1993. His career pathway began after his PhD studies with McKinsey in Düsseldorf and Boston. Following a position with Morgan Stanley in London he moved on to Deutsche Bank AG, where he was appointed the youngest divisional board member in the Corporate Center in 2000. In addition, he has also been Global Head of Corporate Investments since 2003. In October 2008 he became Chief Executive Officer of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. In July 2010 Wieandt changed back to Deutsche Bank AG. From 2011 to 2012, he was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Department of Credit Suisse. At the request of the Association of German Banks and the Deposit Insurance Fund, he became CEO of Valovis Bank AG in October 2012.

As well as giving lectures at WHU, Honorary Professor Wieandt also gives one – off lectures as part of continuing education events. In addition, he has brought out regular publications in leading scientific journals in various fields.