There can only be one first

The Chair of Leadership is happy to celebrate Dr. Lukas Lanz, who defended his PhD thesis with summa cum laude on 14^th of May. Not only did he ace his defense – he also holds a special place in the history of our chair as the very first PhD student to ever join the Chair of Leadership at WHU.

Lukas Lanz and Prof. Fabiola Gerpott started their WHU journeys on the same day, April Fools’ 2019, but his work at the Chair was anything but a joke. From a widely cited meta-analysis on social desirability scales (co-authored with Isabel Thielmann and Fabiola Gerpott) to award-winning research on AI leadership published in the Journal of Business Ethics (co-authored by Roman Briker and Fabiola Gerpott)), Lukas has built an impressive academic portfolio. One of his exciting findings? People are more likely to follow unethical orders from humans than from AI.

Lukas defense brought together collaborators and friends from across Europe: Suzanne van Gils flew in from Oslo, Roman Briker came from Maastricht, and the Chair of Leadership team showed up in full force – Yannick, Hannah, Fabienne, Vera and many more. A huge thank you also goes to the defense committee, Pisitta Vongswasdi andSascha Schmidt.

Beyond the papers and presentations, Lukas made the Chair of Leadership team better in many ways – as a dart champ, teaching support, sleep evangelist, and coffee connoisseur. You have left your mark, Dr. Lanz. Congratulations!