Continuity at the top: KU vice presidents confirmed in office

"The University Management team has been working together excellently and trustingly for many years. I am therefore very happy that my Vice Presidents have all stood for office again. Their re-election is a guarantee for me that we can continue the successful development of our University with staff continuity", said KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien following the election on Wednesday morning. She referred to the most important milestones in the development of the KU in recent years, such as the University's admission to the German Research Foundation (DFG), the adoption of an ambitious development plan and the repeated recognition of the University for the quality of its teaching practice. "The Vice Presidents played a key role in this and many other projects – it was a genuine team effort", says Gien. 

The Chairperson of the election committee, Barbara Loos, thanked the three re-elected members of the University Management for their commitment to date and their renewed candidacy. "The staff continuity in recent years has been a guarantee for the consistent development and profiling of the KU", said Loos. The KU University Management is elected by a specially convened election committee. It is made up of the 16 internal and external members of the University Council, eight representatives of the Senate and four members of the Foundation Council.

Prof. Dr. Jens Hogreve is holder of the Chair of Service Management. His research interests include the management of industrial services, complaint management, technological service innovations and the topics of mobility of the future and smart services. He is also a member of the advisory board at the German consumer organization Stiftung Warentest. Hogreve first studied geography, Ibero-Roman philology and economics in Bonn and then completed his degree in economics with a focus on marketing, applied microeconomics and economic policy at the University of Mannheim. From 2003 to 2007, he was a research associate at the Douglas Endowed Chair at the University of Hagen, where he also completed his doctorate. This was followed by a position as Junior Professor of Business Administration at the University of Paderborn, before Hogreve was appointed to the KU in 2011.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Meier holds the Chair of Journalism Studies with a focus on innovation and transformation. His research interests include cross-media developments in journalism, innovations in the organization and management of editorial offices, the ethics and quality of journalism and the challenges of journalism training in the digital age. He was a member of the board of the German Communication Association for many years. After completing a traineeship and working as an editor at the Frankenpost in Hof, Klaus Meier studied journalism at the KU, where he also completed his doctorate in communication studies. From 2001 to 2009, he was Professor of Journalism at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. There he helped set up the online journalism and science journalism courses. At the TU Dortmund University, he held the chair of cross-media developments in journalism at the Institute of Journalism from 2009 to 2010, before being appointed to the KU in 2011.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Stüwe holds the Chair of Comparative Political Science at the KU. His research and teaching activities include democratic systems of government, questions of constitutional jurisdiction, political communication and the role of parliamentary opposition. His numerous other responsibilities include heading the Central Institute for Marriage and Family in Society at the KU and working as a program officer for the German and French Political Science program. He is an advisor to the commissions for marriage and family as well as for societal and social issues of the German Bishops' Conference and is also a member of the Media Council of the Bavarian State Agency for New Media. He studied Political Science, History, Political Education, Christian Social Studies and Classical Archaeology at the KU and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. After completing his doctorate and habilitation at the KU in 2002, he first became a specialist for political systems theory and comparative political science and was appointed associate professor in 2006. He has held his chair at the KU since 2015.