Dear WiSo professors, WiSo staff and student representatives,

besides a great WiSo alumni interview and some great PARTicipate WiSo Value Events, this issue of the Dean's newsletter fully focuses on our value "togetherness".

Contents

• News from the Faculty Meeting
• Introduction of the WiSo Values
• WiSo Values – Togetherness
• Not just "the same in green" of new design and togetherness
• News from the Business School
• New Vice-Rector for Transfer to Society at the University of Cologne
• WiSo Personalia: New Arrivals and Other
• PARTicipate in our WiSo Value Events
• WiSo Alumni Interview: Dr Dirk Schmelzer 
• WiSo Workplace Video: Professor Mona Mensmann
• WiSo in the Media – June until August 2023

At the Faculty council meeting on 21 August  2023, it was decided to support the recognition of the Institute for Business AI e.V. as an affiliated institute.

In addition, the guideline on the tasks of permanent academic councillors was concretized.

The Guideline for Honorary Professors Appointment Committee at the WiSo Faculty was adopted unanimously.

The establishment of a W1 professorship in Marketing without tenure track and the establishment of a W1 Professorship in Applied Microeconomics without tenure track was decided.

Professor Christoph Rosenkranz was unanimously elected as Vice-Chair of the Faculty council for the term ending 31 March 31 2025

At the Faculty council meeting on 18 September  2023, it was decided to establish  a W3 professorship in Political Science and a W3 professorship in Finance.

In addition, the current status of the WiSo website relaunch was presented.

Dr Johannes Antweiler was unanimously elected as ombudsperson for student and research assistants.

Please note that the invitations and minutes of the public session of the Faculty council meeting will be deposited on the public server.

"Togetherness" could be the motto for the relationship between the WiSo Faculty and the University of Cologne. Many of us work together in partnership and cooperation on many levels every day. The relative "autonomy" of the WiSo Faculty also contributes significantly to strengthening both the University and the Faculty, and to further promoting them as leading educational institutions in Germany and Europe.

Togetherness and autonomy are also reflected in the "external image" of the University and the Faculty. Nowhere is this more tangible than in the 'corporate design', which also fundamentally shapes the faculty design. On the occasion of the current redesign of the "UzK design", we spoke with our responsible media designer Lukas Brehm.

Dear Lukas, the theme of this Dean's Newsletter is "Togetherness". The email-version also appears for the first time in the new design that you have developed from the new UoC design. This makes it the first major application of the "WiSo adaptation" of the new "UzK design". Probably no one at the faculty has worked so intensively with the new corporate design. Question to the expert: What do you think of it?

I think it's successful. On the one hand, the bright accent colours of turquoise and coral set us apart from other universities. On the other hand, the few but clear rules make it easy to use, which is important for an organisation like the University of Cologne, since it's not only professionals who work with it.

What do you think is special about the new "UzK Design"?

As already mentioned, the expressive accent colours really make the University of Cologne shine. Remarkably, the design elements consist only of spheres with different fillings and colours and the typography. At least two spheres should overlap. The resulting overlap reflects the interdisciplinary cooperation of the many players at the University of Cologne. In addition, there is the new typography, consisting of the new house typeface Albert Sans and the matching serif typeface Source Serif*. Albert Sans, in particular, was developed from designs by Scandinavian architects and designers in the early 20th century. I like both typefaces for their modern, reduced geometry.
The result is a very modern image that will hopefully appeal to more than just the young target group. Creating a harmonious composition from these few design elements and rules is not very complicated. Even a random arrangement of the elements looks good in most cases. So don't be shy!

It looks quite 'natural' now (although I'm sure a lot of work went into it.) Was it difficult to adapt the faculty design?

Clarity and ease of use are the strengths of any good design development. And it works very well here because the new UzK design is basically the same as the Faculty design. Only the second accent colour, coral, has been replaced by the faculty colour - our WiSo green. Of course, as always, the devil is in the detail and it wasn't quite "the same in green". When I joined the project, the design had not yet been applied to all media formats but had only been developed for print. It was my initiative, in collaboration with Ulrike Kersting from the University's marketing department, to develop all the digital media as well, such as the newsletter, info screens and social media. I was then able to pursue my passion for moving images and, together with Adam Polczyk and Niklas Carl, develop motion branding that translates the design into moving images. You can see the result in the latest Workplace video with Mona Mensmann, my office neighbour.

How did you find out about the new corporate design, were there any major meetings to coordinate it?

As we at WiSo-Marketing were unable to attend the first meeting due to scheduling conflicts, the actual launch of the new design came as a bit of a surprise. After a short time, however, regular and constructive meetings with Thomas Stern and D8 developed. We are still in close contact.

Is the WiSo adaptation already completed or do you have plans for the future?

We are currently in the implementation or transition phase from the old design to the new. All new media will be designed and published in the new design. The "old" - recently printed flyers, for example - will not be touched for sustainability reasons, but will only be transferred to the new design and reprinted with the next change in content.
Together with Helena Sommer from D8, we have already had a look at our faculty seal, now that the university logo has been updated. So this is something to look forward to. Once we have some experience of using it, our design will also be incorporated into an updated design manual and made available to everyone.

Last month was a very exciting month for us. September is always very exciting for the Business School, as we welcome our new EMBA students but also have to say goodbye to our graduates. A brief insight into our different EMBA cohorts.

Cologne-Rotterdam EMBA Class of 2023

Two years ago, the EMBA23 cohort started their journey with us and we will already celebrate their graduation in a Graduation Ceremony at the end of the month. A long journey lies behind them with many moving moments, including exciting lectures and interactiveworkshops, successful personal coaching sessions, eventful study trips and the Leadership Expedition in Norway as the culmination. Many friends have been made and great experiences shared. We are incredibly proud of each and every student as they all successfully completed their studies.

Cologne-Rotterdam EMBA Class of 2024

After the summer break and their international study trips all around the globe, our EMBA24 students are currently attending their chosen courses. They had the opportunity to choose three courses from a diverse range of 30 subjects, which are taking place both on our campus and in Rotterdam. In Cologne, we welcomed our students and some from the Rotterdam EMBA cohort for the courses of Innovation Leadership, Digital Marketing and Operations and Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship.

Cologne-Rotterdam EMBA25

We warmly welcome our new students! We look back on a successful Welcome Week on our campus, where we finally met all our new candidates face-to-face. We are particularly excited about the diversity of our new cohort with very different professional and academic backgrounds, 60% international candidates and 30% women. The average age of the cohort is 37 and the average work experience is 12 years. After the first week full of first impressions, a first meeting with the coaches, team-building activities and networking, our students started their weekend course programme with the Organizational Behaviour course. 

About the Business School of the University of Cologne

The University of Cologne Business School has been offering English- and German-language executive programmes and management seminars since 2015. In addition, the Business School promotes the further education of executives through certificate programmes and develops customized programmes for companies. It is affiliated with the WiSo Faculty of the University of Cologne.

Next Sunday (1 October), the new Rectorate of the University of Cologne will officially take office. In addition to the new Rector, Prof. Dr Joybrato Mukherjee, and the Chancellor, Karsten Gerlof, the Rectorate will comprise six Vice-Rectors. The new Vice-Rector for Transfer to Society is Professor Dr Werner Reinartz, who has held the WiSo Chair of Retailing and Customer Management since 2007.

On 20 September, the University Assembly elected him to the post on the recommendation of the search committee. With his election, the field of 'Transfer' will for the first time be represented by its own Prorectorate in the Rectorate of the University of Cologne.

In addition to Professor Reinartz, the newly elected members are

• Physician Prof. Dr Claus Cursiefen - Prorectorate for Research
• Psychologist Prof. Dr Susanne Zank - Prorectorate for Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunities
• Biochemist Prof. Dr Ines Neundorf - Prorectorate for Academic Careers and Personnel Development,
• Jurist Professor Dr Kirk W. Junker - Prorectorate for Sustainable Development.

Not standing for election were the Rectorate members:

• Prof. Dr Beatrix Busse, Anglist and Prorector for Teaching and Studies
• Karsten Gerlof, Chancellor of the University of Cologne.

We thank Prof. Reinartz for his commitment in taking on this position, which is of fundamental importance for the implementation of our societal mission, as expressed in our slogan "Today's Ideas. Tomorrow's impact.

Also on 1 October, Professor Joybrato Mukherjee will take over from Professor Axel Freimuth as rector of the University of Cologne. Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee (born 1973) has been President of Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) since 2009. From 2012 to 2019, he also held the office of Vice-President of the German Academic Association.

Werner Reinartz at Find an Expert

Welcome Jun. Prof. Dr Raoul van Maarseveen

We are pleased to welcome Dr Raoul van Maarseveen as a Junior Professor at the Chair of Applied Economics since 1 September  2023! On behalf of the entire WiSo Faculty, Professor Dr Marita Jacob, Vice-Dean for Academic Careers, congratulated Junior Professor Dr Raoul van Maarseveen.

Raoul van Marseveen’s research interests lie at the intersection of urban and labour economics, with a special focus on spatial equality.

Junior Professor Dr Raoul van Maarseveen obtained his PhD from the Department of Economics at Uppsala University in Sweden. He also pursued an internationally oriented educational path. For instance, he was a Visiting Graduate Student at the London School of Economics in 2022 and a Visiting Graduate Student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019–2020.

Not only his educational background is characterized by an international orientation but also his work. Thus, he has attended conferences and given seminar presentations in Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Milan, Stockholm, London, Lisbon, Padua, Helsinki, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

With Raoul van Maarseveen, the WiSo Faculty gains an outstanding urban and labour economist, highly visible already at a young age. We are very pleased to welcome Junior Professor Dr Raoul van Maarseveen to the WiSo and wish him all the best for his start.

Welcome Jun.-Prof. Dr. Navya Pandit

We are pleased to welcome Junior Professor Dr Navya Pandit as a new member to our Ffaculty from mid-September.

Junior Professor Dr Pandit is an international researcher with multidisciplinary experience. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biosciences with a specialization in Plant Biotechnology from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning in India. She expanded this knowledge with another Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Dalhousie University in Canada in 2017. In 2023 she completed her PhD in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University in Italy.

Navya Pandit has already made several achievements in research fields such as corporate sustainability, strategy, governance and organizational goals and she also “thinks outside of the box” in her research. One example is her article “Studying modular design: An interview with Professor Carliss Y. Baldwin”, published in the Journal of Organization Design.

We are delighted to be joined by such an outstanding young researcher, whose experience and perspective will make a significant contribution to the implementation of our guiding principles, as expressed in our motto “Today's ideas. Tomorrow's impact”. We would like to extend a warm welcome to Junior Professor Dr Navya Pandit!

Welcome Veronika Langenberg

We are pleased to welcome Veronika Langenberg to the International Relations Center (ZIB), who joined the Outgoings Team. She has worked for many years in the field of student exchange at Carl Duisberg Centren and most recently worked in the International Office of the University of Bonn in the field of Incomings (programme students).

She will focus on freemover students and summer schools and will also support applicant groups from the social sciences. We would like to extend a warm warm welcome to her!

Welcome back Alexandra Overath

In addition, we are pleased to announce that Alexandra Overath has returned from her parental leave to her position as CEMS Programme Manager and can thus be reached again under her “old” contact details. Welcome back!

Regular Coffee Chat at the WiSo Coffee-Bar

The WiSo Coffee Chat takes place on every first Thursday of the month.

Meet other employees and get a hot drink on account of the faculty. All your questions and comments on a wide variety of topics are welcome at this meeting. In the relaxed atmosphere of the Café Bar, open issues can be addressed in an uncomplicated manner. It is also very important to us that you exchange ideas and get to know new colleagues.

LOCATION: Wiso Café Bar on the ground floor (building 101), Universitätsstr.24
TIME: 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

You will receive your registration via PUMA about a week in advance.

P.S.: Your first hot beverage will be provided

Save the Date: PARTicipate - WiSo Christmas info event

Let us review the year 2023 together in a Christmas atmosphere and take a strategic outlook for the coming year 2024

Thursday, December 14, 2023 from 5 p.m. in the WiSo coffee bar.

More information and registration will follow.

This year’s WiSoAlumni Annual Reunion will take place on 20 October at 18:00 in Lecture Hall XXIV of WiSo. All professors, academic staff, technical and administrative staff and office assistants are cordially invited to attend. Please note: The WiSoAlumni Annual Reunion will be in German.

In times of global competition, companies strive to reduce costs and increase profits. Morality and social responsibility often seem subordinate to this. But are cost efficiency and profit maximization the only criteria for economic success? Is the main goal of a company to become more successful year after year? Or are moral and social values getting increasingly important? These and other questions are at the heart of this year’s annual alumni reunion on the topic:

“Does economic efficiency still leave room for morality and social responsibility?”
on 20 October 2023, 18:00
at HS XXIV in the WiSo wing (ground floor).

WiSo alumnus Professor Dr Julian Conrads (Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen) will open the reunion with a keynote speech. This will be followed by a discussion with Dr Özgür Gürerk, responsible at WiSo for integrating ethics in the curriculum, and WiSo alumna and social entrepreneur Dr Juliane Kronen (innatura gGmbH). The event will be hosted by Benny Ge, also a WiSo alumnus and host for stage, camera and podcast. A networking event at the WiSo Coffee Bar will follow the plenary programme.

The WiSoAlumni Annual Reunion is a great opportunity for our alumni to stay in touch with their alma mater. It is also a great chance for members of the WiSo Faculty to maintain valuable contacts with our former students.
If you would like to attend, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.de/e/wisoalumni-jahrestreffen-2023-tickets-609392418127?aff=oddtdtcreator

Three Questions to Dr Dirk Schmelzer

Our alumnus Dr Dirk Schmelzer studied Economics at WiSo. Since 2019, he is Chief Financial Officer at Scout24 Group. As part of our testimonial campaign, we asked him three questions:

What has been the impact of your WiSo studies on you and your career?

Studying Economics taught me structural thinking, sharpened my analytical skills – and my ability to look at the big picture. It was the quality of the lecturers of the University of Cologne and in particular the topics of Economic Policy, Financial Economics and, later in my majors, Microeconomics and Energy Economics that shaped me.

WiSo's reputation and network made it easier for me to enter the professional life. Receiving the basic skills needed in my job from challenging lecturers at a renowned university has helped me up to the present day.

If you could be enrolled at WiSo again for one day: What would that day be like? What would you do?

First, I would stroll through the WiSo Faculty, reminiscing and observing how the campus has changed. Then I would attend lectures in “Behavioural Management Science”, “Experimental Economic Research” and “Game Theory”. In between, I would stop by the canteen and, towards evening, have a Kölsch somewhere near the university.

For our today’s students, what advice would you give?

First of all, I think it's a great advantage that studies today are divided into Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. This gives you the opportunity to reorient yourself after your Bachelor's degree. In addition, Economics is a great subject because it allows you to delve deeper into the subject and address socially relevant issues. Above all, I wish today's students a lot of curiosity, open-mindedness and fun. You can achieve a lot with that.

The latest analysis by management consultants Horváth shows that 17 board members of German DAX, MDAX and SDAX companies have studied at WiSo. We took the opportunity to ask some of them about the impact of their studies at WiSo. We will be publishing these testimonials over the coming weeks and started with Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG, who studied Business Administration at WiSo.

WiSo Marketing regularly checks the press review of the University of Cologne for articles and mentions of the WiSo Faculty and its professors in the national and international media. These press clippings are constantly reviewed and collected after WiSo reports. Here we would like to give you an overview of the publications in the national media in which WiSo professors serve as experts or which publish articles written by them. If the article is available online, you will find a link to it below. Press articles that are only available in print media are mostly available via the electronic journals database of the University and City Library.

The list is compiled according to available data. If an article is missing, please send us an email.