Since the beginning of July, Prof. Dr Mona Mensmann holds the position of Associate Professor for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne. The professorship is made possible by the funding of the Gateway Excellence Start-Up Center (ESC) at the University of Cologne by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. With the Gateway ESC - and the professorships financed through it - the University of Cologne promotes entrepreneurial thinking and action in research-intensive subject areas.

Professor Mensmann will support the research area "Entrepreneur & Strategy" in which her main research areas "entrepreneurial mindset", "Entrepreneurship training", and "entrepreneurship in low and middle-income countries" fit harmoniously. On behalf of the entire Faculty, WiSo Dean Ulrich W. Thonemann gave Mona Mensmann a virtual but no less warm welcome.

Already the topic of Mona Mensmann's doctoral thesis - for which she was awarded the Leuphana University Lüneburg Doctoral Prize in 2018 - is proof of the targeted orientation of her research towards real impact: "Proactivity against Poverty: Personal Initiative Training and its Impact on Entrepreneurial Success in Developing Countries". This was not only underpinned by her practical work as a consultant for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), an international non-profit research and policy organisation with a focus on control group experiments for poverty reduction, but at the same time made a significant contribution to the development of a personal initiative training. From 2018 to 2020, Mona Mensmann was Assistant Professor and from 2020 onwards Associate Professor at Warwick Business School.

Asked about her orientation towards the Faculty's motto "Today's Ideas. Tomorrow's Impact.", it spontaneously becomes clear how Mona Mensmann can support the WiSo Faculty in realising the strategic vision expressed in it. According to Professor Mensmann, one of the goals of her work is to help people think and act entrepreneurially and thus promote economic and social development through entrepreneurship in low- and middle-income countries.

We are pleased to have gained a committed and renowned researcher in Prof. Dr Mona Mensmann and wish her all the best for her future work at the WiSo Faculty.