July 30, 2021

Today, Friday, July 30, 2021, Norbert Reichert was elected in the first election round as the new Vice-President for Business Affairs of Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences for a term of eight years. In their joint meeting that was open to university members, the University Council, chaired by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marion Weissenberger-Eibl, and the Senate, chaired by Rector Prof. Dr. Frank Artinger, voted in favor of the native of Ansbach. In the future, as a member of Senior Management he will be responsible for the areas of finance, human resources, and organization. He will focus on the digitalization of administrative processes as well as on personnel development and leadership culture at HKA. His guiding principle for exercising his office is to preserve the tried and tested and to try out new things. "With Norbert Reichert, the university is gaining a proven lawyer with many years of experience in strategy development in the higher education sector," emphasized Rector Prof. Dr. Frank Artinger after the election. "We are very much looking forward to working with him to advance and shape the university's further development in the coming years."

Norbert Reichert, who currently still holds the office of VP for Business Affairs at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, finished high school in Ansbach. This was followed by studies in administration and then in law with first and second state examinations. Important stations in his professional career for the 58-year-old were the position as director at the Federal Employment Office, as VP for Business Affairs of Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences (2005-2010), as Administrative Director of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (2010-2015), and since 2015 as VP for Business Affairs of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Due to the pandemic, the election process did mostly not take place in person as usual; the candidates were presented in a hybrid session on July 26: In the presence of President Prof. Dr. Frank Artinger and the Chair of the University Council, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marion Weissenberger-Eibl, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, the committee members were able to follow the presentation either on site or via an online tool, which was also used by the university public to ask questions. In the online election session on July 30, the committee members then cast their votes in an anonymous online tool, after which the university members were informed of the election results.

Norbert Reichert takes over from Daniela Schweitzer, who retired at the end of June 2021. A law graduate, she began her tenure at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in 2000 as Administrative Director. In 2005, she moved to the elective post of Vice-President for Business Affairs and was re-elected in 2012 for a further eight years from July 2013.