20 December 2013. The new chair will focus on the university’s basic education and especially on the area of executive education. It is designed to contribute to considering organizations and business strategies from an economic perspective and embed economic-political approaches in management thinking. The gift is ensured for five years and fully benefits the chair. Since the chair meets a proven need of the university, it will be added to the university’s organizational chart after five years and financed in particular via earnings from executive education.

Input from business practice
“We are delighted by the involvement of Dr. Ackermann, who has had close links to HSG for years. This gives us the opportunity to strengthen a very important field of education and research and the understanding of economic relations, especially in the area of executive education,” says Prof. Dr. Winfried Ruigrok, dean of the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law (ES-HSG). Prof. Dr. Martin Kolmar, dean of the School of Economics and Political Science (SEPS-HSG), adds: “The chair not only offers the great opportunity to strengthen economic thinking in management education, but also to let important input from business practice flow back into research. Integrative thinking and interdisciplinarity have always been HSG’s strengths, and with this chair we can continue to consistently follow that path.”

“During many years of work, the significance of the economic implications of our actions and an executive’s special responsibility to understand economic and social relationships were brought home to me time and again. With my involvement, I want to contribute to a better understanding of those relationships, invest in education and, not least, give something back to my alma mater,” says Dr. Ackermann, who also is honorary professor at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Under the responsibility of the university’s committees
The tendering for the chair has just started. Filling the post will be completed in the course of an open competitive procedure. The post can be filled as a full professorship, an honorary professorship or as a titular professorship. The chair is affiliated with ES-HSG and SEPS-HSG. The university’s appointment rules for professors apply to the tendering and the election. Sponsors do not play a role in the selection process.

The appointment process proceeds as follows: an appointments committee, comprised of members of the university community in addition to the affected departments and two external experts in the field of study, determines the requirement profile and makes the tendering. The appointments committee then draws up a short list of candidates and submits it to the senate for vote. If the senate approves the list, the university council makes the final selection. If the appointment involves the election of a full professor, it must be approved by the Canton St.Gallen’s government. The appointment of the new chair for Business Economics and Public Policy is expected at the end of 2014, at the earliest.