"115 years of HHL - 11+5 HHL faces" portraits Dirk Graber

[HHL gGmbH - 18.04.2013] HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the first business school established in Germany, celebrates its 115th anniversary this year. The institution was founded in the Auditorium Maximum of Leipzig University on April 25, 1898, to train young merchants seeking to lead large companies in an appropriate manner. After World War II, it was absorbed into Leipzig University: in 1969, the GDR opened a business school with a focus on domestic trade. In 1992, today's HHL was re-established as a private university by the Leipzig Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Association of Friends of HHL.

Teaching all its programs in English, HHL has been one of the trailblazers in Germany since the mid-1990s. Long before the financial crisis, HHL was one of the first business schools to focus on the conditions for responsible and sustainable leadership.
HHL now responds to the new challenges of leadership in the 21st century through its innovate125 Future Concept, keeping in tune with a holistic approach and expanding the dimensions of effectiveness and responsibility, aided by the perspective of innovation.

On the occasion of the 115th anniversary of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the school publishes the "11+5 HHL faces” series introducing personalities connected with HHL.

*** Dirk Graber (*1977)

In 2005, Dirk Graber graduated from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management with a degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann). Like other HHL alumni, for instance Dr. Gerd Robertz, who was the first Research Assistant at the "new” HHL and is currently representing the school's Kramer Foundation, the 35-year old Graber still maintains a close relationship with his Alma mater, for example as the first Chairman of the Association of Friends of HHL. Additionally, he shows his interest in the DNA of HHL and its excellent students by co-financing a German national scholarship.

During his studies at HHL, Graber discovered his keen interest in entrepreneurship thanks to the specialized course under the same name.

Graber, who was born in Halle/Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, founded the online optician Mister Spex GmbH in 2007. Being the CEO, he is responsible for the departments of Business Development, IT, Finance & Controlling, Operations and HR. The company offers Germany's widest range of glasses, sunglasses, sports glasses and contact lenses from name brands. Customers may benefit from services such as eyesight testing and fitting glasses since Mister Spex cooperates with more than 300 local opticians throughout Germany already. In 2012, Mister Spex reached sales of EUR 26,000,000, therefore ranking it among the top ten best-selling opticians in Germany. Since the online shop was launched in April 2008, Mister Spex has served more than 500,000 satisfied customers. The Berlin-based company currently has about 200 employees and has entered other European markets with online shops in France, Spain and Sweden. In September 2012, Mister Spex received the "Online Shop of the Year” award.

Before establishing the company, Dirk Graber worked as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group for more than two years. As part of this job, he worked on projects in the consumer goods industry, the banking sector as well as in corporate development and finance. His interest in online topics dates back to his university time when he completed internships at companies such as Jamba and Ebay.
Thanks to his position with the Association of Friends of HHL, which is one of the shareholders in HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Graber supports HHL's profile as one the leading entrepreneurial business schools in Europe. "We think of the Association of Friends as a means for HHL entrepreneurs to stay in touch with HHL and its students,” says Dirk Graber.

*** HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management

HHL is a university-level institution and ranks amongst the leading international Business Schools. The goal of the longest standing business school in German-speaking Europe is to educate effective, responsible and entrepreneurially minded leaders. In addition to HHL's international focus the combination of theory and practice plays a key role. HHL stands out for its excellent teaching, its clear research focus, its effective knowledge transfer into practice as well as its outstanding student services. The school offers an 24-month full-time als well as part-time Master program in Management leading to the degree Master of Science (M.Sc.) and also an 18 month Global Executive MBA.HHL's program is complemented by the two-year Euro*MBA-Program, a program based on e-learning (electronically supported learning). A three-year doctoral program, which can be studied part-time as well, completes HHL's courses of study. The department of Executive Education offers company specific and open training programs for advanced education for specialist and leading positions. HHL received the accreditation of AACSB International in April 2004 and was the first German private school to be re-accredited in April 2009. http://www.hhl.de

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