"115 years of HHL - 11+5 HHL faces" portraits Ulrich Lehner

[HHL gGmbH - 24.04.2013] 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.

*** Ulrich Lehner (*1946)

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Lehner has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of HHL since 2012.

Prof. Dr. Lehner says: "HHL's Board of Trustees is made of outstanding personalities from the economy and science who all have an extensive network providing excellent cooperation opportunities for HHL. Moreover, the Board of Trustees is to give input regarding the content of the annual HHL Forum entitled "Rethinking Leadership", which the Board members use to build bridges between theory and practice in the best interest of the students." In this context, the Board of Trustees plans to exchange experiences with the HHL students prior to future meetings of the board, bringing together students, alumni and members of the Board of Trustees, comparable to the 'Meet the CEO' programs at US universities, according to Prof. Dr. Lehner.

In the keynote address at the first HHL Forum in November 2011 entitled "Rethinking Leadership - What Have We Learned from Recent Crises?", Prof. Dr. Lehner said: "We should, first of all, realize that we are not entitled to being exempt from crises, that we are only entitled to the pursuit of happiness, not to 'happiness right now'." The Rhineland-born professor also stated: "You must not think you can apologize for crises by determining a demand to learn. You can always learn. In many cases, even the old knowledge would have been enough to avoid the crisis."

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Lehner has been a member of the Shareholders' Committee of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA since 2008. He is on various supervisory boards and similar controlling bodies of major companies in Germany and abroad (e.g. Deutsche Telekom AG [Chairman], Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Novartis AG). In March 2013, he was appointed as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp AG in Essen.

*** 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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