Marion Halfmann takes office as President of H-BRS

Halfmann was a professor of business administration specialising in marketing for 20 years and knows the university landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia very well from various management positions. She has ambitious plans for her new role at H-BRS. The new President wants to further develop the strengths of the university, such as its role as a driving force in a fast-growing region. ‘As a future-oriented university, we want to help shape change at all levels,’ she emphasises. At a global level, this relates to issues of socio-ecological transformation. H-BRS is a pioneer in the field of sustainability, for example, and this path must be consistently pursued.

At a regional level, she sees the shortage of skilled labour in local companies as a challenge that the university can help to solve. At an individual level, Halfmann sees H-BRS itself as having a duty.

‘We want to offer people at our university good prospects for personal development through good educational and working conditions.’ She emphasised this to employees and students in two video messages on her inauguration.

Further developing teaching and maintaining research strength

It is important to Halfmann that H-BRS offers students an attractive learning environment - this includes ‘relevant courses, clear study organisation, fair examination conditions, functioning buildings and, of course, a safe, non-discriminatory environment’. She says: ‘This is one of the things I would like to focus on in the coming years.’ In addition to the further development of teaching, the new President emphasises that it is also important to maintain the research strength of H-BRS.

Marion Halfmann is the first woman to head Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. She succeeds University President Hartmut Ihne, who has led and successfully developed the university since 2008. Before Ihne, the founding rectors Hubert Severin (1995 to 1999) and Wulf Fischer (1999 to 2008) had built up H-BRS. Professor Marion Halfmann was elected for a six-year term of office in April by the university electoral assembly on the recommendation of the search committee.

About the person:

Marion Halfmann studied Business Administration and Business Education at the University of Cologne, where she also gained her doctorate. After studying abroad for several months at the University of California in Berkeley (USA), she moved into the business world for a few years, first working as a consultant at a marketing and strategy consultancy and then as a project manager at a management consultancy.

In April 2004, she was appointed Professor of Business Administration, in particular Marketing, at Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Eight years later, she moved to the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kleve as Professor of Marketing and Market-Oriented Management. She was Vice President for Studies, Teaching and Continuing Education at the internationally oriented university for several years. In September 2020, Halfmann moved to the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences as Professor of Business Administration, Marketing and Sales. She was also the Presidential Board's representative for internationalisation there. She is now President of Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.

Press photo caption:

University management of H-BRS: The new President Marion Halfmann (left) and Chancellor Angela Fischer. Photo: Martin Schulz/H-BRS