President

Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D.

Current term

• 01 January 2024 – 01 December 2029 
• 01 January 2018 – 31 December 2023 (second term)
• 01 January 2012 – 31 December 2017 (first term)

Responsibilities

• Structure and development plan
• Appointments
• Representation of the University 
• Integration and networking with non-university research institutes (in cooperation with the Vice-President for Research and Junior Academics)
• Knowledge and Technology Transfer
• Potsdam Transfer and UP Transfer GmbH

Memberships and Honorary Offices

• German Informatics Society (GI), member (since 1984), president (2012–2014)
• Social Democratic Party of Germany, member (since 1985)
• German Academic Scholarship Foundation, member of the selection committee
• Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies (MMZ), chairman of the board of trustees
• Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), member of the board of trustees
• Einstein Forum, member of the board of trustees
• Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP), member of the board of trustees
• UP Transfer, chairman of the supervisory board
• FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management, member of the board of trustees
• Stiftung Werner-von-Siemens-Ring, member of the foundation council
• Voltaire Prize, jury member
• Weizenbaum Institute, member of the board of trustees
• German Academy of Science and Engineering acatech, member
• Innovation Award Berlin Brandenburg, chairman of the jury
• Urania Berlin, member of the board of trustees
• Business Development Bank of the State of Brandenburg (IBB), member of the advisory council
• Atlantik-Brücke, member
• proBrandenburg e.V., chairman of the board
• German University Alliance UA11+ e.V., member of the board
• proWissen Potsdam e.V., Vice-Chairman

CV

Oliver Günther has been President of the University of Potsdam since January 1, 2012. His current term lasts until December 31, 2023.

From 1993 until 2011 he was Professor of Information Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2006 until 2011 he also served as Dean of Humboldt's School of Business and Economics.

Professor Günther has conducted research projects in the areas of enterprise information systems, IT strategy, security and privacy, digital asset management, collaborative software, database management, as well as geographic and environmental information systems. He has published broadly on these subjects and has been associate editor of numerous academic journals.

Professor Günther has coordinated several large research projects funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Economics and Technology, and the German Research Foundation. From 1996 until 2006 he served as Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Graduate School of Information Systems. Oliver Günther has held visiting faculty positions at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and the Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci in Paris, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Cape Town.

Oliver Günther has served as a consultant and board member to various government agencies and high-tech companies. He was Chairman of the Board of Poptel AG, Germany's first voice-over-IP company, and Chief Technology Officer of Teamtoolz, Inc., a San Francisco-based cloud service provider for the marketing and advertising industry. Professor Günther was President of the German Informatics Society in 2012-2014. He is a member of the admissions committee of the German National Merit Foundation.

As a high school student, Oliver Günther was a two-time winner of Germany's National Mathematics Competition. He holds a Diplom in Industrial Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Between his Ph.D. and his appointment at Humboldt, he held positions with the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and with FAW Ulm.

Executive Assistant to the President

Darius Scherer

House 09, Room 1.05
Tel.: 0331/977-1257
Fax: 0331/977-1089
Mail: darius.schereruuni-potsdampde

Assistant to the President

Eileen Hohnschild

House 09, Room 1.06
Phone: 0331/977-1220
Fax: 0331/977-1089
Mail: buero.praesidentuuni-potsdampde / praesidentuuni-potsdampde

Additional Information