The Senate confirms Prof. Dr. Brigitte Grass as the first female President of Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences

(sf) Prof. Dr. Brigitte Grass will preside over Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences in future as President. The professor of business administration was elected by the university council and was confirmed by the Senate on 7th July 2009. She will thus supersede the present Rector, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Krause, once his term in office expires. 63-year old Prof. Krause is relinquishing his office for reasons of age. The further procedure is to be determined in the coming weeks.

Prof. Grass is 55-years old and has more than 20 years of experience in tertiary education. She initially lectured in business administration at Cologne UAS, and from 1996 at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University. Apart from numerous other activities, such as being the equality representative or initiator and board member of the student business consultancy "blue point consulting", she was also the founding dean of the Faculty of Business.

After studying business administration and economic pedagogics at Cologne University, Prof. Dr. Grass obtained her doctorate and joined the Boston Consulting Group in Düsseldorf as a consultant. Whilst working towards her professorship from 1999 to 2006, she was also active as a member of the Supervisory Board of Weesbach AG, Krefeld, and was on the Advisory Board of GAS Energietechnologie GmbH. She is still chairwoman of the Weesbach-Stiftung foundation to this day.

She was a top-level sportswoman, pursuing a career in fencing from 1968 to 1978 and, among other titles, won the German Championship 12 times. She participated in the Olympic Games in Munich (1972) and Montreal (1976) and was runner-up at the World Championships in Buenos Aires in 1977.