Foundation Board

The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences University is, as one of the first universities of applied sciences nationwide since 2003, a corporation under public law maintained by the Stiftung ‘Fachhochschule Osnabrück’ whose organs are the University Steering Committee and the Foundation Board. Thus, the State of Lower Saxony transferred former State tasks to the Foundation and granted a greater autonomy and self-responsibility to the university.

Tasks of the University Steering Committee in accordance with the Niedersächsisches Hochschulgesetz [Lower Saxony University Regulation] (NHG):

The Foundation Board advises the university, decides on affairs of the Foundation of fundamental importance and monitors the activities of the University Steering Committee. It specifically has the following tasks:

• Nomination, appointment or and dismissal of the members of the University Steering Committee of the university,
• Decision on changes and encumbrances to the basic assets as well as the taking out of loans,
• Approval of the development planning of the university and the budget of the Foundation,
• Receipt of the accountability report of the University Steering Committee,
• Determination of the annual financial statement as well as approval of the University Steering Committee of the Foundation,
• Consent for the founding of companies or participation in companies by the Foundation,
• Legal supervision of the university,
• Decision on amendments to the statutes of the Foundation, as well as adopting, amending and repealing other statutes of the Foundation.

The Foundation Board can take a position on the drafts of target agreements which are to be concluded with the competent ministry.

Members in accordance with the Niedersächsisches Hochschulgesetz [Lower Saxony University Regulation] (NHG):

The Foundation Board consists of seven members, of which at least three should be women. Members are

1. five people familiar with higher education, but not affiliated with the university primarily from the fields of Business, Science, Culture or other socially relevant areas, which are appointed in agreement with the Academic Senate of the university by the competent ministry and can be dismissed for cause by the competent ministry.
2. a member of the university who is elected by the university Academic Senate as well as
3. a representative of the competent ministry.

The members of the University Steering Committee, a representative of the student body, the equal opportunities officer and a member of the Staff Council normally attend the meetings of the Foundation Board in an advisory capacity.

Members of the Foundation Board

Professor Dr. Joachim Metzner, Chairman, Cologne, studied philosophy, Germanistics and theology at the Universities of Frankfurt am Main and Tübingen. He graduated in 1975 as Dr. phil. at the University of Tübingen. Since 1978, he has been a Professor of Linguistics and Language Pedagogy at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne. He was Dean, Prorector and Rector and President of the University of Applied Sciences from 1989 until 2012. Mr. Metzner was Vice President of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz [university rector's conference] (HRK) for IT infrastructure and information supply.

Professorin Dr. rer. pol. Nicole Böhmer is the representative of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences on the Foundation Council. Prior to her appointment, she worked in the Human Resources Department of the Oldenburgische Landesbank AG from 1999 to 2006. She studied economics and business education at the University of Oldenburg and completed her doctorate on human resources management there in 2005.
Since September 2006, she has been a professor of business administration with a special focus on human resources management at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Ms Böhmer was the Equal Opportunities Officer of the Faculty of Business Management and Social Sciences from 2015 to 2018 and has been a member of the University Senate since March 2019. In research and teaching, her focus is on international human resource management, career and talent management, and case study didactics.

Christian Gnaß, Lingen, is the CEO/Managing Partner of emco Group (Erwin Müller GmbH) in Lingen. He studied at London Business School SEP and in his professional career, he first served as Head of Development and Production at Reboplastik GmbH Kalletal, and later as a board member of PGAM Advanced Technologies AG. In the United States, Christian Gnaß was President and COO of PGAM Corporation, based in Detroit. He then served as Chairman of the Management Board of Benteler Maschinenbau and its subsidiary, PDE.

Senior Ministerial Councilor Hans-Jörg Haferkamp, Hanover, represents the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture on the Foundation Board. He heads the Department for Universities of Applied Sciences, Student Affairs, Student Services, and Vocational Academies.

Professor Dr.-Ing. Tiziana Margaria has held the Chair of Software Systems at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick, Ireland, since 2014. She studied Ingegneria Elettronica at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin and earned her Ph.D. there in 1993. Professor Dr.-Ing. Tiziana Margaria was a founding editor and has been a co-editor of the International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer since 1997. In 1997, she co-founded METAFrame Technologies GmbH, which she continues to manage as CEO. In 2004, she received the Professorship for Service Engineering for Distributed Systems at the University of Göttingen. In 2006, Professor Dr.-Ing. Tiziana Margaria became Chair of Service and Software Engineering at the University of Potsdam. In 2014, she moved to the University of Limerick and is a Principal Investigator (PI) at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland National Research Centre for Software, PI at Confirm, the SFI National Research Centre for Advanced Smart Manufacturing, PI at the Limerick Digital Cancer Research Centre (LDCRC), and Co-Director of the National Centre of Research Training in AI. She is currently Vice President of the Irish Computer Society and the IFIP WG 10.5 on Electronic Design Automation.

Professor Dr. Dorit Schumann has been the President of Trier University of Applied Sciences since 2019. She studied business administration at Goethe University Frankfurt, earning a diploma, and obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the same university in 2000. From 2001 to 2004, she worked as a consultant at Schüllermann & Partner, a public accounting and tax consulting firm, before accepting a professorship in logistics at the Faculty of Business at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. From 2006 to 2009, Dorit Schumann served as Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Business at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. She then became Vice President for Research at Fulda University of Applied Sciences from 2009 to 2015. From 2016 to 2019, Professor Schumann served as Vice President for International Affairs at the German Jordanian University in Amman before transitioning to Trier. She has been a Vice President of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) since 2020.

Sabine Stöhr, Osnabrück, is Managing Director and Deputy General Manager of the Industrial Employers' Association Osnabrück - Emsland - Grafschaft Bentheim (IAV). She is responsible for public relations and educational work at IAV. IAV represents over 460 companies with approximately 122,000 employees in the region. The topics of education, vocational orientation, shortage of skilled workers and, above all, communication with various company stakeholder and interest groups are also at the centre of Sabine Stöhr's professional volunteer work. For example, she is rotating chairperson of the Administrative Committee of the Nordhorn Employment Agency, chairperson of the Advisory Board of MaßArbeit (the job centre of the Osnabrück district), deputy member of the State Committee for Vocational Education and Training at the Lower Saxony State Government and member of the Advisory Board of the Sponsoring Society of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Sabine Stöhr is also involved as a member of the advisory board of the Student Research Centre Osnabrück.