Reimund Neugebauer, resigned President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. © Patrick Pleul/dpa
After eleven years, the President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, who has come under criticism, is resigning from office. Reimund Neugebauer, who was elected in 2012, is to be succeeded by Holger Hanselka, head of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. This was announced by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft on Thursday in Munich.
Munich - The Senate unanimously elected the current president of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Dresden and thanked Neugebauer for "his commitment at the top of society".
The Federal Court of Auditors had accused the Fraunhofer leadership of unreasonably high expense invoices and other misconduct. A February report stated: "Overall, there was an inappropriate use of taxpayers' money through excessive travel, official car and representation costs." The Fraunhofer press release said that Neugebauer was resigning from his business "by mutual agreement". At the request of the German Press Agency, a spokesman said on Thursday that they had nothing to add to the press release.
The focus of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, with its more than 30,000 employees, is research focused on practical applications. During Neugebauer's term of office, the budget has risen from 1.9 billion euros to around 3 billion euros per year, and the number of institutes has grown from 64 to 76. Hanselka is to take up his new position as soon as possible, interim boss will be CFO Sandra Krey.
The 61-year-old Hanselka has been head of KIT since 2013. The research institution was created in 2009 from the merger of the University of Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Research Center. The new president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft sees his central tasks as "international positioning and the development of a modern mission statement for Fraunhofer". "We live in a time of massive global changes and challenges. Research with a clear profile must also become more global in a demand-oriented manner," KIT quoted its President as saying.
Before joining KIT, Hanselka headed the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability in Darmstadt for twelve years. Between 2006 and 2012 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. He is regarded as an expert in knowledge and technology transfer, in cooperation between science and industry and in business spin-offs. Dpa