Faculty

Dr. Nils Krause is a partner at the international law firm DLA Piper and works as a German qualified lawyer and solicitor (England / Wales) in the Hamburg office of DLA Piper. He was heading the Corporate / M&A practice of the firm in Germany for many years and is now International Co-Head of Corporate Legal Products and Innovation for the global Corporate / M&A group. His principal areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions and corporate law. Prior to working for DLA Piper, Nils Krause was a partner at White & Case and, in addition, worked in the investment banking department (Global Banking - M&A) of a leading international bank in Frankfurt. Furthermore, he was a research student at Harvard Law School and visiting fellow at the University of Oxford. He lectures on corporate law at nationally and internationally renowned universities and is recognized by Legal 500 as "often recommended lawyer for corporate law" in Germany. In addition, Chambers Global recognizes him as "top transactional lawyer" for international M&A projects.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2024 for the course International Mergers & Acquisitions.

Stefan Kröll is Professor of International Dispute Resolution at Bucerius Law School and visiting professor at the School of International Arbitration, CCLS – Queen Mary College, London. He is one of the directors of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court and the Chairman of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS). He regularly lectures for other universities in Germany and abroad and is member of the editorial or academic advisory board of several national and international journals. Professor Kröll is one of Germany’s national correspondents to UNCITRAL for arbitration and international commercial law and is regularly listed as one of the leading German Arbitration specialists and most in demand arbitrators. Educated at the Universities in Marburg, Geneva and Cologne, he holds a doctorate from the University of Cologne and a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics. Professor Kröll is the (co)author and (co)editor of a number of books and articles on international arbitration and litigation, and international commercial law.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2008, together with Professor Larsen, for the course International Litigation II, in 2013 for the course International Sale of Goods and in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2023 for the course Arbitration.

Since June 2019 Linda Kuschel holds the Junior Professorship for Civil Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Law and Digitalization at Bucerius Law School. She studied law at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. After her First State Exam in 2010, she completed her legal traineeship in Berlin (Second State Exam in 2012). In 2014 she received her LL.M.-degree from Harvard Law School and in 2018 her doctorate at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin with a dissertation on "The Acquisition of Digital Copies of a Work for Private Use". 

In 2023 Linda Kuschel was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UCLA School of Law. She was a guest lecturer at the Faculté libre de droit, Université Catholique de Lille, Paris Campus and the University of Wrocław. Since 2020 she teaches “German and European IP Law” at the University of Warsaw (Deutsche Rechtsschule Warschau).

Her research focuses on intellectual property law (especially copyright law and international aspects) and digital technologies.

Estefano Martinez is an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a leading global law firm for technology and life sciences companies. At WSGR, Estefano’s practice is focused on advising companies and investors on venture capital financings and general corporate matters. He is a member of the firm’s Latin America practice group and frequently advises on cross-border transactions.

Estefano received a B.S. in business management, magna cum laude, from Millikin University and a Juris Doctor, summa cum laude, from Indiana University Maurer School of Law. He graduated from the MLB program in 2021.

Estefano is based in Silicon Valley and is admitted to practice law in the State of California.

Andreas E. Meier is the Head of Asset Management at the Joachim Herz Stiftung, one of the largest German charitable foundations, dedicated to promoting education, science, and research.

He formerly worked as Chief Investment Officer of Lombard Assurance International S.A., Luxembourg, a global leader in insurance-based wealth structuring solutions, owned by The Blackstone Group L.P. Before that he worked for 15 years at UBS Group where among other functions, he was a member of the Executive Board at UBS Germany between 2009 and 2016. He started his career at former Dresdner Bank Latin America in 1992.

He is a board member of the Latin American Business Association, Hamburg. He holds a degree (Lic. rer. pol.) in Business Administration from the University of Hamburg, with a special focus in Banking, Finance and Portfolio Management.

Matthias Meyer is full professor for management control and accounting at the Hamburg University of Technology. Before that he was an associate and assistant professor for management accounting at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar. He holds a habilitation degree (Dr. oec. publ. habil.) from WHU and a PhD (Dr. oec. publ.) in business economics from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where he worked at the Chair of Philosophy and Economics. The topic of his dissertation was the principal agent model. He received his Diplom-Kaufmann in business administration from Eichstaett Catholic University and a master of science in the philosophy of social sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2006, Matthias Meyer stayed as visiting scholar at the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. His practical background in management accounting is his former position as the Managing Director of the Center for Controlling & Management at WHU where companies like DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom or Deutsche Lufthansa work together with researchers on management accounting topics. He has teaching experience in management accounting, cost accounting, corporate planning and strategic decision-making, economic methodology and business ethics.

Mehrdad Payandeh is Professor of International Law, European Law and Public Law at Bucerius Law School. He studied law at Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf where he also finished his doctoral thesis in international law. After a legal clerkship that took him to the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in New York, Hengeler Mueller, as well as the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany he obtained an LL.M. at Yale Law School. He returned to Heinrich-Heine-University as a research assistant and from 2012 until 2016 he worked there as a Junior Professor for International Law and Public Law. In 2016, he finished his habilitation with a thesis in constitutional law, before joining Bucerius Law School. Since 2020, Professor Payandeh is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. His research focuses on international law, in particular human rights law and the law of the use of force, anti-discrimination law, as well as constitutional law and theory.

Jannick Plähn is a finance professional who works in the Controlling department of Otto Payments GmbH. He earned his Master's degree in Banking and Finance from Steinbeis University Berlin and is expected to complete his Ph.D. at the Hamburg University of Technology in 2023. In his doctoral thesis, he uses experimental methods to investigate the influence of social norms in participative budgeting. Prior to his role at Otto Payments GmbH, he worked as a Finance & Risk Consultant at zeb.rolfes.schierenbeck.associates in 2018 and as a Credit Manager at VR Bank Flensburg-Schleswig eG from 2015 to 2017. He initiated his professional journey with a bank apprenticeship at VR Bank Flensburg-Schleswig eG from 2012 to 2015.

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Sonja is an alumna of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade (Serbia) and has completed her MLB at Bucerius Law School in 2018. 

As a practicing attorney-at-law, Sonja worked at an international law firm for over four years, specializing in corporate and real estate law.

Following her graduation from Bucerius Law School, Sonja joined an early-stage venture capital company in Berlin as an investment manager and Head of Legal. In this role, she worked with entrepreneurs but also oversaw legal and transactional aspects of investments in tech companies. During this time, Sonja worked with over 100 startups and did investments in more than 16 countries.

In 2021, Sonja co-founded a tech startup called “Codio Impact”, and shortly after raised venture capital. The company was established with the mission of facilitating data-driven sustainability transformations, developing proprietary software-as-a-service to help large industrial groups comply with evolving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations. Sonja is also an active member of EFRAG and works in various working groups which enact European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and works with clients on hands-on application of different European regulations in sustainability. 

Beyond her work in technology, Sonja is a passionate advocate for diversity within the venture capital and entrepreneurial communities. She is a mentor in different diversity initiatives and enjoys bringing different perspectives together.

Natalia Ribberink is professor of International Business at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Business & Social Sciences.

In addition to her professorship at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Natalia Ribberink holds visiting professor positions at the University of Rhode Island (USA), California State University Long Beach (USA), and has a position of external faculty member at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands). She regularly holds lectures for partner universities abroad, acts as a reviewer for some international academic journals, and has several publications in the field of international business.

Before being appointed as a Professor Natalia Ribberink spent five years in the German aviation industry within a large airline alliance. She managed international projects in the area of strategic partnerships and was responsible for fare policies, contract management, accreditation procedures and staff recruiting & development. She combined this function with her Ph.D.-studies. Prior to that she worked as a Research Associate at the Faculty of Business & Social Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrueck.

Natalia Ribberink graduated with honors from the Belarusian State University in Minsk with a degree in the World Economy/International Economic Relations. As a winner of DAAD Award for Excellence she continued her education and research in Osnabrueck, Germany, where she obtained her second university degree in European Business Studies (Dipl.-Kffr.) and a Ph.D. in Economics.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2015 for the course International Strategic Management.

Prof. Rainer Michael Rilke is a Full Professor of Behavioral Economics at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, where he has held this position since 2024. His academic journey includes a strong focus on the interplay between ethical decision-making and economic incentives within organizations. He has a profound interest in how artificial intelligence (AI) and trust in technology influence these dynamics.

Before his current role, he served as an Assistant Professor of Business Economics at WHU from 2016 to 2024. His academic credentials include a dissertation in Business Ethics and Economics from the University of Cologne completed in 2014. He also participated in the Research Fellow Program on Negotiation at Harvard University in 2013 and holds a Diploma in Economics from the University of Bonn.

Prof. Rilke's research has been widely recognized and published in leading journals, addressing key topics such as the influence of incentive systems on ethical decision-making, the impact of team structures on ethical behavior, and the role of feedback mechanisms in organizational performance. His work explores the ethical implications of AI in organizational contexts, particularly focusing on how trust can be established and maintained in AI systems.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Rönnau holds the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Business Law and Law of Criminal Procedure at Bucerius Law School. Born in 1962, Thomas Rönnau passed his First State Examination in 1987 and received his doctorate in 1990 in Kiel on the subject of "Plea Bargaining in Criminal Proceedings". After passing the Second State Examination in 1992 and working as a fully qualified lawyer in the legal department of a major North German company, he returned to the University of Kiel as a Research Assistant in 1994 and habilitated there in mid-1999 with a thesis on "Vices of Consent in Criminal Law". Since 2000, Prof. Rönnau has held the Chair for Criminal Law, Criminal Business Law and Law of Criminal Procedure at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. During this time, he declined calls to the University of Göttingen (2005) and Münster (2006).

Prof. Rönnau's research focuses on Criminal Law in general (Doctrine of Wrongdoing and Guilt [here especially Dogmatics of Consent and Self-Defense]) and on Economic Criminal Law. In monographs, commentaries, academic essays and lectures he deals with the subjects of embezzlement and fraud, the Criminal Law of Limited Liability Companies, Corruption and the Law of Asset Confiscation as well as with Criminal Insolvency Law or Offences or Administrative Offences from the UmwG or the WpÜG. For many years, Prof. Rönnau has also been active in this area as an advisor for lawmakers and companies. He also regularly offers executive education courses for corporate lawyers and attorneys.

Markus Rudolf has been Full Professor and Chair of Finance at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management since 1998. He is also Head of the WHU Center of Asset and Wealth Management. He served as WHU's Rector from January 2015 to 2023, and as Deputy Rector from 2009 to 2014. Previously, he received his doctorate and habilitation from the University of St. Gallen. His recent publications focus on blockchains, banking economics, and asset and risk management. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal "Financial Markets and Portfolio Management" and academic director of the Campus for Finance - WHU New Year's Conference. He also holds a position as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Böker & Paul AG and was a member of the Supervisory Board at Intervivos AG and at Black Rock Asset Management Deutschland AG between June 2008 and March 2016.

Dr. Jan Peter Schmütsch works for McKinsey & Company, Inc., as an Associate Partner in Hamburg. He studied business administration at the University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and WHU, where he graduated with a both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. In 2012, he joined the team at the Allianz Endowed Chair of Finance at WHU, where he completed his dissertation on biases in stock market analysts’ forecasts. 

He started his professional career in 2014 with Boston Consulting Group in Munich, where he got promoted to Partner in 2020. In his work he focuses on risk management and performance transformations, serving predominantly clients in the financial institutions sector from Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

Barbara Stage is Assistant Professor for Financial Accounting and Business Taxation at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. She studied Business Administration with focus on Taxation at University of Mannheim (Germany) and Philosophy & Economics at University of Bayreuth (Germany). She completed her PhD at the University of Mannheim (Germany). Her extensive international experience stems from working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in advising development countries’ tax authorities, the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research on European tax policy consulting, and from research visits to the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, the University of Texas at Austin, and Stanford University. Furthermore, she is Research Fellow at the EUTAX Observatory an independent research and policy body co-funded by the European Union and hosted at the Paris School of Economics.

In her research, she is particularly interested in how taxes interact with decisions of businesses and individuals, including research on the effects of tax regimes on tax evasion, tax avoidance and business investment behavior. She is also interested in the impact of digitalization on corporate taxation. 

She enjoys regularly exchanging ideas at international conferences in the U.S. and in different European countries and has published her interdisciplinary work in the Journal of Public Economics (Economics) and the World Tax Journal (Law).

Professor Dr. Karsten Thorn holds the Chair for Civil Law, Private International and International Commercial Law, and Comparative Law at Bucerius Law School. He is co-director of the Center on International Dispute Resolution. From June 2014 through September 2015, he was also acting Dean.

Professor Thorn teaches and researches in different fields of Private International Law, International Commercial Law, and Comparative Law. 

From 2005 through 2009 he was the German director of the program of the Summer Law Institute in Souzhou, China, and since 2007, lecturer within a cooperation framework of Chinese legal training, e.g. the China European International Business School, Shanghai, or the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, as well as the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Berlin. In 2010, he was "Director of Studies in the Session of Private International Law for the Diploma Seminars 2010" of The Hague Academy of International Law; in the summer of 2016 he taught there a course on “The Protection of Weaker Business Parties in Private International Law”.

Prof. Thorn is among other academic or professional associations regional head of the German-American Lawyers Association, council member of the German Association for International Law and member of the German Council of International Private Law. He is author and editor of numerous publications, particularly of a commentary on International Private Law within the main commentary „Palandt“. He is co-publisher of “IPRax”, one of the most distinguished German law journals on conflict of laws.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2021 for the course Legal Issues of Supply and Distribution (Chains).

Professor Wagner holds the Chair of Logistics Management and is Faculty Director of the HumOSCM Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). From 2008 to 2019 he was Director of the Executive MBA in Supply Chain Management (MBA ETH SCM). He worked in practice for almost 10 years prior to his academic career, namely as head of supply chain management for a Swiss-based technology group and as senior manager for an international top-management consulting firm. He obtained a MBA from Washington State University and a Ph.D. and Habilitation degree from the University of St. Gallen.

He has been a lecturer for supply chain management and related areas on the undergraduate, graduate and executive level at several universities. He has been recognized for his teaching with the MBA Program Best Teacher Award at the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management (2006) and the “Golden Owl” Teaching Award at the ETH Zurich (2009 and 2013). In addition, he has consulted with and conducted executive training programs for leading companies and business associations.

He is an active researcher and has received numerous research awards. His research interests lie in the areas of supply chain management, purchasing and supply management, and logistics and transportation management - with a particular emphasis on strategy, networks and relationships, risk, innovation, digitalization, entrepreneurship, sustainability and humanitarian operations. He is author and editor of 13 books and over 150 book chapters and articles. He has published in journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, or California Management Review.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024 for the course Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Born in 1989 in Güstrow (Mecklenburg), Germany, Kilian Wegner pursued legal studies at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and Bilgi Üniversitesi in Istanbul from 2009 to 2014. From 2014 to 2021, he worked as a Research Associate and Research Assistant at the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and White-Collar Crime under Professor Dr. Thomas Rönnau at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. In 2016, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Berkeley School of Law. Between 2017 and 2019, Kilian Wegner underwent his legal clerkship at the Kammergericht in Berlin, with stages at the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office, the Berlin Regional Court, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (Department for International Criminal Law), the law firm Ignor & Partner, and the Federal Constitutional Court (Judge Professor Dr. Doris König). From 2019 to 2021, he worked part-time as a Criminal Defense Counsel in Berlin. In 2020, he earned his PhD (Dr. iur) at Bucerius Law School with a “summa cum laude” distinction. 

Kilian Wegner was appointed as an Assistant Professor for Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and White-Collar-Crime at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in the Summer Term 2021. His research focuses on financial crime, in particular money laundering and confiscation, as well as the European and international aspects of criminal law.

Sibylle Weingart is a legal professional who works as Head of Corporate Compliance at EOS Holding, a company of the Otto Group in Hamburg.

After her law degree at the University of Basel she started her career in the field of Compliance in the private banking sector. Other professional stations were at PwC in Consulting for Governance, Risk and Compliance and Internal Auditing at Otto Group.  She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA IIA) and has a CAS in Compliance Management from the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law of the University of St. Gallen (CM-HSG).

All in all, she has 16 years of professional experience in Governance, Risk and Compliance, Internal Control Systems, Risk Management Systems, Certification processes, Audit and other related topics. Her focus is on the application of compliance, ethics and integrity in everyday business life.

Peter Witt is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the University of Wuppertal. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Bonn and a Ph.D degree in business administration from WHU. He received his habilitation degree at Humboldt University. From 2002 to 2006, Prof. Witt served as the Otto Beisheim Professor of Entrepreneurship at WHU, from 2006 to 2010 he was the director of the chair for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Dortmund.

Professor Witt supports large international corporations like 3M, Bayer, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Börse, Fraport, London Stock Exchange, Metro Group, RWE, and Vaillant in their corporate venturing activities as well as in their executive education programs. From 2008 to 2015, he was the president of the largest German speaking entrepreneurship association (FGF e.V.).

Prof. Witt has won numerous teaching awards, e.g. the WHU Best Teacher Award in 1996, the Kellogg-WHU-EMBA Best Teacher Award in 2003, the Best Teacher Award of the Faculty for Economics at the University of Dortmund in 2008, 2009, 2010, the Best Teacher Award of the University of Wuppertal in 2011 and 2016, the Best Teacher Award of the EMBA Program at the University of Mainz in 2015 as well as the Best Teacher Award in WHU’s MBA Programs in 2015 and 2023.

Recipient of the MLB Best Teacher Award in 2020 for the course Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management.

Dr. Malte Wundenberg works as an attorney in the Frankfurt office of the law firm Hengeler Mueller, advising clients in the fields of capital markets law, banking regulation as well as internal investigations. In addition to his practical work, he is a lecturer at LMU Munich and Bucerius Law School, where he was working as a research associate at the Institute of Corporate and Capital Markets Law.

Malte Wundenberg studied law at Bucerius Law School and the New York University School of Law. Alongside his legal studies, he also obtained a “Dipl. Kfm.” (Master) degree in business administration at the University of Mannheim and Hagen and was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge. He received numerous awards for his PhD thesis on banking regulation, including the “DAI-Hochschulpreis” and the Christian-Wilde-Award. Malte Wundenberg has written numerous articles in the field of banking law, capital markets law and civil procedural law. He is the author of a leading textbook on European Banking Regulation as well as of the monograph, “Compliance and the principles-based supervision of banking groups,”. At Bucerius, he has taught classes in contract law, corporate law and capital markets law.