19 October 2018 | This autumn, three EuroTech Universities have announced changes in their top management. Thomas Hofmann, Robert-Jan Smits and Eric Labaye will be the new Presidents at TUM, TU/e and L’X, respectively.
TUM
On 17 October, the Board of Trustees of Technical University of Munich has elected Professor Thomas Hofmann to become the new President of TUM. The experienced university manager has held the position of Senior Vice President Research and Innovation at TUM since 2009. On October 1, 2019, Hofmann will take over from Prof. Wolfgang A. Herrmann, whose far-reaching reforms in his 23-year tenure saw TUM rise to international top level. Thomas Hofmann contributed significantly to TUM’s success in the German Excellence Initiative, especially in developing the internationally acclaimed “TUM Faculty Tenure Track” recruitment and career system. Under his guidance, TUM also became Germany’s top university for the establishment of start-ups. More on TUM website
TU/e
Precisely a month earlier, on 17 September, the Supervisory Board of TU Eindhoven appointed Robert-Jan Smits to succeed current Executive Board President Jan Mengelers in spring 2019. Robert-Jan Smits is the former Director-General of Research and Innovation at the European Commission. In this position, he was the main architect of the EU’s €80 billion Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020. As current envoy of the European Commission for Open Access, Robert-Jan Smits has been one of the drivers to develop “Plan S”, a key initiative to further foster Open Access publishing in Europe. TU/e’s Supervisory Board also appointed Nicole Ummelen, current university secretary, to take over as Vice President of the Executive Board as of 1 January 2019. More on TU/e website
L’X
17 September also was a special day for École Polytechnique, with the offical take-up of office for the new President, Eric Labaye. Following the proposal of the Minister for the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, the Council of Ministers named Eric Labaye as President of École Polytechnique Board of Directors on 3 August 2018. Eric Labaye is a graduate of École Polytechnique and Télécom ParisTech, and previously held the position of Senior Associate Director at McKinsey & Company. He is also a member of the ESSEC International Advisory Board, the Télécom ParisTech School Board, and the Strategic Council of the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po. More on L’X website
