Academic Leadership at HECTOR School
Meet the directors who shape our programs, connect them to cutting-edge research and ensure their relevance to industry and society
Leadership of HECTOR School
HECTOR School's programs are shaped by professors and experts from KIT who combine academic excellence, research expertise and close connections to industry. As program directors, they are responsible for the academic direction of their programs and ensure that current technological developments and real-world challenges are reflected in the curriculum.
Dr.-Ing. Judith Elsner is responsible for the strategic development of HECTOR School and for making KIT expertise accessible to professionals and industry worldwide.
Dr.-Ing. Judith Elsner
Managing Director
Prof. Dr.- Ing. Eric Sax ensures the academic quality and strategic development of our programs by connecting KIT research with the technological challenges facing industry.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eric Sax
Academic Director
Meet our Program Directors and Academic Experts
KIT professors lead each Master of Science program, ensuring that the curriculum reflects current reseach, technological developments and the challenges facing industry.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc Hiller
- Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), leading research in electrical drive systems and power electronics for e-mobility
- Research focus on design, control and optimization of electric machines, inverters and integrated drive systems
- Specialization in traction drive development for electric and hybrid vehicles
- Extensive experience in industrial and academic engineering applications
- Contributes to research on efficient, compact and reliable propulsion technologies
Prof. Dr. Stefan Nickel
- Professor and Chair of Operations Research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in logistics, supply chain analytics, and location planning
- Research focus on optimization of complex systems
- Applications in healthcare, production, transport, and mobility
- Specialization in mathematical optimization and decision support systems
- Director at Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI)
- Board member at Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI)
- Focus on data-driven planning and sustainable logistics solutions
- Bridging academic research with industrial applications
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eric Sax
- Head of the Institute for Information Processing Technology
- Research focus: systems engineering, currently supervising more than 50 doctoral students in the automotive industry
- Bilateral projects with OEMs and Tier 1 in the fields of processes/methods/tools, EE architectures, function development (automated driving, energy management, predictive diagnostics), big data analytics
- Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.
- Member of the Senate of the KIT
- Speaker of the “Center for Mobility Systems” at KIT
- Director of the “Innovation Campus Mobility” of KIT and the University of Stuttgart
- Director at the “Research Center for Information Technology”
- Program Director at the HECTOR School, the Technology Business School of KIT
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Doppelbauer
- Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), holding the chair of Hybrid Electric Vehicles at the Institute of Electrical Engineering (ETI)
- Research focus on design, modeling and optimization of electrical drive systems for hybrid and electric vehicles
- Specialization in electromagnetic machine design, system integration and simulation-based development
- Prior industry experience in electric motor and drive system development
- Active involvement in international standardization for electric machines and mobility technologies
Prof. Dr. Stefan Nickel
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Professor and Chair of Operations Research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in logistics, supply chain analytics, and location planning
- Research focus on optimization of complex systems
- Applications in healthcare, production, transport, and mobility
- Specialization in mathematical optimization and decision support systems
- Director at Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI)
- Board member at Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI)
- Focus on data-driven planning and sustainable logistics solutions
- Bridging academic research with industrial applications
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Albert Albers
- Leading expert in product development and engineering design
- Former full professor and head of the Institute for Product Development (IPEK) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Research focus: integration of methods, processes, and system design in engineering
- Emphasis on development of innovative technical systems and human-centered engineering
- Internationally recognized for bridging fundamental research and industrial application
- Extensive experience in large-scale research projects, publications, and patents
- Strong leadership in academic institutions, industry collaboration, and scientific organizations
- Significant contribution to modern product engineering and innovation
Prof. Dr. Martin Ruckes
- Professor of Finance and Banking at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in corporate finance and financial services
- Research focus on corporate investment and capital budgeting
- Specialization in corporate governance and restructuring
- Focus on financial contracting and corporate control
- Publications in leading journals such as Journal of Finance and Review of Financial Studies
- Former faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Madison
- PhD in Economics from University of Mannheim
- Member of international academic advisory boards
- Teaches advanced corporate finance and financial management courses
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Furmans
- Director of the Institute for Material Handling and Logistics Systems at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Focus on stochastic models in production and logistics
- Research on material flow systems and lean logistics
- Specialization in cyber-physical systems and Industry 4.0 in logistics and supply chains
- Work on plug-and-play material flow systems
- Research on risk management in supply chains
- Background in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (TH)
- Former leadership roles at Robert Bosch GmbH in logistics and supply chain management
- Extensive experience in industry and academic logistics research
- Focus on data-driven, resilient and innovative logistics systems
Prof. Dr. Stefan Nickel
- Professor and Chair of Operations Research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in logistics, supply chain analytics, and location planning
- Research focus on optimization of complex systems
- Applications in healthcare, production, transport, and mobility
- Specialization in mathematical optimization and decision support systems
- Director at Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI)
- Board member at Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI)
- Focus on data-driven planning and sustainable logistics solutions
- Bridging academic research with industrial applications
Prof. Dr. Maxim Ulrich
- Professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Specialist in Financial Data Science and Financial Machine Learning
- Focus on Macro-Finance and Quantitative Financial Economics
- Research on asset pricing and market volatility
- Experience at Columbia Business School
- Expert in quantitative and computational finance
- Founder of fintech startups in option analytics and financial literacy
- Collaboration with Eurex and European Central Bank
- Work with hedge funds on financial machine learning models
- Focus on data-driven risk management and financial modeling
- Teaching research-intensive financial engineering programs at KIT
- Bridges academic research and real-world financial markets
- Focus on training future quantitative finance professionals
Prof. Dr. Martin Ruckes
- Professor of Finance and Banking at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in corporate finance and financial services
- Research focus on corporate investment and capital budgeting
- Specialization in corporate governance and restructuring
- Focus on financial contracting and corporate control
- Publications in leading journals such as Journal of Finance and Review of Financial Studies
- Former faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Madison
- PhD in Economics from University of Mannheim
- Member of international academic advisory boards
- Teaches advanced corporate finance and financial management courses
Prof. Dr. Andreas Oberweis
- Director of Software Engineering, Innovation, Strategy and Transfer at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Focus on bridging business process engineering and software engineering
- Expert in end-to-end modeling of complex systems
- Specialization in quality assurance of software and processes
- Research on e-collaboration and social software
- Focus on mobility aspects in business process management
- Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics at KIT
- Deputy Speaker of Organization and Service Engineering research field
- Strong emphasis on interdisciplinary innovation and digital transformation
Prof. Dr. Ralf Reussner
- Full Professor and Head of Software Design and Quality at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in software engineering for cyber-physical systems
- Focus on software dependability and quality assurance
- Specialization in model-based software development
- Research on consistency in system design and architecture
- Leader of major interdisciplinary research projects at KIT
- Extensive leadership experience in research institutes (FZI, KSRI)
- Focus on reliable software architectures for complex systems
- Over 20 years of academic leadership in software engineering
- Bridges theoretical software design with practical applications
Prof. Dr. Martin Ruckes
- Professor of Finance and Banking at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Expert in corporate finance and financial services
- Research focus on corporate investment and capital budgeting
- Specialization in corporate governance and restructuring
- Focus on financial contracting and corporate control
- Publications in leading journals such as Journal of Finance and Review of Financial Studies
- Former faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Madison
- PhD in Economics from University of Mannheim
- Member of international academic advisory boards
- Teaches advanced corporate finance and financial management courses
Curriculum Development
Translating current KIT research and technological developments into relevant learning experiences.
Industry Relevance
Connecting scientific expertise with real-world challenges faced by companies and professionals.
Academic Excellence Rooted in KIT
HECTOR School is the technology business school of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Our Academic Director and Program Directors are professors and academic leaders from KIT. This means that the knowledge taught at HECTOR School is closely connected to the research shaping tomorrow's technologies.
Learn from KIT Experts. Lead Technological Change.
Explore our Master of Science programs and shape the future of your industry.