Christa Neuper, former Rector of the University of Graz, is the new chair of the University Council of TU Graz. With the constituent meeting on 9th March, the University Council of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) is complete for the term of office from 1st March 2023 to 28th February 2028.
The University Council is the highest governing body of the University alongside the Rectorate and the Senate. Its members come “from various responsible positions in society, especially in science, culture or business”, according to the wording in the Universities Act 2002. At TU Graz, the body consists of seven persons, three of whom are appointed by the Senate and three by the federal government. These six people then elect the seventh member and the chair.
In June 2022, the TU Graz Senate elected three members to the University Council of TU Graz: Mariana Karepova, Christa Neuper and Barbara Steiner. The federal government finally appointed Ulrike Farnik, Philipp Gady and Michael Stampfer to the University Council in December 2022. These six people elected Georg List as the seventh member. The choice of chair fell on the neuropsychologist Christa Neuper.
A Portrait of the members of the University Council of TU Graz
Christa Neuper is a neuropsychologist and has established and advanced the research field of brain computer interfaces in close cooperation between the University of Graz and TU Graz. From 2006 to 2011, she headed the Institute of Knowledge Discovery at TU Graz, and from 2009 to 2011 the Institute of Psychology at the University of Graz. From October 2011 to September 2019, she held the office of Rector at the University of Graz.
Mariana Karepova studied economics at Vienna and furthered her education in innovation management at MIT. She is vice-chair of Platform Industry 4.0 Austria, a member of supervisory bodies in the innovation and education sectors and a member of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office. She looks back on a 20-year career in research and technology promotion, which has led her to become the first female president in the now almost 125-year history of the Austrian Patent Office.
Ulrike Farnik is an authorised signatory and head of department at Schieneninfrastruktur-Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH and managing director of Tharros Business Consulting and Executive Coaching. She studied history, political science and communication at Vienna and general management at St. Gallen and has Master’s degrees in human resources and organisational development as well as coaching and supervision. She has had many years of management experience in corporate communications and human resources, has been a press spokesperson and senior consultant in an international management consultancy and is a lecturer in the railway management course at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences.
Philipp Gady studied law and joined the Styrian Gady Group at the age of 23. in 2009 he took over the management of the company, and in 2015 he became the sole managing partner of all the companies. The portfolio of the Gady Group includes car dealerships, agricultural machinery trade and Schlosskeller Südsteiermark. As of 2015, Philipp Gady has been deputy chair of the Trade Division in the Styrian Chamber of Commerce, and in 2020 he will be appointed vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
At AVL List GmbH, Georg List is responsible for the development of corporate strategy in three business units as well as for the group’s M&A activities. List studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich and has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining AVL, Georg List was a partner at Booz & Company (formerly Booz Allen Hamilton) specialising in innovation management in the automotive, aerospace and renewable energy sectors.
Michael Stampfer is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna and has many years of experience in the field of Austrian and international research and technology policy. From 1992 to 1998 he worked at the Ministry of Science, and until 2002 at Technologie Impulse Gesellschaft (TIG), now FFG. Since 2002, Stampfer has been managing director of the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), which supports cutting-edge research through strictly juried international calls for project and individual funding.
Barbara Steiner is an art historian and has held leading positions in various exhibition houses in Germany. From 2016 to 2021 she directed Kunsthaus Graz, and at the beginning of 2022 she took over as director of Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Barbara Steiner has also gained diverse experience in academic teaching. From 2015 to 2017, she was a substitute professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and has also taught in Linz, Braunschweig, Copenhagen and Vienna.
More information is available on the website University Council of TU Graz.
