Axel Hellmann, spokesman of the Eintracht Frankfurt management board, to represent Goethe University’s board of trustees on the university council.
The board of trustees brings together the most important benefactors and sponsors of Goethe University; it advises the university – a foundation under public law – on matters relating to its development. At its meeting in early July, the board of trustees elected Frankfurt lord mayor Mike Josef as its chairman. The board also welcomed four new institutional members, including Eintracht Frankfurt.
“As board of trustees, we see ourselves as a bridge linking the university and society, citizens and the region. Of course the city of Frankfurt plays a central role in this,” says Julia Heraeus-Rinnert, who had served as the board’s acting chair. “Goethe University was founded in 1914 by Frankfurt’s citizens and to this day considers itself a citizens’ university. We would like to thank lord mayor Mike Josef for his willingness to take over the board of trustees’ chairmanship and look forward to working with him.”
“As a Goethe University alumnus, I feel as though I have come full circle,” Mike Josef announced after his election. “Following my involvement as a student on the general students’ committee [AstA] board and later as a member of the university council and planning officer for Frankfurt municipality, I am very pleased to now be able to continue in this new role to promote the successful further development of both university and city.“
The board of trustees also welcomed four new institutional members: Deloitte GmbH, represented by Kirsten Gräbner-Vogel, the Dr. Elmar und Ellis Reiss Stiftung, represented by Dr. Elmar Reiss, the SustainableLife Foundation, represented by Jürgen Eckert, and Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG, represented by Axel Hellmann. The board of trustees has also asked Hellmann to be its representative on the university council.
“As a person, Axel Hellmann not only further strengthens the university’s ties to the urban community. At the same time, he brings with him insights into both for-profit and non-profit structures,” explains Goethe University president Prof. Enrico Schleiff. “We are delighted to have gained in him a link to local, national and, thanks to Eintracht’s success, international sports – an area with a lot of potential. With our sports sciences in Frankfurt, Goethe University already has a real advantage in terms of location, on which we would like to build in the future as part of the considerations for a new sports campus.”
Board of Trustees: In 2008, Goethe University continued the Frankfurt foundation tradition by once again becoming a foundation university. As a result, when the new university foundation was established on May 19, 2008, the board of trustees also was constituted. It is composed of the lord mayor of the city of Frankfurt as well as friends and supporters of the foundation university who have rendered outstanding services to it. They are appointed for a five-year term by the university council on the executive board’s recommendation. In accordance with Section 92 of the Hessian Higher Education Act (HessHG), the board of trustees is one of the foundation university’s organs.
