Oliver Fromm is Chancellor of the University of Kassel for another six years

Dr. Oliver Fromm was first appointed Chancellor of the University in 2015. His new term of office begins on July 15, 2021. University President Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey described the renewed appointment as a very good decision for the University of Kassel.

"He stands for the fact that the university's administration will continue to develop consistently in its supporting role for science and art," Finkeldey said. In his work to date, Fromm has succeeded in significantly advancing organizational development through closer involvement of the departments in the administration's quality development and through new, more efficient work processes, he said. In addition, he said, as part of his responsibility for university finances, he has established a high level of transparency for the resource framework and associated options with a comprehensively discussed medium-term financial plan.

"Dr. Fromm has been very successful in his first term of office in advancing the university's organizational development. His reappointment is a testament to the great confidence in his work and his role on the university's leadership team. I am certain that he will continue this successful work with my successor beginning in October 2021," Finkeldey said. For more than a year, he also has led the university through the challenging time of the Corona pandemic as head of the crisis team, he said.

"I thank you for the trust you have placed in me and look forward to continuing to drive exciting changes in university administration," Fromm commented. He described the implementation of the new higher education pact and the associated target agreement with the state of Hesse as a future focus. For him as chancellor, the financial opportunities and risks in particular would be in the foreground. "My primary task will be to ensure an adequate financial basis and efficient use of funds in line with the strategies adopted by the university." He said he sees further focal points of his second term in office primarily in the expansion of systematic and long-term resilient personnel planning and development, the digital transformation of administrative processes, the sustainable design of university operations and the realization of the new buildings for the natural sciences. In doing so, he said, the principle of participatory governance will remain decisive for him.

Oliver Fromm studied economics at the University of Marburg and English Language and Related Studies at Portsmouth Polytechnic, UK. He received his doctorate from the University of Marburg in 1997. After working at the GSF Research Center for Environment and Health and in the Scientific Advisory Board on Global Change, he was a research associate in the Department of General Economic Policy at the University of Kassel from 1996 to 2000. Fromm then worked as a research and teaching officer in the university administration and, from 2003, built up the UniKasselTransfer department. Since 2005 he was also managing director of UNIKIMS GmbH and since 2009 as managing director responsible for the construction of the Science Park Kassel. He has been Chancellor of the University of Kassel since 2015. Oliver Fromm lives in Kassel, is married and has three children.

The chancellor heads the university's administration and is responsible for the budget and takes care of budgetary, personnel and legal matters in accordance with the resolutions passed by the presidential board. Fromm is also responsible for the areas of personnel and organizational development in the administrative area and knowledge transfer and start-up promotion. The chancellor is appointed in consultation with the senate on the proposal of the president for a period of six years, usually in a civil service relationship for a fixed term.