Office of the deanProf. Dr. Henrik SattlerTwo years as dean—a look back
13 January 2025

Photo: UHH/BWL
Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler finished his term as dean of the University of Hamburg Business School on 31 December 2024. We take a look at his contribution since taking on the position on 1 December 2022.
During his tenure as dean, Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler was able to initiate and build on important milestones for the Faculty of Business Administration, now the University of Hamburg Business School. One highlight of his tenure saw the University of Hamburg awarded an internationally renowned seal of quality for business schools, making it now one of 7 German management institutions to successfully obtain EQUIS accreditation in October 2023. “I would particularly like to thank Prof. Dr. Karen Gedenk and Matthew Fennessy, who spent a long time preparing this process. That said, constructive cooperation between the dean’s office, fellow colleagues, administration, students, alumni, and the advisory board also played a major role in our success,” explained the Professor of Marketing and Branding. “Thanks to EQUIS, we have made sustainable and positive changes at the Business School. For example, we have been able to drive forward internationalization, by making it possible to study the master of business administration entirely in English.”
Initiated by the EQUIS accreditation, the Faculty of Business Administration became the University of Hamburg Business School with a more focused mission, vision, and adapted values. It was and is particularly important to Prof. Dr. Sattler that these values are put into practice: “In terms of the values of connectedness and openness, I found the cooperation on a broad level to be constructive and transparent. This also means that we in the office of the dean always made decisions, sometimes after very long discussion.”
Since its foundation in 2014, the office of the dean of the University of Hamburg Business School has aimed to limit control and incentive systems as much as possible, to promote autonomy for the individual professorships. The size of the administration has also remained consistently lean during his tenure as dean. At the same time, communication was improved, for example with the launch of a LinkedIn channel or encouraging alumni work.
In response to which were his favorite moments during his time in office, he replied “That would certainly include the award of an honorary doctorate to Prof. Dr. Harald van Heerde, an excellent marketing professor whom I came to appreciate during a working visit to Australia. Also, the feeling of having achieved success in staff management, after lengthy negotiations. This provides a good starting position for the deanship of my successor Prof. Dr. Petra Steinorth, whom I wish every success."