Board of Directors

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Christoph M. Schmidt, President
Christoph M. Schmidt has been President of RWI and Professor of Economic Policy and Applied Econometrics at Ruhr University Bochum since 2002. He studied economics at the University of Mannheim, received his his Ph.D. from Princeton University and the degree of Dr. rer. pol. habil. at the University of Munich. He was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts from 2009 to 2020 and its chairman from 2013 to 2020. From 2011 to 2013, he was a member of the Enquete Commission “Wachstum, Wohlstand, Lebensqualität” (Growth, Welfare, Quality of Live) of the German Bundestag. Since 2020, he has been Vice-President of acatech – Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften. Since 2014 he has been a member and since 2020 Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, since 2020 a member of the Expert Panel of the "Excellence Strategy", and since 2021 a member of the Supervisory Board of BMW AG. In 2016, he received the Gustav Stolper Prize of the "Verein für Socialpolitik", and in 2019 he received an honorary doctorate from Leibniz Universität Hannover. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has awarded the 2022 Innovation Prize in the "Honorary Award" category to Christoph M. Schmidt.

Prof. Dr. Thomas K. Bauer, Vice-President

Thomas Bauer is currently professor of economics at the University of Bochum (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). Since February 2004 he is Member of the Executive Board of RWI, since 2009 he is Vice-President. He studied economics at the University of Munich. In July 1997 he obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Munich. From 1997-1998 Thomas Bauer visited the Rutgers University, USA. In September 1998 he joined IZA as Senior Research Associate and became IZA Program Director in July 1999. From 2011 until 2019 he was member of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, from September 2016 until July 2019 he was chairman of the Council. Since May 2017 he is chairman of the Statistical Advisory Committee, which is acting as advisory board of the Federal Statistical Office (destatis).

Dr. Stefan Rumpf, Administrative Board Member

Stefan Rumpf studied Business Administration at the University of Trier. From 1998 to 2002 he was doctoral student and Managing Director of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 522 "Umwelt und Region“ (environment and region) at the University of Trier, where he also completed his dissertation on the topic of “Sustainability in skilled crafts and trades” in 2003. Subsequently he headed an ESF project on company succession in skilled crafts at the Trier Chamber of Crafts. Since January 2005 Stefan Rumpf has been an employee at RWI. Initially he was Managing Director of the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics (RGS Econ). Since December 2010 he is head of the department „Finance and Controlling" at RWI. From 2013 until September 2017 he was RWI’s Managing Director. In October 2017 Stefan Rumpf has become the Chief Administrative Director of RWI.

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schneider, Member of the extended Executive Board

Kerstin Schneider, Chair of Finance and Taxation at the University of Wuppertal, has been a member of RWI's extended Executive Board since February 2024. She completed her Master's degree in Economics at the University of Georgia in the USA in 1990 and received her Ph.D. in Economics there in 1993. From 1994 to 2000, Kerstin Schneider worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Public Finance of Prof Dr Wolfram F. Richter at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Dortmund. In 2001, she completed her habilitation at the University of Dortmund. From 2001 to 2004 she worked as an academic counsellor at the Chair of Public Finance at the University of Dortmund and from 2003 to 2004 as a substitute for the Chair of Finance and Taxation at the Department of Economics at the University of Wuppertal. Kerstin Schneider's research focusses in particular on the economics of education. At RWI, she drives the strategic development of the institute and contributes primarily to improving the institute's profile in the fields of economics of education and economic education.

Credit for the photo: Ralf Baumgarten

Staff

Daniela Flörchinger

Assistant to the Board of Directors
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-511
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-236
daniela.floerchinger@rwi-essen.de

Philipp Hiemann

Assistant to the Board of Directors
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-214
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-200
philipp.hiemann@rwi-essen.de

Dr. Gerhard Kussel

Coordinator of the Research Information System
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-214
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-236
gerhard.kussel@rwi-essen.de

Marianna Schmaus

Legal adviser to the Board of Directors
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-268
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-200
marianna.schmaus@rwi-essen.de

Wim Kösters

Associated Researcher, former Member of the Board of Directors
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-229
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-236
wim.koesters@rwi-essen.de

Helge Braun, PhD

RGS Econ, Managing Director
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-512
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-200
helge.braun@rwi-essen.de

Katharina Nowak-Mohr

Project assistant in the coordination office of the Ruhr Graduate School of Economics and Data Protection Officer
Tel.: +49 (0201) 8149-280
Fax: +49 (0201) 8149-200
katharina.nowak-mohr@rwi-essen.de