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Jan Hendrik Schumann Elected New President of the University of Passau From April 2026

Professor Jan Hendrik Schumann will succeed President Professor Ulrich Bartosch on 1 April 2026. This was the decision of the University Council meeting on Thursday afternoon. The presidential term of office is six years.

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Professor Jan Hendrik Schumann

“I am delighted to have been elected president of the University of Passau and would like to thank the University Council, chaired by Professor Klaus Beckmann, for the trust they have placed in me”, said Schumann immediately after the election. “I would very much also like to thank the incumbent president, Professor Ulrich Bartosch, for his offer of a continuous and well-coordinated handover process, during which I can prepare myself to take over the office of president.” Schumann continued to say that he owes a great deal to the University and feels very close to its members, “and it is therefore a great honour for me to be able to lead the university and develop it further together and in close cooperation with all members and supporters. I can build on my many contacts and long experience at the university and will push forward with full commitment to further sharpen the university’s research profile. I am also very much looking forward to the new encounters and issues that I will be dedicating myself to as president.”

Chairman of the University Council, Professor Klaus Beckmann, said after the election: “On behalf of the University Council, I am delighted to congratulate Professor Jan Hendrik Schumann on his election win. This unanimous vote after a transparent process that spanned almost an entire year shows that Professor Schumann has the necessary backing within the university. In cooperation with the incumbent president, Ulrich Bartosch, Jan Hendrik Schumann as ‘president-elect’ and the university's governing bodies, we now have the opportunity to further focus the strategic orientation of our university. The University Council will do its utmost to help in this endeavour.”

President Professor Ulrich Bartosch said: “I warmly congratulate Mr Schumann on this great election result! We as the University Executive have succeeded in leading this university out of a divided mood and into a very strong sense of unity. The University Council has made a good decision that will enable the University of Passau to set out its long-term roadmap and lay the foundations for trustful cooperation in the University Executive for the coming 14 months. I am very pleased and grateful for that. I have already come to particularly appreciate Professor Jan Schumann as dean of the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems and have experienced, first-hand, his commitment with a holistic view of the entire university. I was happy to ask him to join the University Executive in 2023 and entrust him with the role of Vice President for Research. My remaining year in office will be characterised by a great willingness to work closely with the future president and to introduce him to existing and mature networks. I ask all members and friends of the university to support us in our joint efforts. The university is now entering a special phase that deserves every effort.”

Jan Hendrik Schumann holds the Chair of Marketing and Innovation at the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, where he served as vice dean and dean from 2018 to 2023. He has also been a member of the University Executive as Vice President for Research since April 2023. Before joining the University of Passau in 2012, he was a assistant professor at the TUM School of Management of the Technical University of Munich, where he earned his doctorate in 2009. His research focuses on digital marketing, digital business models, customer relationship management and service pricing. His research has been published in leading international journals in his field and has received numerous awards. In 2019, Professor Schumann won the prestigious Emerging Service Scholar Award of AMA SERVSIG – the Service Marketing Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association.

Professor Schumann is a long-standing, active member of several international specialist groups in his field of research, and he founded and headed the Service Marketing Special Interest Group of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) – which is now the largest European association of marketing researchers and serves as a platform connecting European researchers in this field. Professor Schumann is also a member of the review boards of several leading international scientific journals, such as the Journal of Service Research, and is a project leader in the DFG Research Training Group 2720: “Digital Platform Ecosystems” (DPE); moreover, he has been a member of the Centouris Institute’s management board since July 2012.

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Please address your enquiries regarding this press release to

Nicola Jacobi or Barbara Weinert
Phone: +49 851 509 ext. 1434 or 1450
communication@uni-passau.de

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