Wulff Plinke

Wulff Plinke is the founding dean of ESMT Berlin in Germany. From the outset of the school in 2002 he served as dean and managing director, building the school from scratch to one of the respected European business schools. Today, ESMT is “triple crown” accredited from AMBA, AACSB, and EQUIS. In 2011, Plinke retired from his office as a dean of ESMT Berlin and assumed responsibility as the chairman of the board of the Association of Friends of ESMT Berlin.

Wulff Plinke graduated in business administration from University of Cologne, Germany and received his doctoral degree in Business Administration from Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany. He attained his venia legendi (Habilitation) in business administration from Ruhr University of Bochum in 1981.

From 1981 to 1985, he was a professor of business administration at University of Hannover, Germany. From 1985 to 1993, he held the chair of Business Administration and Industrial Marketing Management at the Free University Berlin. From 1993 to 2008 he held the chair of Business Administration and Industrial Marketing Management at Humboldt University of Berlin. From 1993 to 1996, he also served as the dean of the School of Business and Economics at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Professor Plinke has acted as academic director and chief executive to the Institute of Management and Technology IMT Berlin and Universitätsseminar der Wirtschaft USW Schloss Gracht, both of which have been fully integrated into ESMT.

He has authored several books and numerous articles in the field of Industrial Marketing Management. His research interests cover business strategy in industrial markets, market-oriented management, relationship marketing, pricing in industrial markets, and market-based accounting.

In 2011, Professor Plinke has received the German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse), for outstanding services to the common good, in particular the founding and growth of the international business school ESMT. In 2015 he was (together with Klaus Backhaus, Bernd Erichson, Rolf Weiber) awarded Personality of the Year for their leading textbook "Multivariate Analysemethoden" (14th ed. 2015), by Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher e.V.

Professor Plinke has served as an appointed member and as chairman of the Board of Trustees Governors (Hochschulrat) of Universität Münster, Germany from 2008-2018. He is a regular member of both Academy of Sciences Berlin and Brandenburg and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). He has served as a member of the Board of the Kofi Annan Business Schools Foundation, The Hague, Netherlands, and as a member of the Committee of the EFMD Deans Across Frontiers program, Brussels.