Keynote Speakers
Prof Marius Ungerer
Emeritus Professor
Stellenbosch Business School
Academic Faculty: Strategic Management and Strategic Leadership
Prof Marius Ungerer is an academic from the Stellenbosch University Business School, South Africa.
He holds a DCom degree and an MBA degree from South African universities. He published 30 peer-reviewed articles and 13 business books.
Before joining the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) in April 2008, he worked on various assignments in different managerial and specialist roles in industries such as financial services, manufacturing, information technology, aviation, and education and training for more than
twenty-seven years. He is a Work Psychologist and Management Service Advisor and continues to do business consulting projects in the areas of strategy development and planning, leadership development, and team development interventions for both private sector and NGO institutions.
Marius was appointed at Stellenbosch Business School on April 1, 2008, as Associate Professor and was promoted to full Professor on July 1, 2017, where he is teaching strategic management, leadership and change management on programs such as the MBA, MPhil in Management Coaching and PGD in Leadership. He received Emeritus Professor status from the University of Stellenbosch on 1 January 2023. He continues as a part-time faculty member of Stellenbosch Business School with a teaching and research portfolio.
Since 2009 he has served as an annual visiting professor at the NUCB Graduate School’s International MBA Program, Nagoya, Japan until 2020, and was a visiting faculty member of the University of Johannesburg from 2011 to 2016 and in 2022. He has supervised nine completed PhDs and more
than 160 masters’ degrees. He received three Rector’s awards from Stellenbosch University for outstanding performance and the business school recognised him in 2017 with the “Most inspirational lecturer on the MBA “award. In 2018 and 2023 he received Research Excellence awards
in the category research outputs from the Vice-Rector Research, University of Stellenbosch.
He served as a non-executive director on a variety of companies such as Thuthukani Financial Services, Bergzicht Training, an NGO in Stellenbosch focusing on the development of under-employed people, Diacoustic, Bridgiot (Pty) Ltd, and Sharksafe Barriers (Pty) Ltd, all three venture companies of the University of Stellenbosch. He was a board member of Helderberg Outreach NGO, a community service organisation since July 2018 to August 2022. In May 2019, he joined the Board of Africa Sun Media, a media spinout company of the University of Stellenbosch, and was the chairperson until November 2022. In November 2022 he joined the Boards of BexGroup and the
Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust.
Marius married Ingrid in 1984 and they have two sons. Marius loves traveling and works permanently from Pringle Bay in the Cape Region.
Topic: Leadership in service of a better future.
Senior Lecturer, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Senior lecturer in the Leadership, Governance and People Management subject group at Leeds Business School. Doctoral studies were a Phenomenographic study of the variation is individual perceptions of values. Current teaching specialisms include the development of student employability skills and self awareness.
A firm belief that education should be a mix of both academic and personal competence (and confidence) development underpins Karen’s approach to teaching. Preparing students for the world of work means that they must have the knowledge and skills, and also the personal competences to be competitive and successful in an increasingly complex and competitive world. Karen’s aim in teaching is therefore to emphasise the practical application of knowledge, as well as the acquisition of knowledge and understanding.
This approach is built on a foundation of personal experience. A child of expatriate parents, Karen was born and grew up in Southern Africa. Independent from an early age, boarding school in the UK was her destination aged 11. A degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol led to 10 years working in manufacturing industry, initially as a graduate trainee and then in HR.
Self employment in the completely different field of personal image and developing assertiveness followed, alongside raising a young family. Then came a move to management consultancy, metaphorical juggling became a key skill, working full time and starting an MBA with three children under the age of 5.
Whilst working as a consultant, either as an employee, employed director or small business owner for a period of ten years, Karen completed the MBA as well as a PGCE teaching qualification. She also trained as an NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer and also as a life coach and executive coach; these qualifications were all applied within her business.
The next move was into education, working at the University Centre, Doncaster, initially developing the CMI qualifications, and developing programmes to support start up businesses, then leading the MBA programme and an MSc in HRM.
Moving to Leeds Beckett University in 2011, Karen has taught on a range of different courses and modules, particularly enjoying the times spent teaching in Southern Africa.
Karen’s background of rich experiences is all incorporated in her teaching. Passionate about working towards a more inclusive society, with greater tolerance and opportunities for all. Key learnings from her doctoral studies emphasise the value of experience, education, travel and collaboration in the development of open mindedness and tolerance.
Karen’s current teaching interests include supporting students in the development of their employment prospects, through working on their self awareness and their ability to reflect and learn from practical experience. Resilience, adaptability and a positive outlook are also important. Another exciting project is immersive learning experiences, setting up real life scenarios within which students can apply their knowledge of a subject in a simulated real context. Work using a ‘futures’ approach is also an interest, using a structured approach to predicting possible future scenarios, and using that process to support strategy decisions.
Participation in collaborative research on immersive learning and futures is keeping Karen busy
Topic Integrity Ethics and Values in the Pos-Covid-19
From December 2002 to June 2009, she was Junior Professor in Logistics Knowledge Management at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering there. After having represented a respective professorship in winter term 2008/09, Gaby Neumann became Professor on Engineering Logistics at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau in December 2009.
Since 1991, she also has been working as part-time consultant in material handling simulation, logistics planning and specification of professional competences in certain fields of logistics. Furthermore, she has been active in professional training and further qualification on logistics simulation, logistics knowledge management, e-learning in logistics and media development (also in an international context) since 2003.
Her current activities and research interests are mainly linked to fields like problem solving and knowledge management in logistics, logistics simulation and planning, and especially technology-based and problem-oriented logistics learning, didactics of teaching logistics as well as logistics competence profiling and assessment in an international context. Furthermore, she runs a physical Intralogistics Lab at TH Wildau where she particular focusses on ergonomics and inclusion in the logistics work environment to support companies (particularly SMEs) in becoming socially sustainable. She organises or co-organises workshops and conferences in these fields, is involved in international programme committees of various conferences, and has been or is being involved in a couple of respective research projects.
Gaby Neumann has been managing the Wildau contribution to the Joint Degree Master programme in Logistics and Supply Chain Management since 2013 (together with Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and Riga Technical University). Since 2021 she ha been coordinating the SCIEnC(e)4SuRe project for Strengthening Competences of Industrial Engineers in Cuba for Sustainability and Responsibility in Supply Chains (funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Collaboration and Development).
Gaby Neumann has widely published in those fields (27 books or book chapters, multimedia e-learning material, more than 110 publications in journals and conference proceedings) and regularly presents related research papers at national and international conferences (about 130 presentations).
- Professor Emeritus at Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
Geography at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in 2009. He was assistant professor in the department of “Landscape ecology” faculty of Geology and Geography at Sofia University. Since 2016, he holds a PhD in the field of Landscape ecology. He has participated in a number of research and applied projects, research committees and expert groups in state institutions, and is an author or co-author 42 scientific publications textbooks and other educational issues. The applicant’s main scientific activity is in the fields
of geochemistry of landscapes, anthropogenic landscape science, geoecological monitoring and conservation.