The Center’s academic director Prof. Christof Miska welcomed the guests and led in an amusing way through the program. In a conversation with the honoree, they touched different stages and milestones of his career. Arnold’s career spanned over three locations of WU: the building at the “Währinger Park” during his diploma studies, the “Augasse” during most of his time as an employee and since 2013 the Campus WU.

His academic career started at the Marketing-Institute in 1983 where he wrote his dissertation about a “Heuristic decision model for the planning of the product portfolio” (1986). His internationalization happened through teaching “Verkehrslehre” consisting of the courses Export Techniques and International Marketing and participating as an university assistant in the AG Internationale Kontakte whose goal was to promote the internationalization of WU in the 1980s. His stays as visiting professor/scholar at the business colleges of the University of Kentucky (1990) and University of South Carolina (1995) and his involvement in WU’s first International MBA program as vice-director and lecturer directly resulted from this involvement in WU’s internationalization.

Events and developments such as the fall of the Iron Curtain, the completion of the European Single Market as well as the accelerating globalization and their implications for multinational firms aroused his research interest in the 1990s. Most of the more than 100 scientific publications addressed marketing and strategy issues in CEE and Europe but also the internationalization of firms in a globalized world. A journalist once described him pointedly as “documentarist” of the going east of Western firms. In his teaching he began to promote “experiential learning” formats, i.e. the combination of class work with field trips to CEE, as the ideal teaching method for international business. More than 60 field trips since 1996 with the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, the Master Class CEE and various Executive MBA groups have become hallmarks of his teaching style.

As director of the newly founded Competence Center for CEE in 2007 he was responsible for managing the CEE-related study programs Master Class CEE and JOSZEF. In the same year he launched with then Vice-Rector Prof. Barbara Schachermayer-Sporn the CEE Student Cercle^WU and with Manfred Berger the Grow East Congress series. In 2015 the Center’s mandate was expanded to emerging markets to showcase the broad research of WU in this area. Together with then Vice-Rector Prof. Edith Littich he led the efforts in creating Central Europe Connect (CEC), a joint certificate program with SGH Warsaw and EUBA Bratislava, as a successor of JOSZEF (2019). Being awarded the title of Adjunct Associate Professor of International Business Studies at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota (1998), and Honorary University Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest (2015) stand out among the academic honors Arnold received.

To the following panel discussion on “Bringing CEE closer to us” Arnold invited Prof. Sonia Ferencikova, EUBA Bratislava, em.Prof. Piotr Ploszajski, SGH Warsaw, Prof. Barbara Schachermayer-Sporn, WU, and Dr. Manfred Berger, Grow East Congress, to look back with him at joint projects and experiences. With Schachermayer-Sporn he raved about the enthusiastic mood at WU in the 2000s and the many new projects such as the alliance with an Austrian bank in launching the CEE Student Cercle^WU fueled by the “entrepreneurial university” motto of the Rector’s council under Prof. Christoph Badelt. With Piotr Ploszajski he shared his memories of jointly organized field trips to Warsaw from 1999 on and the big impact they had on the participants. Most of them had never been to Poland before and were fascinated by the efforts of local management to create and run successful firms.

Analyzing and discussing the transformation of the economy and businesses on site in CEE countries with academics, executives, and entrepreneurs was an unforgettable experience that led Arnold also to Bratislava where Sonia Ferencikova from EUBA became his key partner. Together they worked on research projects and visited with students the at this time popular shared service centers in Bratislava as well as the impressive plant of VW Bratislava. In the discussion Sonia also addressed the issue of brain drain of talents out of Slovakia not forgetting to refer to her own family where both daughters studied and then stayed abroad: “We Slovaks are the most successful exporters of talented children to the West”. Manfred Berger, the co-initiator of the Grow East Congress series, highlighted the original motivation for establishing the Congress: The exchange of experiences and best practices in CEE among businesses as well as the sharing of this knowledge with students and researchers were the driving forces of this initiative and Arnold a perfect academic partner. Even the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic could not stop the organizers. Switching within a week from an in-person to a pure online event due to a lockdown in 2020 was remembered as a key challenge.

Then students and graduates of the Master Class CEE paid tribute to Arnold’s achievements as program director since 2008. More than 30 field trips to CEE cities – only stopped by the pandemic for two years – provided the students insight into economic developments in the country and management challenges of local and foreign businesses as well as the obvious differences between CEE countries in their transition performance.

Afterwards, Christof Miska gave an outlook on the goals and key activities of the Center. He asked Dionisi Nikolov, successor of Arnold as a director, and Andrea Scheichl, assistant and coordinator of the MC CEE, to join him on the podium and introduce themselves.

Finally, Arnold concluded the program with his valedictory speech. Impressed by this journey into his past he emphasized how WU shaped his career and life – leading to the confession that he is a “WU man”.

Regarding lessons learned throughout his career he highlighted the following insights:

• Be passionate about what you do – it motivates you and is felt by the others.

• Being able to plan a career is a myth – follow your interests, skills, and heart.

• Building an academic career at a business school on regional expertise is risky – that might only work well in history and political sciences.

Coming to his future plans he told the audience that he will continue as a lecturer at WU and support the Center in selected projects.

He thanked the team at the Center for arranging this retirement event for him and expressed gratitude towards those who believed in him, entrusted him with diverse roles and supported him. He thanked all who cooperated with him and helped fulfilling the mandate of the Center, particularly his assistant Andrea Scheichl with whom he worked together for the last 18 years.