The title of Honorary Senator was bestowed upon Friedrich Rödler at a formal ceremony in recognition of his service to WU. Aside from purely academic distinctions, the title of Honorary Senator is the highest honor awarded by WU. In her words of welcome, WU Rector Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger thanked Friedrich Rödler for his support and dedication. “WU stands for excellent research and teaching and contributes to the development of future-oriented, sustainable thinking and social responsibility in business and economics. As a public university operating on a limited budget, we are very grateful for the financial support Friedrich Rödler has secured for WU’s research and teaching activities,” said Rector Hanappi-Egger, who praised Friedrich Rödler’s valuable contributions to WU’s strong development over the years. Bringing together research and practice In his laudatory speech, Michael Lang, Vice-Rector for Human Resources, highlighted WU’s many years of fruitful cooperation with Friedrich Rödler. “In his capacity as Erste Group’s supervisory board chairman, Friedrich Rödler took important steps to further strengthen the close ties that had already existed between WU and Erste Group for a long time. WU’s new Honorary Senator was in close contact with numerous WU researchers even during his time as an auditor and tax consultant, and has always been willing to share his expertise and rich experience with WU’s students. In his various roles and functions, he has always been working to bring together academic research, teaching, and business practice, and he has supported numerous successful research projects to which he also contributed his expertise as a distinguished specialist in his field. The best example to illustrate this work is his series of seminars on European and international tax law, which has been running for 10 years now. By naming Friedrich Rödler Honorary Senator, WU honors a friend who has been providing valuable support to the university for many years.”

Friedrich Rödler: “You can’t summarize the economy in 140 characters” “I accept this honor in the name of all those who keep insisting that business is fundamental to our prosperity and the welfare state we live in. Value needs to be created before it can be distributed. You can’t summarize the way the economy works in 140 characters. The fact that Austria has been losing ground in many international business environment rankings for years now is partly due to the public’s general lack of awareness of how the economy works. Since its foundation, WU has been working tirelessly to strengthen this awareness. However, this has only been possible because WU has joined forces with strong partner institutions that are also working to make people understand that the economy is not an amusement park. For Erste Group, WU is the university of choice when it comes to recruiting graduates from the region, a competent partner in the field of executive education, and the leading university in the CEE region, certified to meet high international standards,” Friedrich Rödler said during the ceremony. He said that as someone who had spent his entire career working in business, he felt that supporting WU was a “matter of course.” “This honor, however, is definitely not a matter of course for me, and it’s a great pleasure for me to receive it,” said Mr. Rödler.