Steinbeis was saddened to learn of the passing of Hans Jobst Pleitner, who died in St. Gallen in July at the age of 89. With his lifelong devotion to academia, transfer and society, Pleitner was an inspiration for generations of Steinbeisers, students and researchers.
Hans Jobst Pleitner was born in Osnabrück in 1935. After training as an industrial management assistant at Siemens AG and its subsidiary Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, he went on to study business administration at the University of Münster and what was then the St. Gallen Business School, today’s University of St. Gallen. Once he had completed his degree, he decided to pursue a career in academia. He gained a PhD from St. Gallen in 1972 and obtained a post as a lecturer there in the same year. Three years later, he took over as interim director of the university’s Institute of Business Economy (IGW), now known as the Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen (KMU-HSG). He was subsequently appointed its director in 1980. Having qualified for a full professorship at the age of 45, he served as Professor of Business Administration specializing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at the University of St. Gallen between 1985 and 2000, remaining as director of KMU-HSG until 2002.
Hans Jobst Pleitner contributed significantly to the development of today’s Steinbeis University. As director of the IGW, and at a time when collaboration with Steinbeis was still unusual, he facilitated the St. Gallen Management Seminar in Germany and actively supported and shaped the development of Steinbeis University’s first project competence degrees. After retiring from his professorship at the University of St. Gallen in 2000, he became Professor of Entrepreneurial Management at Steinbeis University, remaining in this role until 2015.
In 2015, Steinbeis awarded Hans Jobst Pleitner the special prize of the Löhn Award – the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award – in recognition of his outstanding dedication to teaching and student supervision, his support in creating and developing Steinbeis University’s PhD program, and his lifetime contribution to knowledge transfer between academia and business, especially SMEs. His principled, highly successful contributions to academia, business and society, his deep humanity, and his sincerity as a colleague will never be forgotten.
We would like to express our deepest sympathy to his wife and relatives.
Michael Auer | Manfred Mattulat
Steinbeis Board of Directors