Zeppelin University Awards Honorary Professorship to Dr. Jens Meier

Friedrichshafen. The Senate of Zeppelin University (ZU) has bestowed the rare honor of Honorary Professorship upon Dr. Jens Meier, CEO of the Stadtwerke Lübeck Group. This recognition honors Meier’s many years of dedicated service as a lecturer at ZU and his exceptional contributions to applying scientific knowledge in professional practice.

"Teaching at colleges and universities has always been important to me. For me, this means constantly reflecting on my own work in the critical light of current findings while also considering how to inspire students and convey to them what is truly important in practice. Germany faces a multitude of challenges—not least when it comes to sustainable public services and digital transformation. It is therefore a matter close to my heart to inspire and attract young people to the major municipal tasks," Meier commented on the award.

Jens Meier began his academic career in 2004 by studying business administration at Friedrich-Alexander University of Nuremberg-Erlangen, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration. In 2014, while working full-time, he earned his doctorate at the Chair of Controlling and Corporate Accounting at the Technical University of Dortmund with a dissertation on the topic "Valuation of Energy Distribution Networks in the Event of a Concession Transfer." Jens Meier gained his first management experience at the E.ON Group. After holding several senior management positions at rhenag Rheinische Energie AG in Cologne and Siegburg, he joined the Stadtwerke Lübeck Group in 2017.

Jens Meier is the founder and a board member of the EnergieCluster Digitales Lübeck association, chairman of the Digitalization Committee of the VKU – Association of Municipal Enterprises, and a member of various supervisory boards. In the summer of 2025, he launched the "CEO of the Future" program together with Professor Dr. Friedemann Schulz von Thun. He has remained connected to academia not only through numerous publications and lectures. For years, he has been a lecturer at ZU and a member of the Expert Commission on the German Public Corporate Governance Model Code (D-PCGM), led by ZU professor and public management researcher Ulf Papenfuß. Jens Meier also co-initiated the optional specialization "Municipal Economy" in the Master of Arts in Public Management together with Ulf Papenfuß and was able to secure the VKU – Association of Municipal Enterprises e.V. as a cooperation partner for the master’s program.

"Jens Meier is a tremendous asset to Zeppelin University. His courses have been consistently rated very positively by students and have made important substantive and structural contributions to further developing the curriculum for various degree programs and making it even more attractive," says ZU President Professor Dr. Anja Achtziger. And as the academic program director of the Master’s program in Public Management, Professor Dr. Ulf Papenfuß adds: "The newly created Honorary Professorship held by Jens Meier is an outstanding asset for our innovative curriculum, the development of our students, and our research. Complex challenges often require the collaboration of academia and practice to realize innovative research approaches and strong contributions to problem-solving."

Jens Meier will deliver his inaugural lecture on the topic "Municipal Public Services as a Pillar of Democracy: Perspectives for Shaping the Future, as well as Research and Teaching" on Thursday, September 10, in the lead-up to the 8th ZU|kunftssalon Public Corporate Governance at ZU.

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Honored with an Honorary Professorship: Dr. Jens Meier, head of Stadtwerke and long-time ZU lecturer. (Photo: SWL/Leevke Draack)