Staff

Prof. Dr. Fotis Papageorgiou is Professor of Social Sciences at GISMA and serves as the University’s Vice President (Academic). He completed his studies in Psychology, Philosophy and Politics in Greece (Panteion University) and the United Kingdom (Essex University) and is a licensed psychologist. In parallel to lecturing, he’s held senior management posts in Higher Education.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoudreza Babaei (Reza) is a Professor of Data Engineering at GISMA University of Applied Sciences. At GISMA he teaches both Data Engineering and Computer Science programs. Prior to joining GISMA, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Center of Human & Machine (CHM) department with Prof. Iyad Rahwan at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) in the Social Computing Research group with Prof. Krishna P. Gummadi. His research focuses on Social Networks, Data Mining, Graph Theory, Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Reinforcement Learning (RL). Outcomes of his studies include consistent publications in highly competitive international conferences (e.g., ACM WSDM, AAAI, IJCAI, AAAI ICWSM, AAAI/ACM AIES, ACM FaccT) and journals (e.g., IEEE Trans. on Comp. Soc. Sys. and IEEE Trans. On Knowledge and Data Eng.)

Dr. Mohammad joined GISMA in February 2021. Dr. Mohammad received his PhD from TU Berlin, where he was researching semi-supervised data cleaning approaches. Prior to coming to TU Berlin, he was a data scientist at HomaPlus. He earned his MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Tehran and his BSc degree in Computer Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. He published a couple of research papers, most notably, two papers on his data cleaning systems, namely Raha and Baran. He also received the ACM SIGMOD most reproducible paper award for implementing and releasing these systems.

Prof. Dr. Peter Konhäusner, Professor of Digital Entrepreneurship, at GISMA Business School University of Applied Sciences. By profession, he is a consultant and managing partner in a PR & marketing company in Berlin. Having been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years, he now enjoys transferring practical experiences to students through presenting interesting methods and theories. Dr. Konhäusner’s main research topics include entrepreneurship and business administration, marketing as well as digitisation. Besides teaching, reviewing exams and supervising bachelor and master theses, Dr. Konhäusner works as an independent consultant internationally. Especially assisting start-ups and SMEs in growing more prominent, finding the right marketing strategy and overcoming difficult times. Being a managing partner in the PR & marketing agency BC Communication enables Dr. Konhäusner to put his extensive expertise in a corporate context to work, as the agency’s main topics include crowdfunding campaigns and digitization of companies. The small team works together with many expert freelancers who are hired on an on-demand basis. Before teaching, the GISMA Professor finished his studies at the Economics and Business Administration University in Vienna as well as at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, and ran a media publishing house for over 15 years.

Prof. Dr. Phungmayo Horam is a resource economist, and his work focuses on the application of economics and management science for providing solutions for sustainable business practice and innovation. He completed his PhD at Humboldt University Berlin and has several years of experience in designing sustainable cities for the Future-Megacities project sponsored by BMBF and advisory work for technology and knowledge transfers in India, Germany and the UK. He takes great pleasure in working with students and sharing his experience to develop independent and innovative thinking. In his free time, he enjoys playing badminton, cycling and facilitating discussions on a sustainable future through various formal and informal forums.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Frank is a Professor of Organisational Transformation at GISMA. He started his professional career in Marketing and Business Development at Case International Harvester in 1992. He has been Managing Director and Secretary General of DVFA, German Society of Investment Professionals and a renowned training school for investors and financial analysts in Frankfurt, for more than 15 years. Dr. Frank has extensive experience in organisational transformation, sustainability and digitalisation. Dr. Frank received his Doctorate of Business Administration from Universität Hamburg. He holds an MBA from Sheffield Hallam University, and an MA in English, Communicational Sciences and Politics from Universität Essen. He is a trained Systemic Therapist & Consultant.

Prof. Dr. Renata Thiébaut, Professor of Marketing at GISMA University of Applied Sciences is an experienced professional with a renowned academic background. Skilled in E-commerce, digital marketing and digitalisation, she has worked in the private and public sectors, with the likes of Amazon, Alibaba, and the United Nations, in multiple countries and continents. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Thiébaut worked at Harvard university as a Researcher. The GISMA professor’s education history shares a similar regard, with an undergraduate degree awarded in Brazil, followed by an MA and a PhD awarded during her time in China. Her global academic excellence, along with her multi-sector professional accolades, makes her the perfect fit for GISMA. Her expertise in e-commerce, live-commerce, digital strategy and transformation within multinational teams is pioneering the way for the future of marketing.

Prof. Dr. Sara Ravan Ramzani joined GISMA in October 2022. Sara has several years of experience as a principal lecturer, programme team leader and postgraduate director at international universities in Berlin, Malaysia and Singapore. Sara teaches on a variety of modules in the areas of management, business and accounting. She studied at University Putra Malaysia, where she received her PhD in Economics and Information Systems in 2015. Sara has published 89 papers to date and received the ‘Best Innovative Paper Award’ from the Sydney International Business Research Conference in 2018. She has published several articles on financial economics, monetary economics, marketing, HR and business management. Sara is also the Chief Executive Editor of the Journal of Development Economics, Horizon Journals from 2019 -2024. She has led and collaborated in various international research projects, notably from the United Nations, Measuring Up 2.0 (SDG 9 & SDG 16). Sara has supervised 24 Ph.D. students, primarily in the fields of project management, business, and finance. In her personal life, Sara is passionate about badminton, taking long walks, food and hiking around the Scottish Highlands.

Tilmann Lindberg studied management at Hohenheim University in Stuttgart as well as at the University of Potsdam, where he also completed his PhD on business creativity and design. He held a PhD scholarship from the Hasso Plattner Institute in the field of design thinking research. After completing his PhD, he moved to Ghana where he joined as a lecturer the faculty of Lancaster University’s Ghana branch campus in its foundational years, being involved in building up the business studies program and the Lancaster University Ghana business department. During this time, Tilmann gained specific interest in the management education of international students, especially with a focus on developing countries. After his return to Germany, he worked for a group of family companies in Hamburg. In 2020, he joined SRH Berlin University of Applied Science as Professor for International Business Administration and was entrusted with the academic build-up of SRH’s newly founded Campus in Hamburg. In January 2022, Tilmann relocated to the Berlin-Brandenburg area working now as Professor for International Business Management at GISMA Business School in Potsdam.