Oliver Günther

Education

He holds a Diploma in Industrial Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, and M.S. (1985) and Ph.D. degrees (1987) in Computer Science (advisor: Eugene Wong) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Career

Before becoming assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 1988, Günther worked as a post-doc at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI). From 1989 to 1993, he worked at FAW Ulm (Forschungsinstitut für anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung). From 1993 until 2011 Günther was Professor of Information Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2006 until 2011 he also served as Dean of Humboldt's School of Business and Economics. He was elected president of the University of Potsdam effective 2012.

Günther's research includes enterprise information systems, IT strategy, and digital asset management. He has served as an associate editor for academic journals. He has held visiting faculty positions at the European School of Management and Technology, the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and the Pôle universitaire Léonard-de-Vinci, UCSB, and the University of Cape Town.

Günther has served as a consultant and board member to various government agencies and high-tech companies. He was chairman of the board of Poptel AGand chief technology officer of Teamtoolz, Inc., a San Francisco-based cloud service provider for the marketing and advertising industry. Commissioned by the German Ministry of the Interior, he currently coordinates the foundation of a business process library for the German public administration.

Honors

2014 Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa), American Jewish University, Los Angeles

2018 Member, German Academy of Science and Engineering acatech

2019 Fellow, German Informatics Society (GI)

Memberships and honorary offices

German Informatics Society (GI), member (since 1984), president (2012–2014)

Social Democratic Party of Germany, member (since 1985)

Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies (MMZ), chairman of the board of trustees

Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), member of the board of trustees

Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP), member of the board of trustees

Einstein Forum, member of the board of trustees

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP), member of the board of trustees

UP Transfer, chairman of the supervisory board

Rotary Club Berlin-Nord, member

Stiftung Werner-von-Siemens-Ring, deputy chairman of the board of trustees

Voltaire Prize, chairman of the jury

Weizenbaum Institute, member of the board of trustees

Innovation Award Berlin Brandenburg, chairman of the jury

Business Development Bank of the State of Brandenburg (IBB), member of the advisory council

Atlantik-Brücke, member

proBrandenburg e.V., vice chairman of the board

Selected works

O. Günther: Die diverse Universität: Gefahr für die Demokratie oder Garantin des Gemeinwohls?. Passagen Verlag, Wien 2025. ISBN 978-3-7092-0627-0.

O. Günther, S. Evdokimov, M. Fischmann: Provable Security for Outsourcing Database Operations. International Journal of Information Security and Privacy, 4(1), 2010.

O. Günther, B. Fabian: Security Challenges of the EPC Network. Communications of the ACM 52(7), 2009.

O. Günther, W. Kletti, U. Kubach: RFID in manufacturing. Springer, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-540-76453-3.

O. Günther, S. Spiekermann: RFID and the Perception of Control: The Consumer’s View. Communications of the ACM 48(9):73-76, 2005.

O. Günther, B. Berendt, S. Spiekermann: Privacy in E-Commerce: Stated Preferences vs. Actual Behavior. Communications of the ACM 48(4):101-106, 2005.

O. Günther, V. Gaede: Multidimensional Access Methods. ACM Computing Surveys 30(2), 1998.

O. Günther: Environmental information systems. Springer, Berlin 1998. ISBN 3-540-60926-1.