ZEW Executive Director Ernst-O. Schulze Celebrates 40 Years of Service

On 25 May 2004, Ernst-O. Schulze, executive director of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, will be celebrating 40 years of his professional service.

Over the course of his long career, Schulze, who lives in Bruchsal, has served in many positions within Baden-Württemberg. His most considerable contributions in recent years have been to the development of both ZEW and the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg.

Since assuming the role of executive director on the board of directors of the newly founded ZEW in late 1990, Schulze has dedicated himself to working alongside the ZEW President and Scientific Director towards the goal of making ZEW one of the leading economic research institutes in Germany. ZEW’s imminent acceptance onto the “Blue List” of research institutions receiving federal and regional government funding on 1 January 2005 is a testament to the success of their efforts.

Schulze has been no less dedicated to the development of the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. He served as executive director of the academy, which was founded parallel to ZEW, until 1997 as well as executive director of the Society for Cultural and Scientific Funding Baden-Württemberg (GKW) which acted as the parent company of both ZEW and the Film Academy in the early stages of their development. After the GKW was merged with ZEW in 1997 and the Film Academy became a separate legal entity, Schulze was able to focus exclusively on the development of ZEW.

Schulze studied business administration and education at the University of Frankfurt and the University of Mannheim and qualified as a business teacher. He then went on to teach for many years at the Akademie für Datenverarbeitung und Organisation in Böblingen. In 1974, he took over a position in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture, where he was responsible for the planning and deployment of IT in higher education institutions across the region. In 1978, he was appointed executive director of the Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe, where he remained until late 1990 when he became executive director of the Film Academy, GKW and ZEW.