Honorary senators

Hans-Bernhard Bolza-Schünemann started as a machine designer at Koenig & Bauer AG in Würzburg in 1951. Just six years later, he joined the company's Management Board, initially as a deputy and then as a full member. He was Chairman of the Management Board for almost 25 years and moved to the company's Supervisory Board in 1995 at the end of his active career. There he prepared the merger of Koenig & Bauer AG with Albert-Frankenthal AG (1995) and KBA-Planeta AG (1998), thus creating the third-largest printing press manufacturer in the world.

The Würzburg industrialist, who also chaired the Würzburg-Schweinfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce and was President of the world's largest trade fair for printing and media, DRUPA in Düsseldorf, has registered over 200 patents. In his private life, he is interested in classical music.

In February 2000, the university made Bolza-Schünemann an honorary senator. He died in July 2010 at the age of 84.

Professor Dr Ding Liu, born in 1957, started as a teaching assistant in the Automatic Control Department at the Shaanxi Institute of Mechanical Engineering in Xi'an after studying industrial automation. After working in research and teaching, Liu received his doctorate in systems analysis from Jiao Tong University in Xi'an in December 1997. In September 2004, he became President of Xi'an University of Technology and still teaches there as a professor in the Faculty of Automation. His areas of specialisation include process control, system identification and intelligent control. Liu conducts research in the fields of complex non-linear system theory, robotics and artificial intelligence. He has received several awards for his work and has published numerous books and specialist articles.

Liu has been instrumental in promoting exchanges between Xi'an University of Technology and the Media University. He has been promoting the development and expansion of German-Chinese Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes at both universities since 1999.

In March 2008, Liu was made an honorary senator of the Media University.

Adolf I. Döpfert, born on 30 April 1919 in the Odenwald, is one of the outstanding entrepreneurs in the field of graphic engineering in Germany. In 1949, he and his partner Kurt Stahl founded Stahl GmbH & Co in Ludwigsburg. At that time, the graphic arts industry in Germany was at rock bottom. Many companies, especially bookbinderies, were cut off from their traditional machine and spare parts suppliers, which were located in East Germany.

Döpfert transformed his company from a supplier of folding machine spare parts into the world market leader in folding machine construction. With the takeover of the largest American folding machine manufacturer Baumfolder (Sidney/Ohio, USA) and the Vereinigte Buchbindereimaschinenfabriken (VBF) in Ingersheim, he turned the company into a producer of high-performance book production systems. He also developed the traditional Brehmer Buchbindereimaschinenwerk in Leipzig into a successful company.

In 1996, Döpfert was elected honorary senator by the senate of the then University of Print and Media.

At the beginning of 1999, Döpfert retired from active business life. In December 2001, he established the ADOLF I. DÖPFERT FOUNDATION for the training of engineers in the graphic arts industry. He died in August 2007 at the age of 88.

From 1987 until his retirement at the end of 2011, Dr Bernd Kobarg headed the DSV Group, which acts as a specialised solutions provider for the companies and associations of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe and is one of Germany's highest-turnover media companies, as Chairman of the Management Board.

Kobarg, who was born in 1945 in Plön (Holstein), began his professional career at the Kiel Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In 1973, the economics graduate obtained his doctorate at the University of Schleswig-Holstein and subsequently worked for PROGNOS AG in Basel and as a member of the management board of Süddeutscher Verlag in Munich before joining the DSV Group's management board in 1985.

Dr Bernd Kobarg, recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, is active in various offices and committees. From 1998 to 2011, he was Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland for Baden-Württemberg. In 2000, he was elected as the first Chairman of the University Council of the Hochschule der Medien. In this role, Kobarg worked intensively for the interests of the university for nine years - the maximum of three terms of office. In March 2009, Dr Bernd Kobarg was made an honorary senator of the university at a ceremony.

Bernhard Schreier, born in Heidelberg in 1954, began his mechanical engineering studies in 1975 in conjunction with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. In 1978, he started as an assistant to the assembly manager at the Wiesloch site. After several international management roles in the company, including five years as head of the Web Systems division in France, Schreier was appointed deputy member of the Management Board in July 1995. In November 1997, he became a full member of the Management Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and Head of the Prepress Business Unit. In April 1999, Schreier moved to Rochester (New York, USA) as Chief Operating Officer of Heidelberg Digital; from 1999 to 2012, he was Chairman of the Management Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

In November 2003, Schreier was made an honorary senator of the university.