New ETH Zurich Secretary General announced
Katharina Poiger Ruloff will take over as ETH Zurich Secretary General from 1 October 2016. The Executive Board has announced her as the successor to the current Secretary General, Hugo Bretscher.
Hugo Bretscher will retire this autumn. Katharina Poiger Ruloff will be taking over his position as Secretary General of ETH Zurich. She has been on the President’s Staff and responsible for Strategy and Development since 2008.
The Secretary General oversees the operations of the Executive Board and the Conference of the Heads of Department. The position holder coordinates ETH Zurich’s activities in the ETH Domain, with the University of Zurich, and at the external page swissuniversities level (the university policy body that represents universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education). The Secretary General also manages the Legal Office.
Katharina Poiger Ruloff says she finds these cross-university perspectives inspiring, “The Secretary General supports the Executive Board and the President and helps to ensure that the ideas and needs in respect of teaching, research and knowledge transfer are efficiently implemented on both an organisational and administrative level.” Poiger Ruloff studied political science and has held various administrative and strategic roles in the President’s Staff, the Office for Faculty Affairs, Office of Research, and the Rector’s Staff since 1995.
Pragmatic reform of ETH’s organisational structure
Historian Hugo Bretscher joined ETH Zurich in 1988. As the former head of the Office for Faculty Affairs, he was appointed as ETH Zurich Secretary General in 2006. What Bretscher describes as the “pragmatic” 2007 reform of ETH Zurich’s organisational structure fell within his period of office. With this reform, ETH Zurich took an important step towards strategy-driven university management, and introduced the responsibilities of Executive Board members that still apply today.
The reform led to the President’s focus on strategic fields (professorships, policy, fundraising) and strengthening of the resources, personnel and finance sectors.
Another major set of events that fell within Hugo Bretscher’s term of office was the changes in the Swiss higher education system, which led to the creation of swissuniversities in January 2015. The ETH Zurich President represents ETH Zurich’s interests in the joint Rectors’ Conference of Swiss Higher Education Institutions.
“I value Hugo Bretscher as someone who supports and represents ETH Zurich with a great degree of dedication and institutional insight. As its institutional conscience, he has made considerable contributions that have had a very positive impact on ETH Zurich,” says ETH President Lino Guzzella.
“I am also looking forward to working with Katharina Poiger Ruloff. She has done outstanding work as head of the Strategy and Development Group. With her expertise, she is sure to continue to provide valuable services to ETH Zurich.”