Meet our team

Our team members are available to support you during your time at Lancaster University Leipzig and beyond

Our team

Prof Dr Constantin Blome - Academic Dean / Rektor

Prof Blome is Academic Dean / Rektor of Lancaster University Leipzig since September 2022. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Prof Blome's research interests include supply chain management, procurement and operations management with strong focus on sustainability, innovation and risk issues. In 2020 and 2021, he received the highly cited research award from Clarivate in the category "cross field", highlighting the top 0,1% cited scholars. Prof Blome is regular keynote speaker at academic and practitioner conferences. His research won several prestigious awards. He is also co-owner and board member of two companies (n-side, Belgium, and Procurence, Poland). Overall, Prof Blome raised more than 5 million Euro research funding with a strong focus on industry funding.

In earlier years, Prof Blome was Associate Dean of Research, Head of the Management Group and Professor of Operations Management at the University of Sussex Business School where he was also responsible for the REF position. Before Prof Blome was the GlaxoSmithKline Chaired Professor in Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at UCLouvain, Belgium and affiliated with the Center of Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE). Today he still works part-time as Kronos Group Endowed Chair at UCLouvain/CORE.

Before that, he was supply chain consultant in Switzerland, assistant professor at EBS Business School, Germany, visiting scholar at IIM Bangalore, India. During his career he lectured and pursued research at institutions in the US, Canada, India, China, France, Belgium, Thailand etc.

Dr Elisabeth Grindel-Denby - Campus Director / Kanzlerin

T: +49 173 6720311

Dr Grindel-Denby experienced teaching / lecturing, learning and working in both the German and the British HE sector, focussing especially on working with international students: as Adjunct Lecturer at Potsdam University and Lancaster University, UK, as Academic Director at Kaplan International Colleges (Nottingham Trent International College), as Director Academic Affairs and Head of Campus Berlin at GISMA Business School, and since August 2019 as Campus Director / Kanzlerin at Lancaster University Leipzig.

Originally from Saxony, she obtained her degree at Potsdam University and her PhD at Lancaster University. Dr Grindel-Denby’s doctoral studies focused on international students and their families making home in the UK. She researched international student’s learning and teaching strategies, and positions this knowledge in the field of Migration Sociology. Her research interests are in the field of Transnational Education (TNE) as well as diversity, inclusivity and intersectionality. She published two books and several other contributions

. Currently, she also acts as Co-Chairwoman of the Expert Group ‘Education’ of the British Chamber of Commerce Germany (BCCG).

Dr Fabio Papacchini - Head of Computer Science Department, Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Dr Papacchini is Assistant Professor in Computing at Lancaster University Leipzig in Germany. He worked on several research projects at the University of Liverpool, after receiving his PhD and a Doctoral Prize fellowship from the University of Manchester. His main research is in the area of non-classical logics in computer science. In order to understand the expressive power, limitations and practical uses of those logics, his research interests include knowledge representation, automated reasoning, and model theory.

Dr Aakash Ahmad - Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering

Dr Ahmad is working as Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University Leipzig, Germany. He is also acting as a Technical Consultant for TeraBluIoT that focuses on engineering and development of Internet of Things based Systems. He has received his Ph.D. in Software Engineering from School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His teaching and research expertise are in the area of software engineering with its application to mobile and internet of things systems for smart systems and infrastructures. Recently, he has received funding worth 50000 US Dollars for research on engineering smart systems and software in the context of IoTs.

Dr Amna Asif - Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Dr Asif is working as Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Lancaster University Leipzig in Germany. She has attained her PhD degree from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany. Before joining Lancaster University Leipzig in Germany, she worked as an Assistant Professor with the Department of Information Systems in the College of Computer Sciences and Information Technology at King Faisal University, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia. Being a part of the university faculty, she is actively involved in teaching and research activities. Her research interests are in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction, Image processing, and Artificial Intelligence. She has participated in many small and medium-funded research projects.

Dr Jiejun Hu - Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Dr Hu is Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Lancaster University Leipzig. She received her Ph.D. and MSc in the School of Computer Science and Technology from Jilin University, China, in 2019 and 2015, respectively. She was a senior research officer in the University of Essex, UK. Then, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Max-Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany. Her research focuses on incentive mechanisms design and game theory in various scenarios, such as the Internet of Things, Mobile CrowdSensing, software-defined networks, blockchain, and digital contact tracing systems.

Dr Marco Caminati - Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Dr Caminati is Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Lancaster University’s campus in Leipzig, Germany. He previously worked within the Schools of Computer Science of University of St Andrews and of University of Birmingham, and was awarded a Rutherford Fellowship at Health Data Research (HDRUK).
Marco obtained a PhD in Mathematics from Sapienza University of Rome, after a Master’s degree in Physics from University of Bologna, Italy. His main research interests are formal methods, computational logic, automated theorem proving, and their use to specify, implement and formally verify computer systems. He has applied his research to digital health and to mechanism design.

Dr James Stovold - Assistant Professor in Computer Science

Dr Stovold is Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Lancaster University Leipzig. He completed his MEng and PhD in Computer Science at University of York. After returning to academia from industry in 2017, he worked at Swansea University and University of York before joining LU Leipzig in 2022. His research interests centre around emergent intelligence, distributed cognition, artificial life, and swarm robotics.

Dr Thomas Schmid - Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Thomas Schmid is a Lecturer in Computing and founding member of the Leipzig School of Computing and Communications (LZSCC). He joined from the computing department of Leipzig University, where he served as scientific staff and received his PhD in computer science. His academic research focuses on machine learning and data science as well as their use in biomedical applications.

Dr David Georg Reichelt - Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering

Dr Reichelt is Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Lancaster University Leipzig.. He joined from the computing center of Leipzig University, where he served as scientific staff. His main research interest is in the field of software performance engineering, where is examines how to identify and understand performance changes that happen during the software development lifecycle.

Prof Neeraj Suri - Distinguished Professor & Chair in Cyber Security, Lancaster University

Visiting Professor, Lancaster University Leipzig

Prof Suri holds the Distinguished Professorship and Chair in Cybersecurity at Lancaster University where he co-directs the university-wide Security Institute. Suri previously held the Chair Professorship on “Dependable Systems & Software” at TU Darmstadt, Germany. Following his PhD at UMass-Amherst, he has held positions at AlliedSignal/Honeywell Research, Boston Univ, Saab Endowed Chair Professorship, multiple sabbaticals at Microsoft Research, and visiting positions at the Univ of Texas at Austin, Academia Sincia, PolyU Hong Kong and Technion.

Dr Phillip Benachour - Senior Teaching Fellow, Lancaster University

Visiting Scholar, Lancaster University Leipzig

Dr Benachour's current research interests and topics relate to the use of technology to understand and support learning. The topics Dr Benachour is working on fit within the broad area of Technology Enhanced Learning. He is currently working on the following areas:

-How Is Knowledge (co-) constructed in a MOOC learning context?

-Design and Adoption of Blended Learning in West Africa.

-The use of Time Series Data in Learning analytics: Open Learning and MOOCs.

Dr Renfred Wong - Head of Management Department, Associate Professor in Accounting and Finance

Dr Wong graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto; he also holds an MBA at McGill University and a PhD in non financial reporting and accountability at University of Bath. He worked in various capacities in the public sector and the not for profit sector before joining academia.

Dr Wong's first full time academic post was at University of Bath. He then moved onto Oxford Brookes University, Coventry University and Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University in China. His teaching portfolio covers mostly financial accounting and auditing across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Dr Najam Anjum - Assistant Professor in Management Science

Dr Anjum is Assistant Professor in Management Science at Lancaster University Leipzig. He specializes in areas of Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Entrepreneurship. Dr Anjum's research interests mainly lie at the intersection of Technology and Sustainable Management. He is also fond of the Distributed Ledger Technology and likes to explore the application of this technology to ensure Social Sustainability in Global Supply Chains.

Dr Anirban Ash - Assistant Professor in Accounting and Finances

Dr Ash teaches modules on Accounting & Finance, Entrepreneurship and Strategy. He comes from a Strategy Consulting and Investment Banking background, and has over 14 years of industry experience with different firms in Denmark, Germany, India, and the U.K. Before embarking on his academic journey, he worked for a leading multinational Swiss Investment bank in London (UK). In 2017, he co-founded The Venturians ApS in Denmark which is a start-up working in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and has been running the firm successfully.

Dr Ash wrote his doctoral thesis on “The evolution of trust in Investment bank(er)-client relationship – a Mergers & Acquisitions perspective” and received his Ph.D. in Business and Economics from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management (Germany). He also holds an MSc in Advanced Marketing Management from Lancaster University Management School (U.K), an MBA from ICFAI University (India), and a Diploma in International Business Management (specialising in Corporate Finance) from St. Mary’s University College London (U.K.).

He was nominated for Heribert Meffert Best Researcher Award and was awarded Friede Springer Stiftung in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Dr Ash is a member of the prestigious Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) Group and has the experience of supervising over 20 company-based MSc/MA dissertations and Undergraduate Consulting projects.

Dr Benjamin Hammer - Assistant Professor in Accounting and Finance

Dr Hammer is Assistant Professor in Accounting and Finance at Lancaster University Leipzig. He joined from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management where he served as Assistant Professor of Finance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Transactions & Private Equity (CCTPE). Dr Hammer's research focuses on private equity and has been published in highly-ranked outlets such as the Journal of Corporate Finance. His research was recognised with the Larry Lang Corporate Finance Best Paper Award at the EFMA Annual Meeting and the BAI award for excellent dissertations in the field of alternative investments. At HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Dr Hammer was honoured as Best Lecturer in 2018 and obtained a Beta Gamma Sigma Scholarship as well as the HHL Research Award. He also taught at Kuehne Logistics University (Hamburg, Germany) and conducted research at Concordia University (Montréal, Canada) as well as Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, USA).Dr Hammer studied at Tulane University (New Orleans, USA) and HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (“Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”). He completed his PhD in finance with distinction in 2017. Prior to his time in academia, Dr Hammer worked in consulting and investment banking.

Dr Neha Jindal - Assistant Professor in Economics

Dr Jindal is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Lancaster University Leipzig in Germany. Prior to this, she worked for three years as a Teaching Associate in Economics at the home campus of Lancaster University in the UK.

She received a PhD in Economics in 2018 from the University of Kent and her thesis mainly focused on understanding the role of geographical and sectoral mobility in bringing up new economic opportunities,

Dr Anton Siebert - Assistant Professor in Marketing

Dr Siebert is Assistant Professor in Marketing at Lancaster University in Leipzig, Germany. He earned his PhD at Newcastle University, UK.

Dr Siebert examines experiential and social issues in marketing, spanning the fields of brands and branding, customer experience management, and digital marketing. His research has been published in leading business journals, such as Harvard Business Review and Journal of Marketing.

His article on customer journey design won the American Marketing Association's Hunt/Maynard Award for the most significant contribution to marketing theory in the Journal of Marketing and the Sidney J. Levy Award for the best Consumer Culture Theory oriented dissertation article in 2020. Anton’s work has been featured by, among others, Fast Company, Marketing News, and Success League Radio.

Dr Siebert currently teaches Introduction to Marketing, Marketing Fundamentals, Customer Journey Design, and Social Media Marketing. Prior to his academic career, he worked in the finance and media industries.

Colin Kay - Programme Lead for Pathway Programmes - Business

Colin Kay is Lecturer and Programme Lead for Pathway Programmes - Business. Colin Kay joined Lancaster University Leipzig in September 2021. He holds a BA (Hons) in Business Management, a PGCE, and an MBA, and has experience working in marketing, recruitment, small business advising and mentoring, and teaching and leading in international high schools. He is completing his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in conjunction with Universität Tübingen, exploring the relationships between individual learning patterns and entrepreneurial intention in non-formal educational settings. Colin Kay is an experiential education advocate, and his wider research interests lie in the psychological factors that influence educational, entrepreneurial, and marketing contexts.

Dr Philipp Hunnekuhl - Subject Lead Skills and Languages

Dr Hunnekuhl is the author of a monograph entitled Henry Crabb Robinson: Romantic Comparatist, 1790–1811 (Liverpool UP, 2020); editor of The Early Diaries of Henry Crabb Robinson (Oxford UP, forthcoming); assistant editor of The Hazlitt Review; and has published widely on English and continental European literature from the eighteenth century to the present.

Dr Hunnkuhl holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London, an MSc (with Distinction) from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA (First Class) from the University of Hull. Between 2015 and 2020, he was first a postdoctoral fellow (principal investigator) of the German Research Foundation, and then guest professor of English, at the University of Hamburg. Dr Hunnekuhl has taught British literature and culture across all periods and genres at the Universities of London, Hamburg, Erfurt, and Leipzig. His main research interests are Romantic literature, the East End of London, and the relationship between literature and code.

Management

Melissa Bejjani – Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Economics / Adjunct Lecturer in Economics

Melissa Bejjani is completing her PhD at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena within the graduate programme “The Economic Impact of Digital Transformation”. After her studies in international business management in Lebanon, she completed her joint international master’s degree in Sustainable Development at the University of Leipzig and at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz. She is a certified personal development trainer for young people and has facilitated seminars for leadership development. Aside from her work experience in the financial technology sector, she consults start-ups and organises workshops on education for sustainable development.

Ross Anthony Drapalski - Adjunct Lecturer in Accounting and Finance

Ross Drapalski, born in New York, USA, is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Lancaster University campus in the Accounting and Finance programme. He is a research associate and in the doctoral programme of the Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL) with a focus on financial management and banking and private equity and corporate transactions.

Ross Drapalski holds degrees from the University of North Texas (2010, 2012). He is a licensed (North Carolina, USA) Certified Public Accountant and holds the Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Internal Auditor designation.

He is currently working at the global media, education, and business services company Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in legal, integrity and compliance. He has worked for over 11 years in areas including internal audit, controlling, M&A, taxation, and global tax strategy.

Dr Simon Fritzsch - Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Quantitative Methods

Dr Fritzsch joined Lancaster University Leipzig in January 2022 as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Quantitative Methods. He studied Business Mathematics (diploma), Economics and Management Science (B.Sc.) and Management Science (M.Sc. with a major in Banking, Insurance and Investment Management), and in 2022 received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Leipzig University over research on the application of Machine Learning in risk management, option pricing and insurance economics. After having worked as a data scientist in the power industry, Dr Fritzsch is now employed as research assistant at Leipzig University. His teaching experience covers courses on Linear Algebra, Computational Finance, Quantitative Risk Management and Mathematics for Business Administration and Economics.

Computer Science and Communication Systems

Fleming Schmidt-Skipiol – Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Mathematics and Computer Science

Fleming Schmidt-Skipiol joined Lancaster University Leipzig in January 2021 as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Foundation Pathway Programmes for Mathematics for Computer Science. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Leipzig, where he gained several years of teaching experience as a lecturer of Mathematics for Economists. He specialises in probability theory and his fields of research include stochastic optimisation algorithms and their application in the context of Machine Learning.

Martin Czygan – Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Computing and Programming Fundamentals

Martin Czygan studied computer science and literature at Leipzig University and has worked as a software engineer for over fifteen years. In the past he co-authored a book on data analysis with Python, did consulting for global fortune 50 and other companies, and contributed to open source projects. He has gained teaching experience at Leipzig University, in community initiatives and by designing and conducting training on programming topics for a wide range of audiences.

Sebastian Ernst - Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Computing and Programming Fundamentals

Sebastian M. Ernst is a self-employed free scientist without specialisation. He has more than one and a half decades of experience in various scientific disciplines, related to data analysis & computing from embedded systems to super computers (high-performance computing) as well as the development of instrumentation (hardware & sensors). A lot of his work has evolved around geophysics, [aero-] space engineering and related disciplines. He is the proud owner of actual self-made space junk. His software runs on satellites, steers telescopes, is involved in trading and helps to compute the behaviour of power grids, among other current and past projects.

English Language and Skills

Margot Hrabak - Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Academic English and Skills

For the past 7 years, Margot Hrabak has been teaching English and French all over the world, all ages, and all levels. Of Czech and Swiss origins, she was born in South Carolina. She has a Bachelor's degree in Theatre and a Master's degree in Cinematography, which she obtained at the Université Stendhal in France. She later became a certified teacher in Geneva. Afterwards, she moved to Thailand, where she taught both at Piriyalai High School and Anuban Phayao. The next step of her journey brought her to Australia, where she taught at Navitas Brisbane. She, then, decided to move to Germany where she has been working at numerous language schools and Leipzig University. She joined Lancaster University Leipzig when the campus opened in January 2020.

Mark Martin - Adjunct Lecturer in the Pathway Programmes for Academic English and Skills

Mark Martin was born and raised in Texas in the US, where he received his BA from the University of Texas at Arlington. He then studied in the graduate programme in Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, followed by a year at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel as a Fulbright scholar. He completed his Master of Divinity degree at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas.

Mark has extensive experience teaching English on all levels in Leipzig, Saxony, and in Thuringia, having taught students from teenage years to senior citizens in educational, corporate and other business settings, also coaching managing directors and professors. He has also been active for decades in translating and proofreading texts of all kinds for business, research, and university settings.

German Language

Simone Grosser - Adjunct Lecturer for German A1

Simone Grosser joined Lancaster University Leipzig as a German lecturer in February 2021 after having worked as a Teaching Assistant for German as a foreign language at Carleton University (Canada) and at Toorak College Mount Eliza (Australia) as well as a Lecturer for German at Studienkolleg Sachsen at the University of Leipzig (2017 until present). She holds a Master’s degree in German as a Foreign and Second Language from the University of Leipzig. Simone Grosser has a special interest in contrastive linguistics and pragmatics. One of her main goals of teaching is to create a comfortable learning environment for students and to benefit from foreign language acquisition research in order to develop students’ language proficiency in the most effective way.

Barbara Osnowski - Adjunct Lecturer for German A2

Barbara Osnowski has been teaching German in various international settings since 2004 for all ages and levels. Born and raised in East Germany, she studied French, Spanish and Russian language and literature, as well as German as a foreign language. She lived in Budapest, Hungary, for nearly ten years, where she taught German at the Austrian Institute and the American International School. Having moved back to Germany in 2012, she spent nine years as a teacher at the Franconian International School in Erlangen. Whilst continuing to work, she went back to university to study the arts. She has been living in Leipzig since 2021, teaching both German and Visual Arts at the Leipzig International School. She went on to become a member of Lancaster University in 2023. Being a life-long learner, her goal is to inspire her students with the courage to take risks and to learn from mistakes.

Sabine Gerlach - Senior Manager Academic and Student Services

T: +49 341 339 776 44

Sabine Gerlach is an experienced higher education professional and Chartered Marketer who brings about change by building trusting relationships with partners, stakeholders and students to deliver the best student experience.

Her expertise is in International Student Mobility, Strategic Development and Pedagogy, underpinned by academic qualifications in management, marketing and education. Before joining Lancaster University Leipzig, she was Assistant Professor in Marketing at Lincoln University, where she currently commences her doctoral studies.

Marie-Christine Borowiak - Academic Office Manager

T: +49 341 339 776 36

Marie-Christine Borowiak joined Lancaster University Leipzig as Academic Office Manager in July 2022. She has previously worked and studied in France, Germany and Scotland. She is particularly interested in the continuous improvement and promotion of international studies, research and teaching.

Josefine Fitchett - Career and Engagement Manager

T: +49 174 6614029

Josefine Fitchett joined Lancaster University Leipzig in April 2022 as a Career and Engagement Manager. Her role is to prepare students for their entry into the labour market by training them in CV and cover letter writing and supporting them in defining their career goals and what it takes to reach them. To support students in their pursuit of having a successful career, Josefine also works to establish a network of regional partners from Leipzig’s varied company landscape. Her goal is to match students and graduates with regional companies in need for well-educated, motivated people that contribute to companies’ success and ultimately add to the success of Leipzig and Saxony.

Being originally from Leipzig and holding a Master’s degree from the University of Bristol in Gender and International Relations, Josefine has a deep first-hand understanding of both, German and British work and study cultures. Josefine is an expert building strong professional and interpersonal relationships to attain business goals. She previously worked as operations manager for BaseCamp Student where she established strong partnerships with local universities and corporations like Porsche, Helios Clinic, Deutsche Bahn and Amazon. Before that she was manager student affairs for MSc students at HHL. Beyond that she is trained as a life coach and a freelance writer for local and regional magazines.

Anamika Bhaduri - Student Services Officer

T (M): +49 341 339 776 28

Anamika Bhaduri holds a Master’s degree in public policy from Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, Germany. This course has given her exposure in leadership and management skills. She has worked at Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam as a student assistant where her work entailed co-ordinating online education programmes and curating courses for students.

Prior to moving to Germany, she worked as a lawyer in India. Her specialisation during the Bachelor's degree was in Intellectual Property Rights and she also holds a Master's degree in law with specialisation in International Trade and Investment Law.

While pursuing her studies at Willy Brandt School, she was part of the Examination and Admission Committee which allowed her to work on the recruitment and admission of students into the university. Studying in an international environment, she puts to use her interpersonal and communication skills to deal with student matters. At Lancaster University Leipzig, she holds the position of Student Services Officer, where she hopes to address student issues with understanding and empathy.

Elena Rotaru - Academic and Student Support Officer

Alejandro Estrella - Academic and Student Support Officer

Alejandro Estrella's deep fascination with human behavior led him to study psychology and German at the University of Binghamton in upstate New York, three hours north of his hometown of Queens. His undergraduate thesis was on the neurobiology of resilience in rodent models with particular interest in recovery after trauma. He is presently completing his MBA at the University of Leipzig where his thesis focuses on the decision making process within that startup context. He comes with his own entrepreneurial experience in both leadership and support positions within the private sector. When not engaged in a deep conversation he loves to write, cook, hike, and rock climb. He's very excited to bring his skills and experience to help make the student experience at Lancaster one they will remember for a lifetime.

Kamila Szalast - Director of Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions

T: +49 173 545 2456

As the Director of Marketing and Recruitment, Kamila Szalast leads the strategic direction, management and growth of marketing, student recruitment and admissions activities. Originally from Poland, Kamila Szalast has worked in the international education industry since 2012 and held various leadership and marketing roles. She has got multifaceted strategic sales and marketing experience, including extensive channel management from multiple countries across three continents. During her last post as the Navitas Regional Manager for Africa she worked and lived in Lagos, Nigeria where she headed the regional office. Kamila obtained her Master of Arts degree in English from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Poland and has been always passionate about education and working with international students.

Matan Odell - Market Manager, Emerging Markets

T: +49 341 339 776 23

T (M): +49 172 821 8958

Matan Odell serves as Marketing and Recruitment Manager for Lancaster University Leipzig. Originally from the U.S., he has lived overseas for the past fifteen years, with more than 10 years spent in higher education specialising in student recruitment. He has worked with students and families across Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, Russia CIS, China, and Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Dr Elvira Fritzsche - Student Recruitment Manager, Europe

T: +49 341 339 776 43

T (M): +49 174 661 4010

Dr Fritzsche joined Lancaster University Leipzig in June 2021 first as a Student Recruitment Advisor, and since 2022 as Student Recruitment Manager. She has experience lecturing at colleges and universities in Russia and the U.S., and teaching at both secondary and private schools in Germany. She has been involved in a number of major international sporting events such as the 2014 Winter Olympic in Sochi as well as Summer Universiades in Shenzhen and Kazan where she worked in Marketing and B2B. In 2015, Dr Fritzsche completed a doctorate in Linguistics at Kazan Federal University. In Leipzig, she has developed her own personal brand of bespoke city tours and regularly updates her travel blog. Being at Lancaster University Leipzig enables Dr Fritzsche to combine her two main passions: education and working in an international environment.

Tripti Gurung - Student Recruitment Manager, South Asia

Maria Girenko - Student Recruitment Advisor

T.: +49 341 339 77 633

Maria joined the Marketing and Recruitment team of Lancaster University Leipzig in 2019. As a Student Recruitment Advisor, she is assisting students from all over the world with their application process and pre-arrival enquiries. Since December 2022, she has also been in charge of the Student Ambassador programme. Maria has over 10 years of experience working in international education: previously, as a language teacher and educational counselor. She obtained a degree in Linguistics and Literature Studies from Moscow State University and studied Translation at Stockholm University. Having been an international student herself, Maria is determined to make the prospective students’ transition into the university life as smooth as possible.

Merry Leung - Student Recruitment Advisor

T: +49 341 339 77 632

Merry Leung, originally from Hong Kong, has over ten years of experience in the education sector as a language teacher, linguistic specialist, and education counsellor. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and Literary Studies from the Education University of Hong Kong. In 2021 she graduated from Leipzig University with a Master of Science degree in Early Childhood Research (Psychology & Statistics). During her studies in Leipzig, she was also a Student Research Assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig.

Mircea Raicu - Admissions and Compliance Manager

T: +49 341 339 776 42

Mircea Raicu originally comes from Republic of Moldova and moved to Leipzig in 2016 from Latvia, where he spent his last year of studies at the State University in Riga. He holds a masters degree in international relations obtained from the Ovidius University in Constanta, Romania. In his role as Admissions and Compliance Manager, Mircea Raicu relies on a rich experience gathered in the visa related field and education sector. Until 2019 he worked as visa submission officer at the Russian Visa Centre in Leipzig and Berlin and switched thereafter to Berlin School of Business and Innovation, where he took over the role of visa and compliance manager. As part of the student services, he assisted the international students with the visa extension process, documents preparation and study related matters. He is passionate about learning languages, playing football and travelling, and looks forward to enrich his worldview by helping and getting to know our international students.

Valentina Dudka - Admissions Officer

T: +49 341 339 776 49

Valentina Dudka was born in the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, and moved to Leipzig, Germany, in September 2017. She holds a Bachelor's degree in International Economic Relations and in combination with her experience in organising Erasmus + projects, working with students in the academic and informal environment and knowledge of several foreign languages were the factors that helped her to be a part of our team since May 2022 and to be responsible for the admissions process. Valentina is passionate about psychology, guitar, and theology.

Atra Bromand - Global Inside Sales Team Leader, EMEAA

Atra Bromand is responsible for managing and leading the EMEAA Inside Sales team, overseeing the Student Recruitment Advisors' training and mentoring, analysing sales reports, and developing action plans for both teams and individuals contributing to student recruitment efforts. Atra has worked with international educational organisations for more than ten years and has considerable experience enrolling students into American, British, German, and European Universities. Originally from Iran, Atra can speak English, Arabic, Persian, and German. Atra completed her MBA from the American University of Sharjah in 2012 and obtained her Master's Degree in International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy from Furtwangen University Germany in 2018.

Marcin Szalast - Campus Operations Manager

T: +49 341 339 776 30

Christian Schult - Campus Services Manager

T: +49 341 339 776 21

As a Leipzig native, Christian Schult received his academic training at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. He is a certified advisor for foundations and non-profits and has gained experience in international environments for the past ten years. Among other things, he was involved in setting up a pan-European organisation dedicated to the freedom of the press and managed this organisation’s shelter programme for journalists at risk for several years. He joined Lancaster University Leipzig in March 2020 as its Campus Operations Manager and now holds the position of Campus Services Manager reporting directly to the Campus Director / Kanzlerin.

Robyn Zagaj - Campus Services Officer

T: +49 341 339 776 48

Robyn Zagaj comes from South Africa, lived and worked in the United Kingdom and moved to Leipzig, Germany in 2007. She holds a Master’s degree in Aviation Management, obtained from the Wildau Institute of Technology, near Berlin. As an aviation enthusiast, she has held a number of operations and finance related positions in the aviation industry. In her role as a Campus Services Officer, Robyn is responsible for tasks and queries related to finance department.

Agostina Rufolo - Campus Services Officer

Agostina Rufolo is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied Audio-Visual Design at University of Buenos Aires. She moved to London in 2016 and to Germany in 2017, where she lived in Berlin, Dellwig (a village in the outskirts of Dortmund), Rheinland-Pfalz, Münster and now Leipzig. Before taking her role at Lancaster University Leipzig, Agostina has worked as a journalist for Vice Magazine and freelance writer, translator, proof-reader and filmmaker for different media and art galleries around the world. She volunteered for a Berlin based NGO called Refugee Phrasebook. She is passionate about learning languages, travelling, and meeting people from all over the planet.

Kiran Thomson - IT Support Technician

T: +49 (0) 341 3397 7626

As an IT Support Technician, Kiran Thompson supports the team in all matters relating to IT solutions, issues and support. A Great Britain native, Kiran has spent most of his life in the UK, working for more than 10 years in B2C IT support. Kiran Johnson joined Lancaster University Leipzig in 2021 and helped its set-up on the new premises. In his current role, he supports the growing team and ensures that operations are running smoothly.