External member – chairmanHanns-Peter Knaebel

Prof. Knaebel was born in Stuttgart in 1968 and studied medicine in Ulm, Tübingen and Yale University in New Haven, USA. After completing his degree and obtaining his doctorate in 1995 he joined the department of surgery of Heidelberg University Hospital in the same year, where he worked for 12 years, the last five years as senior physician, and obtained his habilitation in 2006. In the context of his clinical scientific activity he intensively addressed the topic of clinical studies in surgery and from 2001 played a major role in setting up both the clinical study centre for surgery (KSC) at the Heidelberg University department of surgery and the study centre of the German surgical society (SDGC).

As early as the late 1990s, Professor Knaebel was interested in issues outside curative medicine and worked on quality assurance and quality management at the department of surgery. Between 2004 and 2006 he studied for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Salzburg, graduating in June 2006 with distinction.

Prof. Knaebel has held leading positions in industry since January 2007. For example, from 2007 to 2017 as CEO of Aesculap AG and Executive Board member of B. Braun Melsungen AG. Then as Executive Board Chair of the Röchling Group, CEO of BIOTRONIK SE & Co KG and, since August 2022, as CEO of K6 SOLUTIONS. In all these functions he has always attached great importance to building bridges between academia and industry.

Beside his entrepreneurial activity, Professor Knaebel still keeps up his research, publications and teaching in the field of surgery, so that Heidelberg University appointed him an associate professor in 2010.

He has been a member of the Heidelberg University Council since 2012 and has chaired it since 2015.