As of 1.2.2020 Prof. Dr. Dr. Castulus Kolo has taken over the office of University President at Macromedia University. Kolo succeeds Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust, who retires. Castulus Kolo is an internationally renowned scientist and expert on the digital economy. As the architect of the practice-oriented Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes at Macromedia, he has made a significant contribution to the growth of the private university for many years. Macromedia University currently operates on seven university locations in Germany with over 3,500 students.
"We could not wish for a better successor in the presidency. The word of Prof. Dr. Dr. Castulus Kolo carries weight, in the international scientific community, in the media industry as well as in our university institutions," says Dr. Reimar Müller-Thum, Managing Director of Macromedia GmbH. "Castulus Kolo guarantees the scientific quality of our teaching. But he is also an outstanding university manager who has an eye on the relevance of our study programmes for a labour market in digital transformation".
Castulus Kolo has been a member of faculty of the private university since 2007. Since 2013, he has been responsible for its general academic affairs and research whereby he has sharpened its profile as a university for digital change. "I feel very honoured to be able to shape the fortunes of the university in another role now. Macromedia today stands for interdisciplinary, smart approaches to solving real word problems by the combination of management know-how and creativity. Under my leadership, we will systematically add the dimension of sustainability to all programmes. Because new and in particular digital technologies offer excellent opportunities for this as well", said Prof. Dr. Dr. Castulus Kolo about his plans as President of the University.
In 2007 Castulus Kolo was appointed to a professorship for media management at the Stuttgart campus of the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences – at that time still MFM, Macromedia Fachhochschule der Medien. Already the following year he was assigned the nationwide responsibility for all study programmes related to media and communications management, which still comprise, with more than 60 percent, a major share of all Macromedia graduates. With his appointment as Vice President in 2013, Kolo assumed academic responsibility for all study programs and faculties of the private institution. He was responsible for the modular, efficient, and quality-oriented architecture of Macromedia’s degree programmes, as well as for the consistent orientation towards the opportunities of a digital economy and society. In addition, numerous accreditation successes of the private university bear his signature, most recently and substantial for the future of Macromedia the system accreditation in 2019, the entitlement to self-accredit new programmes.
Castulus Kolo first studied physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany and completed his studies in 1995 with a PhD at the Particle Physics Laboratory CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where he came across the WWW as one of the early users in 1989. Later, he gained an additional PhD in social anthropology driven by an interest in how other cultures solve everyday challenges in different ways and the role of communication therein. This expertise led him to leadership positions at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), and a consulting subsidiary of the Fraunhofer Society. Subsequently, Kolo was responsible as member of the management board in the digital media holding of Süddeutscher Verlag for the development of new business at the interface between print and online. Castulus Kolo’s research interest on the preconditions, the diffusion as well as the effects of (media) innovations at the intersection of economy, society, and technology is reflected in more than 60 scholarly publications, among others in international journals. A current focus is on the challenges of transforming traditional media companies in a digital society and economy, on the dynamic development of social media, and on a better understanding of digital media usage enabling new business models. He is also an active member of the international scientific community. Just last year, Kolo was elected President of the International Media Management Academic Association.
(IMH)