Bruno Hensler has been Director of the University of St.Gallen's Administration since 1 February 2017. So far, he has had a very positive impression of HSG staff, and he can feel everything but a red-tape mindset: "They are highly committed to the cause, are proud of being part of this institution and want to get things going." In his first few months, Bruno Hensler was particularly pleased with the Dies academics and the inauguration of the new teaching and research building in Müller-Friedberg-Strasse. He felt an optimistic mood that give him courage with a view to the planned extension of the HSG.
HSG employees are proud of
being part of this institution
Bruno Hensler has had an unusual career for a Director of Administration: although the studied at and obtained his doctorate from the HSG, he has also had agricultural training. Of course a farming operation cannot be compared with a university just like that, says Hensler, but there are still parallels. Both must be aware that they have to cultivate an overall system with a long-term perspective: "If you exploit the soil to the limit for ten years, you'll notice that it won't be fruitful any longer afterwards." This career also helped him personally to exchange ideas with a wide variety of people and to keep his feet on the ground.
Latterly Bruno Hensler was Headmaster of the Kloster Disentis High School and Boarding School. It is not only these activities that provided him with an understanding of the education market, which was challenged by international competition in many ways. His studies in business administration, in turn, also helped him to understand his job as destination management. The point now is to keep the HSG attractive to talented students, outstanding faculty and committed members of staff from home and abroad. This was also incumbent on the Administration, in particular, which has to provide good services and a campus that enables an innovative learning environment
When he does not happen to be working, Hensler enjoys his family and guests in his 180-year-old farmhouse with a "guest house" in Teufen. To counterbalance his sedentary job, he likes to jog home at least once a week or to go on a mountain hike. With two small children, he says, visits to museums and concerts have become rarer − but there is a time for everything.
Besides digitalisation, the preparation and negotiation of the 2019–2022 performance agreement and the campus extension, Bruno Hensler considers the issue of the HSG as a employer as one of the most important challenges of the coming years. "How will we manage to preserve stability in change, and how will we continue to remain attractive to the right employees in the future? For they are and will remain our most important resource."