Largest medical-scientific specialist society under new management: DGIM names managing director duo as successors to Max Broglie
24.07.2023 17:56
When the current managing director of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM), Maximilian Broglie, retires into private life at the end of November 2023 after more than 20 successful years, the board of the specialist society will in future rely on dual leadership in the management: In addition to the long-standing deputy managing director Dipl.- Kffr. Ourania Menelaou will be the former mayor of Wiesbaden, Dr. Oliver Franz will shape the fate of Europe's largest medical-scientific society from October 1, 2023.
The DGIM office is the crucial hub where all the activities of the important specialist society are coordinated and where all threads come together. The 14-person team accompanies the DGIM's continuing education and training events right up to the internist congress, works on the specialist society's numerous committees and organizes the entire membership administration and communication. “We are very pleased that we have found a good succession plan for the DGIM managing director Maximilian Broglie, who has been successful for over two decades. With the managing director duo of Ourania Menelaou and Dr. Oliver Franz succeeds in combining the tried and tested with the new in the best possible way,” emphasizes Professor Dr. med. Georg Ertl, Secretary General of the DGIM from Würzburg.
Ourania Menelaou, a business graduate, has been working for the DGIM since 2005 and has been deputy managing director since 2012. With her and the currently acting managing director Maximilian Broglie, the society grew from originally just under 9,000 members to now 30,000. Under Menelaou's work, professionalized member administration and recruitment also emerged; She also contributed to the continuous development and expansion of the professional association's advanced training program. Another milestone in her career is the support of various key topics of the DGIM, such as the eLearning offer for members, the professional planning and further development of the internal medicine congress and further training advice in internal medicine. “Ourania Menelaou has been an important advisor to the board and the general manager of the DGIM for years. As a source of ideas and project manager, she has made great contributions to various activities of the professional society - not least when it comes to promoting young scientists," explains DGIM Chairman Professor Dr. med. Andreas Neubauer, Director of the Clinic for Hematology, Oncology and Immunology at Marburg University Hospital.
From the beginning of October, Menelaou's extensive experience in organizing the specialist society will be complemented by Dr. Oliver Franz. His work at the DGIM will focus on health and science policy as well as legal matters. As an experienced local and health politician who was mayor of the state capital Wiesbaden until the end of June and head of the law, health and clinic departments, among other things, Dr. Franz has all the prerequisites to join and expand the DGIM networks that Maximilian Broglie has built up and maintained over the years.
Before working for the city of Wiesbaden, Dr. Franz worked, among other things, as legal advisor in the Hessian State Chancellery, press spokesman for the Ministry of Justice and as a judge. The doctor of law is also following in the footsteps of his predecessor Maximilian Broglie, who still works as a lawyer today. Legal expertise and political networking also characterized the term of office of the previous DGIM managing director. “The DGIM has been increasingly involved in the political discourse for years. “It was our wish to find a successor who would remain in intensive contact with political institutions at the local, state and national level in the interests of internal medicine and who would represent the interests of our discipline in a non-partisan and effective manner,” explains Professor Ertl the decision for Franz.
The incumbent managing director also sees the appointment of Dr. Franz, in tandem with Ourania Menelaou, responded positively: “I am pleased that we have found a managing director here at the DGIM headquarters in Wiesbaden who, like the specialist society itself, is closely linked to the city. This underlines: The DGIM and Wiesbaden belong together! At the same time, he is the perfect complement to my previous deputy, Ourania Menelaou.” Maximilian Broglie will work for the DGIM until the end of November, train his successors and support the DGIM in an advisory capacity for three years after his departure.