In Port and Learning: KLU Stories

A lot of energy, ambition, and future-thinking ideas: that’s the cocktail behind the creation of Young Founders Forge (YFF). The student club focused on entrepreneurship has built a rocket-speed trajectory during its first year, with innovative events, strategic connections, fun activities, and strong friendships. Anna Dillschneider and Julian Köhn share with us all the details for this and future projects and give us a tour of the upbringing of a club that is different, brave, hands-on, and enthusiastic. Discover how the itch for creating something new turns into connections to companies, visits to angel investors, and surprising pitches of business ideas.

He chose the strong path to land straight in the job market. Life brought him to academia. PhD candidate Zachary Rabinowitz tells us how the research in his Master’s in logistics at KLU opened new dimensions in his career path, leading him to stay at the university for a PhD. With him, we discover the backstage of research work and the motivations to join this endeavor. Tapping into his research on sustainability and how researchers use AI and other technologies, Zachary guides us through the PhD experience at KLU and gives us an insider view of how science connects and improves the world. Find out what makes academia an enhancer of our society.

3 teammates, 2 business dimensions, 1 sustainable solution. In this episode, we sit with Agostina Altobello and Mariajose Gonzalez, the two KLU students who made it to the final of the Global Sustainability Supply Chain Student Competition GS3, endorsed by the United Nations. With a mindset on sustainability that goes way beyond the carbon footprint, the incombustible duo guides us through their innovative project that balances the interests of small local businesses and giant multinational corporations. Let yourself be inspired by their creativity and efficiency, and venture into an honest conversation about overconsumption, responsibility, regional empowerment, and sustainability on global supply chains.

Always happy to “come back home” and always ready to approach any task with an Operations Mindset. This way shows up Marta Balbastre, MBA alumna and an absolute powerhouse. She tells us about how her ambition led her to KLU and how this step changed her professional career, but also made her grow from within. With remarkable strategic thinking and passionate about a job well done, Marta guides us through the MBA program, her long-lasting connections, her best memories of it, and explains how her Operations Mindset accompanies each part of her work today. Dig in and learn what makes a good leader a greater one.

Thinking outside of the box was not just a suggestion, but a mandatory rule in the future-thinking event Beyond Now, one of the boldest initiatives of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at KLU. 160 students, 10 challenges, 7 strategic partners, and one goal: resolving real-world industry challenges with the most innovative ideas, dreaming beyond the frames of today’s business world. Take a look at this intellectual experiment and discover how generations connected, new perspectives flourished, and teams reinvented the possibilities in business in an intense and unforgettable event.

With hundreds of hours of university engagement and a fairly developed Operations Mindset: this is how Ksenia Ramaj approaches the preparation of Disrupt HR, a globally spread event, for the first time in Hamburg. In close cooperation with Prof. Brooke Gazdag, Ksenia opens the way to KLU for experts in HR trends, inviting along all types of audiences who want to know how to make an impact in the new era of the workplace, in which humans face complex intercultural frames and the strong entry of AI in their teams. Take a sneak peak on the event preparations and discover how students like Ksenia shape the intellectual and community-building offer of KLU.

“Ask for more, the universe is not on a budget” – under this life mantra, Bachelor student “Charlie” has developed from scratch and participated in social engagement projects that have not only earned her a scholarship to KLU, but most importantly have bettered the experiences of hundreds of people. From representing over 80,000 students in her federal parliament to building an AI app with IBM, Charlie’s drive does not stop with the words “No” or “impossible”. Learn how she’s facilitated the happiness of others with her can-do attitude, all while remaining humble and true to herself.

In this episode, Carlos Avila Gorostiaga and Ferdinand Quaye are joined by Professor Rodrigo Garrido, Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Data Science and Professor of Industrial Engineering at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. Together, they explore how human capital is at the heart of building sustainable logistics systems. Rodrigo discusses the challenges of workforce development in South America, from mental health pressures after the pandemic to the fear of automation. He emphasizes the need for innovation, interdisciplinary learning, and closer ties between academia and industry. He also highlights how music and diverse social networks contribute to creativity, resilience, and well-being in logistics professionals.

In this episode, So-Young Kim and Katja Wiedemann talk with René Vorpahl, Change Manager at Airbus, about the future of digital logistics. With over 25 years at Airbus, René shares how digitalization is reshaping supply chains from creating digital twins of physical processes to streamlining warehouse flows and reducing waste. He explains the challenges of integrating new systems, ensuring data security, and bringing people along in the transformation. The discussion also highlights Airbus’s broader sustainability efforts, including sustainable aviation fuels, energy-efficient warehouses, and innovations like rotor-equipped cargo ships.

In this episode, MBA students Ina Litterst and Agata Florek welcome Lucy Cooper, Project Lead for Refill, and Steve Hanks, National Account Manager for Customer Partnerships at CHEP. Together, they explore how circularity is more than a buzzword – it’s the DNA of CHEP’s business model. Lucy and Steve explain how CHEP’s share-and-reuse approach reduces packaging waste, how refill pilots in UK supermarkets are pioneering scalable solutions, and why every job at CHEP is considered a sustainability role. They also share insights on company culture, innovation in pallet and container design, collaborations to reduce empty miles, and navigating legislation across markets.