The Board elects the President of Africa-UniNet from among its members. The President proposes a Vice-President from among the members of the Board, who is to be confirmed by the Board. If the President is from Austria, the Vice-President must be elected from the African members and vice versa.

Tasks of the President:

• Official representative of Africa-UniNet
• Overall coordination of the Network in technical and strategic terms
• Chairmanship of the Board and the General Assembly
• Representation of the Network towards institutional and other partners at home and abroad
• Strategic planning and coordination of the public image
• Preparing proposals for the Network strategy and for the annual work programme in consultation with the Board
• Coordination with other relevant networks
• Submission of proposals for the Network’s thematic orientation and for the tendering of specific Network activities in consultation with the Board, within the limits of available resources and funding.

The current President Univ.-Prof. Hubert Hasenauer and Vice-President Prof. Nzula Kitaka of Africa-UniNet have been in office since the network was founded in 2020. Both were re-elected for a period of 3 years at the 2nd General Assembly in Kenya in 2022. 

President of Africa-UniNet: Univ.Prof. DI Dr.DDr.h.c. Hubert Hasenauer; BOKU

hubert.hasenauer@boku.ac.at;

Univ.Prof.Dr.DDr.h.c. Hubert Hasenauer: Professor for Forest Ecosystem Management, at BOKU - the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. He started his career as forest manager for the federal forest company before he joined BOKU. His scientific interests are forest management, ecosystem modeling, and the role of forests in the global carbon cycle. He contributed and led more than 70 projects in Europe as well as in the US, South America, Russia, Ethiopia, China, Nepal and Bhutan. He published more than 250 scientific papers, mainly in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and conference contributions. He served as the chairman of the European Forest Institute, was chief-editor of Forest Ecology and Management and is the editor of the Austrian Journal of Forest Science. He chairs the Austrian-Africa Uninet, is the vice-president of ICA, the network of the 60 European Life Science Universities. For 7 years, he chaired the academic Senate of the University, was the speaker of the 22 public Austrian Universities and was one of the 12 members of the committee for higher education in Austria. From February 2018 until February 2022, he served as President of BOKU.

Vice-President: Prof. Nzula Kitaka; Egerton University, Kenya; Director

nkitaka@egerton.ac.ke

Prof. Nzula Kitaka is currently an associate professor and a researcher of Aquatic/Water Science at Egerton Univer-sity, Kenya and the Vice President of Africa-UniNet. Trained as a water Scientists Prof Kitaka has been in-volved in several collaborative research projects and capacity development initiatives either as a PI, Team leader or Researcher. These projects/initiatives have provided an in-depth insight in translation of theoretical knowledge into practical approach to enhance research skills towards copying strategies of emerging issues (CC), wise use of aquatic systems and ecosystems services for livelihoods enhancement, particularly in tropical systems.