The Secretary General
The Secretary General is responsible for managing Administrative Headquarters and bears responsibility for budgetary matters and daily business. He is responsible for the organization, structure and legal matters of Administrative Headquarters and also runs his own domain with strategic topics. This comprises the following departments: Institutes, Communication, Science Policy / Strategic Processes, Research Policy / External Relationships as well as the Internal Audit Department. Together with the Executive Committee whose meetings he attends in an advisory capacity, he forms the Management Board of the Max Planck Society (MPG).
By virtue of his office, the Secretary General is at the same time a member of the Management Board of the charitable Max Planck Foundation (MPF) which supports the MPG through targeted fund-raising and finances groundbreaking research projects in the MPG from private funds. The Boards of Trustees of Max Planck Institutes (MPI) are also considered to be a special priority of the Secretary General in his efforts to increase the impact and reach of specific research topics in the public domain.
Administrative Headquarters
Administrative Headquarters manages the day-to-day operation of the MPG. It is based at the Max Planck House in Munich’s Hofgarten. The offices of the President and Vice President are housed in the same building. The Secretary General is in charge of Administrative Headquarters.
The 650 or so employees who work in Administrative Headquarters advise and support the bodies, research facilities, and Institutes of the Max Planck Society (the MPG). They pave the way for making and implementing decisions, ensure suitable framework conditions for the development of the Institutes and help them perform their administrative tasks.
In short: through its work, Administrative Headquarters provides the Max Planck Institutes with the scope they need to conduct excellent research. It also coordinates the work of ensuring compliance with the requirements imposed by federal and state governments as the MPG’s main sponsors. Hence it forms a vital link between our research activities and funding agencies, and so is key to the MPG’s success. The annual budget of the Max Planck Society is around 1.8 billion euros. This opens up a wide range of creative possibilities, and also means we have a great responsibility towards the public.
Supervision of Administrative Headquarters is exercised by the Executive Committee of the MPG through its President.
