The Chair of Strategic Communication and the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University mourn the loss of their long-time supporter, lecturer and friend Stephan Fink, Wiesbaden. He died unexpectedly last week of heart failure at the age of 66.
Stephan Fink was an entrepreneur with heart and blood. Together with Martin Fuchs, the business graduate founded Fink & Fuchs AG, a communication agency specializing in technology, in Wiesbaden in 1988 and quickly developed it into one of the leading German agencies for innovation communication with offices in the Rhine-Main area, Munich and Berlin. When he stepped down as active board member as part of the company succession, he moved to the Supervisory Board of Fink & Fuchs in January 2023, where he became Chairman.
From 2009 to 2015, he was an honorary lecturer at the Leipzig institute. Under his leadership, Fink & Fuchs AG sponsored various scientific studies and three consecutive multi-year doctoral scholarships. Stephan Fink was also a personal mentor for research assistants Nadin Ernst, Anne Melzer and Luisa Winkler during their qualification projects. This resulted in award-winning doctoral dissertations and publications on the topics of innovation communication, social media governance and SME communication – including the Jackson Sharpe Award given in the United States for a research project initiated jointly by university and practice.
Even after leaving the agency, Stephan Fink remained associated with the institute as a valued guest speaker. Since many years, Fink & Fuchs has been supporting the LPRS student and alumni association as a sponsor and the European Communication Monitor, which is based at the chair, as a publishing partner.Fink & Fuchs has been supporting the student and alumni association LPRS the European Communication Monitor, which is based at the chair, as a publishing partner.
Stephan Fink's inspiring and always altruistic voluntary work in the communication industry, including as co-chairman of the “Communication, Media and Creative Industries” committee of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), as a generous supporter of research and education and for his home region of Wiesbaden, for example in nature conservation and as a member of the executive committee of the local Chamber of Industry and Commerce, came to an end far too soon. We are thinking in particular of his wife and many long-time companions and colleagues who, like us, have lost an important friend.