Gunther Friedl

Gunther Friedl is Full Professor of Management Accounting and Chair of Controlling at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he also serves as Dean of the TUM School of Management. Born in 1971, he is currently on research leave (beurlaubt) while continuing to supervise doctoral researchers and strategic projects.

Education:

• Diploma in Physics, Technical University of Munich
• Doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) in Business Administration, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2000
• Habilitation in Business Administration, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2004
• Visiting scholar appointments at Stanford University and Warsaw School of Economics

Research Interests

Professor Friedl’s work bridges controlling, corporate governance and energy economics. His early research focused on cost accounting and value-based management, leading to the widely adopted textbook Cost Accounting: A Decision-Oriented Introduction. More recently, his agenda has expanded to executive compensation, performance measurement, and the valuation of innovative technologies—especially in energy and mobility.

Across more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, his publications reveal three dominant strands:

• Cost & Management Accounting – development of decision-oriented cost systems, hospital controlling and managerial performance metrics;
• Corporate Governance & Executive Pay – empirical studies on board compensation, transparency of compensation reports and stakeholder influence;
• Energy & Mobility Economics – application of real-options and levelized-cost methodologies to battery manufacturing, electric-vehicle adoption and grid-integration strategies.

Scientific Awards

• Best Teaching Award, TUM School of Management (2017)
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Technical University of Munich (2013)
• Professor of the Year 2012 – UNICUM & KPMG
• Best Teaching Award, Executive MBA Class 2012
• Best Textbook Award, German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) 2011
• Fellow of the Hanns Seidel Foundation (1993–1998)

Doctoral Advising & Research Grants

Professor Friedl currently leads a vibrant research group of 4 post-docs, 8 doctoral researchers and 3 research assistants funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Bavarian State Ministry and industry partners such as BMW, Siemens and Allianz. Recent grants include:

• €1.1 million BMBF project “Controlling the Energy Transition” (2022-2026)
• €0.5 million Bavarian High-Tech Agenda project on “Data-Driven Controlling for Sustainable Mobility” (2021-2025)
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) individual research grant on “Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance” (2019-2023)

Labs & Teams

He heads the Chair of Controlling at Arcisstraße 21, 80333 Munich, where the TUM Center for Energy Markets and the TUM School of Management provide interdisciplinary infrastructure. The chair’s Energy & Innovation Controlling Lab offers access to proprietary micro-data on energy consumption, mobility patterns and corporate governance structures, enabling large-scale empirical studies in collaboration with MIT, Stanford and the European Energy Exchange.