Honorary Membership 2011: Lukas Rieder

Laudatory speech to Dr Lukas Rieder at the ceremony to award him an Honorary Membership in the International Controller Association during the General Assembly on Sunday, 15 May 2011, in Munich:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Controllers,

We honour tonight a member with membership number 235. This alone is not a reason for an Honorary Membership.

Member number 235 has been a member of the ICV since 4 February 1980 - joining shortly before his thirtieth birthday. But you are likewise not awarded an Honorary Membership because of “just” 31 years of membership. So, who is this number 235?

After completing his studies and obtaining a doctorate in economics, Lukas Rieder continued his education by obtaining a Controller Diploma (Diplom Controller). After spending two years in auditing, he worked part-time as a controller in various companies and then accepted a position as an IT organisational consultant. His further career took him to the Management Centre St. Gallen, where he worked as a consultant and lecturer focusing on controlling, management accounting and MIS.

Finally, in 1988, he founded the Controller Centre St. Gallen, where he still works today.

Throughout his long career, Lukas Rieder has devoted his entire professional efforts to controlling, especially cost accounting. We have him to thank for new cost-accounting terms such as “Schlüpfkosten” (at ProKos) and “Bemühungskosten” (at StruKos). Or his vividly illustrated culinary comparisons, like the time when he explained how tuna fish sauce (tonato) destroyed the transparency of allocations (vitello). His seminars are also exciting and varied: during my career I had the opportunity to play Lego at one of Lukas Rieder's seminars. But after each round, he made us take stock and showed us how many additional costs we had caused and how many resources we had “burned” when doing so. That sure made it hard to play Lego!

Lukas Rieder is also the author of several specialist books and has been the editor of Controller - Leitfaden (Controller – Guidelines) for many years. In addition, he has been a long-standing lecturer at the University of St. Gallen and a highly sought-after advisor for the implementation of integrated planning and controlling systems in industry.  It is also not by chance that Lukas Rieder has been appointed to the board of directors (supervisory board) of several Swiss companies.

The milestones that Lukas Rieder has achieved for the ICV include:

• His contribution to the foundation of the IGC, where he still serves as its Deputy Chairman and Managing Director,
• His contribution to the creation of the book Controller – Wörterbuch (Controller – Dictionary), as an editor and principal author,
• His collaboration to create the DIN Spec. 1086,
• His co-authorship of the book Controller und IFRS (Controllers and IFRS),
• His international activities with Dr Walter Schmidt,
• His unwavering defence of our Controller Mission Statement,
• And last but not least, his collaboration to successfully establish the Controlling - Wiki.

On behalf of the Board of Managing Directors and as a representative of Switzerland, it is my great pleasure that a Swiss member, Dr Lukas Rieder, has been awarded an Honorary Membership. I would especially like to thank Lucas Rieder for his dedication and accomplishments on behalf of the ICV. – Lukas, congratulations!”