The management department would like to highlight faculty member Dirk Buengel.

Dirk Buengel is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Management Department. He teaches courses in Strategic Management, Management Consulting, Ethical Leadership, Managing Human Resources, Change Management, and Foundations of Business. Professor Buengel received his MBA from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany and has spent the last 30 years in the corporate world. He has worked for large corporations and global players such as Siemens, Henkel, and BASF. He has had a variety of different positions and has worked in Germany/Europe, Mexico, and the US. He says he has always liked the global aspects of business.

Professor Buengel says he is proud of working for the Management Department. The Virginia Tech Management Department is recognized as a student-centric department that prepares the next generation of great business leaders and it is wonderful to be a part of this organization. However, he says until three years ago, he didn’t even know that the position of a professor of practice exists. Professor Buengel says sometimes your dream job is just a combination of being ready, open-minded, and lucky to be at the right place at the right time. Professor Buengel began teaching at Virginia Tech in 2019, along with his wife who is also a professor here.

When asked what his favorite part of his job is, Professor Buengel said that it’s clearly working together with students. Making a positive difference for students and helping them to prepare for a successful, meaningful, ethical, and rewarding career is the best and most gratifying part of his job. Business is all about people that you work together with and that you manage and lead. Beyond that, he says he just likes people and getting to know the many interesting and diverse students with different backgrounds. Overall, it is just super interesting and a wonderful experience.

When asked what the most important attributes of a professor are, Professor Buengel said a good instructor needs to be competent and have relevant content to offer. The more important attribute, however, is to truly care about students and see and treat them as individuals rather than just “a class”. His paradigm is “one student at a time and one class at a time”. This goes back to seeing and treating students as individuals with their specific backgrounds and learning needs. Professor Buengel also believes in being challenging and demanding but at the same time fair and supportive.  Many of his students are seniors and he wants to help them with their transition from academia to the corporate world. He always says that students want to hear about improvement opportunities from him instead of their first supervisor. He also connects classroom content to his broad professional experience to provide hands-on examples of why classroom content matters and how it is applied in the corporate world.  

Outside of work, Professor Buengel likes to spend time with his wife, friends, and Toby, their Goldendoodle. They love spending the summers in Germany where they still have a condo in the city of Duesseldorf and where they visit friends who live all over Europe. He also likes sports, both the active and passive side. He is a marathon runner, likes spinning and is a passionate supporter of his favorite soccer team, Borussia Dortmund. In Blacksburg you will most likely find him at Eastern Divide or the Maroon Door.   

Professor Buengel’s advice to incoming Pamplin freshman would be “to realize that it is a privilege to study at Pamplin and VT. Make the best out of it and be purposeful about how you spend your time here. Work hard and play hard. Make meaningful personal and professional connections and take ownership of your own development. You are in the driver’s seat of your life, your education, and your professional development. I feel that you have the best chance to succeed if you embrace this ownership and take responsibility and accountability for your choices.”