The president of Freie Universität, Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen, announced the new appointment, noting that Professor Dreher is an outstanding researcher and well-suited for heading the Center for Cluster Development. According to Lenzen, Dreher's expertise in strategic research planning and in innovation management as well as his success in interdisciplinary research projects both regionally and abroad will enable him to play an important role in the implementation of the future development concept of Freie Universität.

Dreher said he was pleased about the new position. His goal is to work with researchers from the various departments of Freie Universität to set up research clusters, to facilitate new research projects, and to acquire additional external funding. He wishes to make a contribution in consolidating the strengths of Freie Universität and to ensure that its potential strengths become actual strengths.

Before joining Freie Universität, Dreher, who was born in 1962, was a professor of business administration specialized in innovation research and innovation management and also the director of the International Institute of Management at the University of Flensburg. Simultaneously he was a professor at the Mads Clausen Institute of Product Innovation at the University of Southern Denmark in Sonderborg. After completing his degree in industrial engineering in 1988 and an extra-occupational Ph.D. in 1996 at the University of Karlsruhe, Dreher was hired as department head of industry and service innovation at Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research. He also worked as a researcher at the EU Program Forecasting in Service and Technology and at the MIT Industrial Performance Center. Dreher is a reviewer for scientific journals (such as Research Policy), for the European Union, and the German Federal Ministry of Research. He is a member of the network of excellence of social scientists in Europe, DIME.