Born in Vienna in 1930, em.o.Univ. Prof. Dr. Walter Sertl graduated from the Hochschule für Welthandel and subsequently worked for a commercial agency and a tax consulting firm. Sertl earned a post-doctorate degree in Vienna in 1968 before coming to the JKU in 1970 (then still called the Hochschule für Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften) as an associate professor. He was a professor of business administration at the JKU from 1973 until he retired in 1998. He served as Dean of the JKU Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics & Business between 1988 and 1990. Walter Sertl also co-founded the university graduate degree program for Cultural Management and in 1996, he was presented with the Wissenschaftsmedaille by the city of Linz in honor and in recognition of his many accomplishments. He passed away on October 31, 2021, at the age of 92.