Professor Martin Rennert was born in New York, USA, in 1954 and moved to Europe as an adolescent. There he finished school, at the same time entering the Vienna Conservatory aged 15 to study Classical Guitar and Violoncello. He gained his diploma summa cum laude in 1975 before embarking on an international concert career as a classical guitarist which lasted nearly four decades. As one of the leading musicians in his field Martin Rennert was offered a tenured professorship at the University of Arts in (West)Berlin (UdK), where he moved in 1985 – the youngest Professor in West Berlins history.

Martin Rennert has also been politically active from an early age, as shown e.g. by the cofounding and Presidency of the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), belonging to the Executive Board from 1990 to 2004. Many other activities followed, mostly in the context of the development of the European Union and its Higher Education and cultural agenda.

From 1989 to 1995 Rennert contributed to the transformation of Berlin in various functions, foremost as Dean of the University of the Arts, the largest University of its kind in the world. After a period of intense artistic work Martin Rennert was elected Executive Vice President in 2003 and President of his University in 2005. He was reelected twice and left office in 2020, after a presidency of nearly 16 years.

Currently Rennert is working as a consultant for academies and universities globally, is a Jade Guest Professor in Taiwan and is member of the Executive Board of the Einstein Foundation, dedicated to financing research and science. He was awarded a Honorary Senatorship in Berlin in 2019 and various other academic titles.

Martin Rennert is the father of three daughters and lives in Berlin, Germany.