8 corporate insights
I N T E R V I E W
Female Powered
Innovation
The importance and value of increasing gender
diversity in the tech-industry is a well-known topic,
yet women are still underrepresented in techfocused
roles
M A R I A S E G U R A C A R R A S C O studied Mechanical
Engineering in Spain, majoring in internal combustion engines. She completed her
Master’s degree in renewable energies, and started as a Development Engineer
at AVL more than 22 years ago. Here she led the team for Fuel Injection Systems
and has been the Product Manager and Key Account Manager for High-Power
Systems since 2020. She is responsible for business development, market evaluation
and R&D planning in the field.
AVL managers Maria Segura
Carrasco
and Andrea Leitner discuss how to awaken
an interest in tech among young girls,
how to assert oneself as an expert in meetings,
and why women need to be involved
in innovation and engineering.
focus: Which career moment shaped you
the most? What are you most proud of?
Segura Carrasco: A turning point in my career
was my first project as a project manager at
AVL, and I saw how satisfied the customer
was at the final meeting. Later, I was responsible
for the Fuel Injection Systems team;
there, too, I really enjoyed working with
the technical team. Since 2019 I have been
Product Manager for High-Power Systems
– a challenging but amazing task.
Leitner: While I worked in the AVL research
section, a European research project coordinated
by AVL began, focusing on safeguarding
and testing automated driver functions.
My boss asked me to take on the overall
project coordination. At first, I thought I
knew too little about the subject, and besides,
I was very young and had never led a
research project before. But then I thought,
let me try! I had to coordinate 70 partners
from diverse fields and was invited to conferences
to introduce the project. In the end,
it was a huge success.