It is nearly impossible to acknowledge the life and work of
Prof. Helmut List in just a few words. For almost six decades,
he has shaped AVL, and with his many achievements he is the
embodiment of the spirit of our company.
Prof. Helmut List –
His Personal Life
and Achievements
fter attending elementary school, Helmut List attended
the secondary school in Lichtenfelsgasse in Graz. At a
young age he showed extraordinary talent for technol-
ogy and started tinkering with radios, which led him to study
mechanical and electrical engineering at the Graz University of
Technology. During his studies he gained hands-on experience
at engine factories in England, the USA, France, and Germany.
He joined AVL in 1966, where he started his career heading
up the production department for electronic and precision
measuring instruments. He also assumed the role of project
manager for the development of a new medical blood gas
analyzer based on a concept by and in collaboration with Prof.
Dr. Karl Harnoncourt. Blood gas analysis was at the heart
of what would become AVL Medizintechnik; In his role as
managing director he was responsible for the technological
aspects of this field – from the very beginning until it was sold
to Roche Diagnostics in 2000.
In 1970, AVL set up a new, younger management board – and
Helmut List took the chair for measurement technology, pro-
duction, and sales, thus laying the foundation for continuous
rapid growth. During this time he also started to set up the first
AVL subsidiaries around the world.
In December 1975, Helmut List married his first wife Dagmar
Grill, who gave birth to their daughter Katharina in 1979.
During his travels he met his second wife – an American
called Kathryn. They married in Dearborn, USA, in 1987. In
1989, she gave birth to their son Hans Gordon, named after his
two grandfathers. Their daughter Olivia followed in 1991, with
their daughter Clara Elizabeth arriving in 1996.
In 1979, Helmut List became CEO of AVL. Under his manage-
ment, the pioneering findings and research activities in the
area of diesel engine technology were expanded.
Under his leadership, AVL expanded into a global company
with a worldwide network of tech centers. Over the last two
decades, he has placed a strong emphasis on shifting the
primary focus from just the engine to the entire propulsion
system. In pursuit of this goal, he has initiated various endeav-
ors involving acquisitions and research programs dedicated to
the advancement of electrified propulsion. Now, with 11,200
employees in more than 90 locations and with 45 tech and
engineering centers, AVL is one of the world’s leading mobility
technology companies for development, simulation, and test-
ing in the automotive industry and in other sectors.
One of the key priorities of Helmut List’s work is the targeted
application of research. This is reflected in the high R&D share
across all strategic business areas and the many collabora-
tions with university institutes both locally and internationally.
His initiatives have also revolutionized many R&D fields: For
example, digitization at AVL, which Helmut List initiated in the
1970s with the introduction of digital testbed control systems;
or the development of completely new unknown materials,
such as the gallium phosphate crystal with the highest tem-
perature resistance for pressure measurements. His idea to
correlate drivers’ subjective evaluations of the drivability of a
car with the measurable factors in the vehicle and to gain an
objective, reproducible benchmark from the multitude of such
correlations was also revolutionary. Thus, the AVL drivability
technology was born. He came up with pivotal initiatives in
the field of the mathematical modeling of flow processes in
1980, which was the driving force behind the later establish-
ment of the “Advanced Simulation Technologies” division. With
the “Integrated and Open Development Platform” he united
mathematical simulation and test results interactively in a
cyber-physical development environment.
Over the years, Helmut List transformed AVL into the most
innovative company in Austria, especially in terms of its
75 YEARS AND BEYOND
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