AVL Focus - Issue 2023

THE AVL MOBILITY TREND MAGAZINE - No. 1 2023

corporate insights

I N T E R V I E W

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 evalu-

ation and R&D planning in the field.

AVL managers Maria ­Segura Carrasco

and Andrea Leitner discuss how to awak-

en an interest in tech among young girls,

how to assert oneself as an expert in meet-

ings, 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 respon-

sible 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 coordi-

nated by AVL began, focusing on safeguard-

ing 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 be-

sides, 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 con-

ferences to introduce the project. In the end,

it was a huge success.

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 tech-

focused roles