Alexandra Knauer is awarded the first Berlin Prize for Female Entrepreneurs
The Berlin Senate Department for Business, Labor and Women's Issues has established a new award to honor women in Berlin who stand out for their entrepreneurial courage and leadership, as well as professional competence. The first-prize award was bestowed on October 30th to Ms. Alexandra Knauer by Berlin Senator for Business Mr. Harald Wolf. The 38-year old business woman heads the Berlin-Zehlendorf company Knauer Scientific Instruments GmbH, managing a staff of 75 employees in developing and manufacturing analytical instruments for the scientific and technical fields. The HPLC systems and osmometers produced are distributed worldwide in over 60 countries and are used for medical, pharmaceutical, chemical and environmental monitoring applications, as well as for quality control in many different industries.
The KNAUER company celebrated the 42nd anniversary of its founding in Berlin on the first of October. Alexandra Knauer, who since 1995 has been active as Managing Director and since 2000 is the sole owner of the company, has taken on the daunting task of upholding the company's long tradition while at the same time expanding into growing markets (amino acid analysis, capillary electrophoresis, micro HPLC) of the highly competitive international laboratory device market. The jury recognized that Alexandra Knauer had taken over the business in a crisis situation and was able to lead the company through this crisis successfully. She undertook a corporate realignment that transformed KNAUER into a modern and globally active company that has remained committed to its Berlin headquarters. In the last one and a half years, KNAUER has invested more than half a million Euro in its design and manufacturing departments and in so doing has added eight new jobs.
An important part of the company's success is the diversity of its staff: diversity, not just in the variety of qualifications the employees possess, but also diversity in the ages and cultures of the employees. When asked about the company's success, Alexandra Knauer simply answers, "It's the diversity that does it."
The prize-winner, herself a mother of a two-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son, sees to that every female employee with children receives the support necessary to balance their family-life and professional career through the contribution of tax-free childbirth aid or partial support of day-care center fees. Fathers can also take advantage of paternity leave after the birth of a child.
The awards ceremony took place on the occasion of the second Berlin Female Entrepreneurs Day of this year. This event offers the 25,000 self-employed women in Berlin a detailed program with a variety of educational and networking opportunities in the form of discussions, information forums and seminars.
Senator Harald Wolf stressed in his speech at the awarding of the prize the increasing importance of women in business. The goal of legislative policy should be to actively support women who choose professional careers. The percentage of women in leadership positions in Europe is markedly behind that of the United States. Germany is, in comparison to Europe, even farther behind. This must be changed. It would be a pity if the potential of the women in this country were to remain under-utilized. Entrepreneurial women could contribute substantially to the creation of additional jobs which are currently so urgently needed in this region.
Oliver Gültzow, Marketing, (Translation: Marie Campos)
Date of message: 11/02/2004, 536 words
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