The jury recognised that Alexandra Knauer had taken over the business in a crisis situation and was able to lead the company through this crisis successfully
The Berlin senate department for business, labour and women's issues has established a new award to honour women in Berlin who stand out for their entrepreneurial courage and leadership, as well as professional competence.
The first-prize award was bestowed on 30 October 2004 to Alexandra Knauer by Berlin senator for business Harald Wolf.
The 38-year old businesswoman heads the Berlin-Zehlendorf company Knauer Scientific Instruments, 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.
Alexandra Knauer has been active as managing director since 1995 and since 2000 is the sole owner of the company, and has taken on the task of upholding its 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 recognised 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 it 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 centre 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.
This event offers the 25,000 self-employed women in Berlin a detailed programme with a variety of educational and networking opportunities in the form of discussions, information forums and seminars.
