When the Manager Magazin and the Boston Consulting Group 2015 launched the initiative around the “100 most influential women in the German economy” – at that time only with 50 finalists – the two partners were far from being sure how far the idea would bear. Would women from business want to advance diversity and gender justice in the German economy together with us? Would you be made visible on our list of 100, would you bring time, knowledge and ideas and actively network? The interest and encouragement of some managers that have already been established at the time, supervisory boards and entrepreneurs convinced us to do the right thing.
Andrea Fuder was one of these supporters from the very beginning. In 2016 we awarded her for the first time, after a successful career she was at Volkswagen moved to Volvo Trucks to Gothenburg. She was highly respected in the car industry. Year after year, we counted Fuder, one of the very few top managers in the Autowelt shop, one of the 100 most important female personalities in the economy – also because she was always a pioneer for the thoughts of diversity.
Strong and inferior
The industrial engineer with MBA from Purdue University in Indiana started in 1992 at the Wolfsburg car manufacturer and quickly discovered shopping there. After a stop at Bentley, Fuder took responsibility for the interior of the VW models in 2009. At that time, many companions of the enforcement manager would have believed that the position of the then shopping board Francisco Javier García Sanz would have taken over.
But when he finally left in 2018, Fuder had been looking for new ways. She switched to Volvo via Scania and rose to the board at the truck manufacturer in 2017. Your department: of course the purchase. Fuder initiated profound conversions – and did not return when Wolfsburg wanted to win her to the board. The supplier network is “stronger than ever” today, according to the group.
The management colleagues in Germany She always remained connected. At the latest since she had personally experienced how Swedish companies naturally live the equality between men and women, the conviction must have matured in it that somewhat thoroughly went wrong in Germany. In the “top 100 women”, she was involved from the start, flew reliably to the events, otherwise watched the initiative to grow from a distance and was always available.
On the occasion of the first major anniversary – the initiative of the “Top 100 Women” will be ten years old in 2025 – Andrea Fuder had invited to a meeting of the network in Gothenburg. This has not been possible. The manager died after a serious illness, she was 58 years old. “She leaves a remarkable legacy,” wrote Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt (58) on LinkedIn.