Andrea Bör (Image: Magdalena Jooß/TUM).
A PhD instead of industry
Andrea Bör’s doctorate was never planned. After achieving her degree, she wanted to enter industry, but the mother of four children was apparently not trusted by personnel managers to successfully balance career and family. So she decided to stay at the department – which turned out to be a stroke of luck, as Andrea Bör knows today.
At first, she worked as a research assistant in the department, to later become a consultant to the Vice President, supporting him in implementing a large IT project. “It meant working as a consultant as well as working as a project manager – exactly my thing,” says Bör, who enjoys application-oriented work. At the same time, she was able to get a taste of university politics. “That certainly paved the way for me to move on to administrative management,” she adds. The die was cast in favor of this career path when she became Managing Director of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.
It was a very, very good school and luckily I was never daunted by just doing the job.
Supported by her family and by mentors
Andrea Bör was not only supported by her husband and her family, but also by important advisors and companions. She herself was a mentee in various programs and later became involved as a mentor at TUM. Her first mentor was TUM Alumna Maren Heinzerling, who organized the first Munich Girls’ Technology Day in 1990. Andrea Bör was allowed to work in the organization as a high school graduate. “Maren Heinzerling accompanied me through my studies. She supported me, even when I went to Berlin. Her advice and her place as a role model in my life are very important to me,” says Bör, who considers role models to be very important, especially for women, so that both women and men can realize their full potential.
Andrea Bör spent a total of 18 years at TUM: After finishing her degree, she completed her PhD and was ultimately Managing Director of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Image: Magdalena Jooß/TUM).
Degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology 1997, Doctorate 2005
Andrea Bör was born in Munich in 1970 and studied Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at TUM after graduating from high school. She was the first female research assistant at the Chair of Communication Networks and completed her doctorate in Information Technology in 2005. Following that, she was a consultant to the Vice President at TUM as well as being Managing Director of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. After 18 years she left TUM to take up the position of Chief Information Officer at Saarland University. In 2011 she became Chancellor at the University of Passau and has been Chancellor of the Free University of Berlin since 2016. Andrea Bör is involved in the TUM Mentoring of Alumni for Students, is married and has four children.
Andrea Bör in interview: Read the entire conversation in the current issue of our Alumni magazine>
