Katrin Kursch
Who are you?
I am Katrin, I am currently working as Technical Sales Manager for Izoref GmbH, an installation service company for every high temperature industry. I studied mineralogy with a specification in refractories and with a deep dive in corrosion resistance of fibre insulation materials for my diploma work at the DIFK.
How old are you and for how long do you work in the refractories industry?
I am 40 years old and have been working in the refractory industry for 15 years, mainly as refractory expert for the steel industry.
Who has significantly influenced your professional life?
I am very grateful I had a real mentor in my professional life. Andreas Baaske, refractory engineer at thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, pathed my way into the refractory world. He introduced me to every project and to every client, while taking me on a trip for more than 2 years through all of Europes plants.
Tell us something about your personal background. What do you burn for besides refractories?
I am working as volunteer for a really cool non profit association called Unternehmen Zündkerze e.V.. We organize a group ride for physical and mental handicapped people with trikes, choppers and drawn vehicles every year. To support this “Jumborun” with now more than 250 machines, we finance the whole weekend with barbecue, accomodation at our own camp site, breakfast and evening entertainment.
Our core team has 12 members but as a support, the complete Sonsbeck area is involved in our event. It is amazing to see the glance in the eyes of more than 600 happy faces, besides our owns.
How did you get aware of Women@Refractories?
Kerstin Hauke talked with me about it and I was on fire at the first sentence.
Why did you join Women@Refractories?
Because I always tried to get awareness about rare female professionals in our industries and I am really convinced that we have to be visible and connected at any point. “You cannot be what you cannot see”, that’s my deepest belief.
How has the initiative impacted your professional or personal life?
The most important one is definitely the networking and connecting to so many powerful women in a lot of different countries, to use their contacts, their expertise, sometimes their positions in the companies.
In the near future it has even more impact with guiding our new mentoring program for Women@Refractories. And a quite important fact for me: our growth over the last years really helped me to improve my business English a lot, e.g. because of our international leaderboard meetings.
Which specific tasks or areas do you currently support within the initiative, and/or in which areas would you like to contribute in the future to expand your professional or soft skills?
I am delighted to guide our new mentoring program together with my well experienced colleague Birgit. Within this, we support and lead young professionals towards an exciting journey side to side with their mentors.
How did becoming a member of Women@Refractories and its Leaderboard changed your professional network?
I was well connected with and quite known to steel and refractory companies within the DACH area. With the participation at Women@Refractories, the connections became way broader and international and I am really glad to be a part of this incredible network of strong and enthusiastic women.
If you had to describe Women@Refractories in one sentence, what would it be?
Women@Refractories could be the biggest impact and greatest chance for our generations - at least within the “refractory family”.
Thanks, Katrin! We love to have you with us!