I grew up in the 70s, with my grandparents, on a small mountain farm in Austria – guess that’s why I feel such a strong connection to nature.
Although we didn’t have much money, my grandparents supported me in taking a higher education. They simply knew that I’ve got an excellent brain and wanted me to put it to good use.
So, I started out as a chemical engineer, hence the Austrian title “Ing.” – which is the German shortcut for engineer. First I worked in genetic research, then in inorganic analytics and quality assurance. IT played a big role from the beginning. I worked with MS-DOS, OS/2 and Unix systems as well as with Macintosh – not only as a user, but also as an administrator.
In my twenties, I was lucky and got a healthy, beautiful daughter. I married my daughter’s dad and changed my name from Elke Brunthaler to Elke Bachler (btw, Barbara is my baptismal name, I quite like it, that’s why I use it, too).
The 90s were the time the WWW went mainstream, and we taught ourselves how to use that stuff. After some time as a stay-at-home mum I started working within the creative industry as a web designer and project manager.
In 2008, I completed an extra-occupational study at the University of Applied Sciences Campus 02 in Graz and became one of the first Bachelor of Sciences for Engineering in innovation management.
The same year I got self-employed, but that didn’t work out well enough. So I took a job as a chemical engineer in R&D, then worked as an innovation consultant, followed by a job as innovation manager in e-mobility. My last job before I decided to become self-employed again was in technical documentation, as a team leader, supporting the introduction of a new editorial system.
After two years of intensive “Biognosis Toolbox” product development and order projects in online communication and technical documentation, I was a bit thrown off track by the pandemic. The kreaWERFT lies at anchor once again, I relocated and since 2021 I’ve been working as an employee again, with main focus on idea management and lean production methods.
My foremost personal motivation is to create and support the creation of SEED – sustainable ecological economic design. And yes – I am a lifelong learner. Never stopped doing that, not planning to. That may why I started my master’s study “ecologigcal design” in September 2022, with main focus on being able to do life cycle assessments.
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