Dr. Karin Bäppler, Head of Business Development and Presales, Traffic Tunnelling Group, Herrenknecht AG, Germany Karin graduated as a civil engineer from Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany (today KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and completed post graduate studies with her PhD at the Colorado School of Mines, USA. She joined Herrenknecht in 1997 and since then has specialized in geotechnology, research and development. From 2008 till 2024 Karin has managed the Geotechnical and Consulting department for the Traffic Tunnelling Division at Herrenknecht’s head office in Schwanau, Germany and in her current role she is responsible as Head of Business Development and Presales. Since June 2013, Karin has also been a member of the Supervisory Board of Herrenknecht AG. She is an invited lecturer for postgraduate degrees at Universities in France, Germany, Italy and the USA on the topic of Tunnelling and Tunnel Boring Machines and she lectures at international tunnel conferences on mechanized tunnelling technology.