Follow-up: 1st International Monsana Conference Continued

Monika Lehnhardt was born in Vienna and graduated from the University Alma Mater Rudolfina in Vienna. She obtained her PhD is in philology, psychology and philosophy.

She has held various positions in companies such as Schering (Berlin), Monsanto  (Düsseldorf and Brussels), Pharmacia (Freiburg) and she established Cochlear Europe in Basel in 1987. Between the years 1987 and 1999, as Chief Executive Officer, Cochlear Europe grew from two to seventy employees and additional offices were opened in London and Hannover.

In 1999 she decided to step aside and continued to work in a Management position for business development and customer relations. In 2001 she accepted the offer from Sydney headquarters to continue as a consultant to Cochlear Europe. In this position
she travelled extensively in Europe and also to the US. In autumn 2004 she became a full time employee of Cochlear Europe again and held the position of Area Manager Central & Eastern Europe until her retirement in January 2008. Her area of responsibility comprised 18 countries from Russia to the Baltic, Ukraine and Kazachstan.

She lectures at scientific conferences and organises congresses for professionals and parents of children with cochlear implants. She is a published author on various topics related to cochlear implants (technical, audiological and rehabilitation aspects).

Since 2002, she has been Managing Director of the Professor Ernst Lehnhardt-Foundation and served for a couple of years as a member of the Board of Auditory Verbal International, Inc. (AVI. Inc.).

She actively participated in the QESWHIC Project (Qualification of Educational Staff Working with Hearing Impaired Children), a three years programme (2002 to 2005) developing training material online under the sponsorship of the European Community as one of the Comenius actions. This is accessible under www.lehn-acad.net

In July 2007 she was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor by the International Academy of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, St. Petersburg. The ceremony took place at the Hofburg in Vienna.

In 2007 she established her own company together with Simone Lei Hugentobler under the name of Monsana AG in Basel, Switzerland.