Audi 2007 Annual Report Download - page 31

THE LUMINARY
Terttu Pietilä, Finnish
The words of her grandfather from Lap-
land are still ringing in her ears: “Your
intuition will tell you whether a place is
good.” And Ingolstadt emits good
vibes, says Terttu Pietilä, who took over
as head of neurosurgery at Ingolstadt
Hospital almost four years ago. Life be-
side the river, flowing in a broad curve
through the landscape, the early morn-
ing mist hanging over the Danube’s
leafy floodplain, birds twittering in the
lowland forests: This Finn has taken a
shine to green Ingolstadt. “Cycling
along the banks of the Danube frees
your mind,” says the 51-year-old doctor.
With the wind blowing through her hair,
she watches oarsmen training on the
reservoir, as boats glide in circles
around them. Then she picks up pace
and leaves the city behind. The only
people she encounters are a couple of
random joggers or every so often a
fully-laden cyclist on holiday, heading
for the Danube delta. “It’s the best way
to shake off the weekday stress,” says
Terttu Pietilä. As a European delegate
to the World Federation of Neurosurgi-
cal Societies, her presence is often re-
quired at overseas conferences. She
performs 1,500 operations a year, and
her team includes colleagues from nine
different countries. “One of them is
from Bavaria,” she says with a smile.
It seems it took a while for her to get
used to his dialect.