World's 20 Inspiring Women to Follow in 2025
Company: Innoversa Factory GmbH | Innoversa gUG
Designation: Founder & CEO & Advanced Autism Specialist
Country: Germany
True innovation is only meaningful when it is inclusive. Technology must not leave anyone behind it should empower those who need it most.
Leila Quote: "I chose a different path because I wanted to be close to people, not just technology. Every day, I am reminded that the real impact of innovation lies in changing lives."
From the very beginning of her career, Leila Mekacher has been guided by the conviction that technology is not only about innovation but also about inclusion. After completing her Diplom degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation, she advanced into the field of robotics and software technology by pursuing a PhD in safety-critical systems. Alongside her research, she lectured on autonomous mobile robots and led a group focused on unmanned aerial vehicles. Yet, what defined this period was not only her technical achievements, including co-inventing an eye-tracking control system for an intelligent wheelchair and smart-home devices, which resulted in a patent, but also the realization that her true purpose lay in applying technology to those who need it most.
Despite completing her doctorate with high honors (magna cum laude), she chose an unconventional path. Rather than entering the corporate sector, she continued her academic involvement while dedicating herself to full-time teaching at the SRH vocational training center for young people with special needs. Being with her students every day, she worked to understand their challenges and develop solutions tailored to their realities, just as she had done before in the areas of rehabilitation robotics and eye-gaze control systems. This experience gave her a deep understanding of the barriers faced by autistic individuals, high unemployment rates, rejection during job applications, and job losses despite the unique strengths they bring. This realization became the foundation for her future work.
In 2018, Leila established a technological education center within the vocational training institution, specifically designed to equip autistic and neurodivergent individuals with cutting-edge skills. What began as a small experiment grew into a thriving learning ecosystem, where participants engaged in industry collaborations, clinical research, and international publications. By 2021, she had built a dedicated team and demonstrated that people on the autism spectrum could not only keep pace but excel in immersive technologies, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and programming when supported by the right environment.
Building on this foundation, she launched Innoversa Factory GmbH in 2023, an innovative company providing immersive solutions for vocational training and creating meaningful employment opportunities for people on the autism spectrum. Alongside it, she founded Innoversa gUG, a non-profit organization dedicated to STEM projects for children and young people, where she shares her passion for robotics and future-oriented technologies as a STEM Ambassador. Certified nationally and internationally as an Advanced Autism Specialist, she also works to raise awareness and provide job coaching to ensure greater inclusion in the workplace. Together, these organizations embody her belief that inclusion and innovation must move forward together.
Her impact today extends across Europe, where she serves as a partner in a three-year European project (Green ASC VET, also known as Metautism) together with renowned institutions and companies from Croatia, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, and Hungary. The initiative develops immersive VR/AR training tools to support autistic individuals in vocational training, career orientation, and the transition to employment. By combining skills-tracking with inclusive innovation, it empowers both learners and workplaces to recognize strengths and create sustainable opportunities. Her work further includes joint international publications, immersive escape rooms for education, edutainment applications, offering end-of-study projects for students, and collaborating with young entrepreneurs in North Africa. In addition, she provides immersive learning simulators for professional training in technical, craft, and healthcare sectors with exclusivity in Germany as well as in the MENA and GCC regions through partnerships with French companies. Recognizing this work, Innoversa Factory was named a “Company of the Future” in 2025 by the German Innovation Institute and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.
Beyond her achievements as an entrepreneur and woman in IT, Leila Mekacher inspires as a role model for many women, as she has successfully built her path in Germany despite her migration background. She is committed to women’s empowerment, starting with young girls and migrant women, whom she supports through various national initiatives aimed at promoting female students and young academics. In addition, she contributes actively to the Zonta Club, a global organization that advocates for women’s rights, works to eliminate violence against women and girls, and promotes empowerment through education, leadership, and equal opportunities.
Through her academic roots, entrepreneurial vision, dedication to social participation, and unwavering commitment to inclusion, Leila Mekacher continues to demonstrate how technology can become a powerful bridge between innovation and humanity. Her leadership is guided by values of integrity, empathy, and resilience, ensuring that innovation is never pursued for its own sake, but always with a human-centered purpose. By combining scientific rigor with creativity, and entrepreneurial courage with social responsibility, she exemplifies how the future of technology must be inclusive, sustainable, and deeply connected to the needs of society.
