Family-run Busch Vacuum Solutions has supported the TUM University Foundation since 2019. The commitment demonstrated by alumnus and company founder Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch is now being continued by the next generation.
Busch Vacuum Solutions "Huckepack" and "R5" are very far from household names, and yet millions of these products are in operation all over the world, in applications including vacuum packaging for foodstuffs, plastics processing, and MedTech. They are vacuum pumps designed and developed by engineer and entrepreneur Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch, who died in the summer of 2025.
"My father would often tell me how happy he had been in Munich and how proud and grateful he was for being able to study at TUM," says his daughter Ayla Busch. Like her father before her, she is actively involved in the TUM University Foundation . She has served on the Foundation's Advisory Board since 2025. The non-profit foundation has the mission of advancing TUM's strategic development and providing fast, flexible assistance for talents and projects. Its financial resources are used to fund technology-intensive projects and student initiatives. The foundation supports fellowship programs for exceptional international postdoctoral researchers and the Deutschlandstipendium program for dedicated students. It also helps enable infrastructure projects, such as the TUMorrow Factory , a prototype workshop for students at the TUM Campus Garching.
With her brothers Sami and Kaya Busch, Ayla Busch helms the family company Busch Vacuum Solutions, based in Maulburg in Baden, Germany. The company manufactures and sells vacuum and overpressure technology and equipment, particularly for applications in the food industry and for semiconductor, solar cell, and battery manufacturing processes. Ayla Busch joined the family company in 1997, having studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford and Harvard University and gained an MBA. "A partnership of equals is very important to us," she says, "Our parents and we siblings worked together as an equal team from the outset, which is rather unusual."
The company was founded in 1963 by Karl and Ayhan Busch. "Our father was a brilliant inventor, whereas our mother contributed her strategic and commercial entrepreneurial talent," recalls Ayla Busch. The couple had met in the 1950s at an international student club. She was studying dentistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, while he was studying mechanical engineering at TUM. Karl Busch went on to gain a doctorate in engineering science. "He belonged to a generation that rolled up their sleeves as students to help rebuild buildings destroyed after the Second World War," recounts Busch.
While still completing his doctorate, Karl Busch developed a modern, efficient vacuum pump known as the "Huckepack-Pumpe" (piggyback pump), which operates using two stacked stages and is used in areas such as the chemical industry. With this and other inventions including the R5 pump, Karl Busch placed his stamp on the vacuum technology industry; his inventions became global industry standards.
"My father achieved so much in his life," says Ayla Busch. "He often stressed the excellence of the training he had received at TUM, where he learned much of what he needed as a developer and entrepreneur. In 2019 that gratitude spurred the family-business entrepreneur to make an endowment contribution to the TUM University Foundation's endowment capital and Busch Vacuum Solutions became TUM Partner of Excellence .
A longstanding family commitment
The Busch family is always ready to roll up their sleeves and provide support and assistance. After the devastating earthquake in Turkey and northern Syria in 2023, they donated € 100,000 to the TUM University Foundation for an emergency fund set up at TUM for the purpose of supporting students from affected families. The corporate strategy likewise highlights the role of social engagement: "We fund projects at all our company locations that provide support for people there," says Ayla Busch.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM The topic of education is a particular priority. "As a society, we urgently need to invest more in education," says Busch. The trio of CEOs are thus particularly emotionally invested in supporting the TUM University Foundation. "We are delighted to know that there is a university that breaks with the standard modus operandi and achieves success for its students and for the academic landscape across Germany and Europe. TUM combines dedication to excellence with openness, and this is the right path into the future."
Ayla Busch also enthuses about TUM's entrepreneurial approach: "Entrepreneurial spirit and more start-ups are what we need in Europe, and particularly in Germany." The innovation ecosystem around TUM and the start-up center UnternehmerTUM generates numerous high-growth tech start-ups-most recently, more than 100 companies in a single year. They receive assistance in the form of tailored programs and support from TUM Venture Labs which offer direct access to cutting-edge research.
Superb conditions for start-ups
The TUM University Foundation likewise contributes to this fertile environment, in ways including investment in the UnternehmerTUM venture capital fund, which supports technology-based start-ups. "TUM aims to be a launching-pad for a large number of start-ups, and offers the best conditions for this to happen," says Ayla Busch. The company co-owner and co-CEO has appeared five times in the list of the 100 most influential women in German business compiled by Manager Magazin and Boston Consulting Group.
Asked about the values that shape her company, she lists genuine teamwork among the most important principles. "We live in a complex and challenging world, so a leadership style that involves more team members is needed," she says. She particularly appreciates the technical excellence at TUM alongside the family spirit and the dedication that goes into the global alumni community. "Being connected and striving to drive things forward together is a wonderful motivation."
Founded in 2010, the non-profit TUM University Foundation has the aim of supporting strategic advancement at TUM. It promotes innovative university development projects beyond the limitations of state budgets.
This article was published in the third issue of the TUM Magazine.
