Stefanie Hach never set out to fit the traditional image of a CEO. Instead of following a predefined leadership model, she built her own—grounded in curiosity, authenticity and the belief that everyone should become the “CEO of their own responsibility.”
Today, as Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, she is at the forefront of Vectoflow’s next phase of growth. Together with the team, she is pursuing a clear ambition: to establish Vectoflow as Europe’s technology standard for safety-critical aerodynamic flow measurement.
Taking Ownership Early On
Stefanie grew up in an entrepreneurial family, surrounded by people who built businesses from scratch. She learned early: “If you want to achieve something meaningful, no one will hand it to you. You have to create the opportunity yourself.”
Her fascination with people who build businesses from nothing stayed with her. That curiosity eventually led her to one of the most formative roles of her career: working as the right-hand to the founder of one of Europe’s leading software companies. Stefanie recalls it as an extraordinary learning experience because she was not confined to a single function.
Moving between mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, strategic projects and organizational leadership gave her a front-row seat to how companies grow—and how leaders make decisions under pressure. “Looking back, that role shaped not only my business knowledge, but also my belief that great leadership is less about authority and more about taking ownership, staying curious and continuously learning,” Stefanie says.
Deliver Results to Be Taken Seriously
Women in leadership roles are still a rarity rather than the norm in many industries, especially across technology-driven sectors. It can be challenging to get attention and be perceived as the leading person or expert. For Stefanie, too, one of the more complex aspects of her leadership journey has been building credibility as a young female executive in traditionally male-dominated industries.
While Stefanie believes that equal opportunity does not always translate into equal perception, she is convinced that women can reach any leadership position they aspire to.
Throughout her career, she has encountered various situations that required her to prove her capabilities as a young leader. Experiences ranged from customers assuming her male colleagues must be the expert, and others questioning whether she was capable of leading, sometimes because of her age, and other times because she was a woman. “What I learned from these experiences is that if someone wants to keep you small, it often says more about the other person’s reality than about my capabilities,” she says. Instead of trying to change every perception, she chose to focus on consistently delivering results.
“Over time, performance has a way of challenging even the strongest preconceptions,” Stefanie says. Instead of spending much energy trying to convince people before they have worked with her, she lets competence, preparation, and results speak first.
“I’ve found that credibility is not something you demand, but something you earn, one decision and one success at a time,” she adds.
Lessons Learned from Working in International Markets
Working across different European markets, Stefanie experienced that every country, every company, and every team has its own culture. She believes great leaders don’t try to erase those differences but learn from them.
Throughout her career, Stefanie has led and collaborated with diverse international teams. One valuable lesson she learned is that successful leadership starts with curiosity and respect. She also understands that how people think, communicate, and make decisions is often just as important as understanding the business itself.
“I also picked up small but memorable lessons from every culture I have worked with,” she says. The French taught her that it is perfectly acceptable to enjoy a glass of red wine on a Tuesday evening, while the Swiss showed that leaving the office on time does not make one any less committed or ambitious. She was impressed by her British colleagues’ ability to celebrate wholeheartedly and still show up ready to perform the next morning. And in Germany, Stefanie learned the value of persistence, reliability, and following through, even when things get difficult.
“These experiences have shaped not only my leadership style but also my perspective on success,” Stefanie says, adding that the best leaders don’t assume their way is the only way, but stay curious enough to learn something from every culture and every person they meet.
Smaller Milestones Shaping an Exemplary Career
When Stefanie looks back, she sees many small milestones shaping her career. She felt proud after every promotion, every new client, and every achievement.
In her perception, careers are built one step at a time. At times, those steps may seem insignificant or even be the wrong turn, but they all prepared her for the opportunities that followed.
“If there is one milestone that I’m most proud of, it isn’t a particular role,” she says. “It’s the realization that growth comes from consistently saying yes to challenges and never stopping learning.”
Managing Dual Responsibilities
As Stefanie is the Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, one could assume that she constantly switches between two completely different roles. “In reality, they complement each other remarkably well,” she says.
Commercial success is the foundation of every growing company, so having direct insight into their customers, markets, and commercial performance allows Stefanie to make better strategic decisions as Co-CEO. “That said, I certainly don’t do it alone, ” she says. She considers herself fortunate to work with an exceptionally strong leadership team that takes ownership of their areas and enables her to focus on the topics where she can create the greatest impact, whether that is shaping their long-term strategy, driving organizational development, or supporting key customer relationships.
What Stefanie enjoys most is that the two roles challenge her in very different ways. The commercial side is highly data-driven, measurable, and follows a clear strategy with defined objectives, while the Co-CEO role is broader. The latter requires vision, judgment, and sometimes trusting one’s instincts when there is not a clear playbook. It is about shaping the direction of an entire company, its culture, and its future.
“For me, that combination of analytical thinking and entrepreneurial leadership is exactly what makes the role so rewarding,” Stefanie says.
The Leadership Style
Every person brings something unique to the table. Great leadership, Stefanie says, is not about trying to make everyone equally good at everything. She recognizes individual strengths and creates an environment where people can build on them.
She has always believed that investing in people’s strengths creates far greater results than constantly trying to fix every weakness.
Personally, she has never enjoyed being micromanaged, so she tries to lead the same way. She gives people ownership and the freedom to decide how they want to achieve their goals. Flexibility is an important part of the company’s culture because different people perform at their best in different ways. “What matters to me isn’t where or how the work gets done,” Stefanie says. “It’s that we deliver outstanding results, support one another, and stay committed to our shared mission.”
“When people feel trusted rather than controlled, they become more engaged, more creative, and ultimately take greater ownership of their work,” she adds. “In my experience, that is where real performance begins. For me, business excellence starts with a simple decision: showing up every day determined to give your best. That doesn’t necessarily mean giving 100% every single day. Some days, all you have is 30% and if you genuinely give those 30%, then you’ve given everything you could. Sustainable excellence is built on consistency, not perfection.”
Innovation Central to Vectoflow’s Success
Vectoflow is a developer of flow measurement technologies and air data systems, for example for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Innovation is the foundation of the company’s success. “It’s not a department or a project,” Stefanie says. “It’s our mindset.”
The company operates in industries such as aerospace, defense, and turbomachinery, where reliability is critical and and change often happens gradually. Creating meaningful innovation in these environments requires both technological excellence and the courage to challenge established ways of thinking. One of Vectoflow’s defining innovations is its use of additive manufacturing—industrial 3D printing. “We are among the pioneers in bringing additive manufacturing into the serial production of aerospace measurement systems, an area where 3D printing was traditionally seen primarily as a prototyping technology”, says Stefanie.
Vectoflow’s approach offers several key advantages for aerodynamic measurement. For example, it allows the company to create highly customizable solutions tailored to specific aircraft or testing setups, while still being produced consistently in large quantities. Stefanie explains that since the components are printed in a single piece, they are particularly robust —an important advantage in aerospace, where measurement equipment must withstand demanding conditions.
She credits her team for making this possible. They are a dynamic, highly motivated group of engineers and specialists who continuously question the status quo and look for better solutions. Some of their approaches may seem unconventional in a traditionally conservative industry. “But that is precisely where innovation begins,” Stefanie says. “Real progress comes from challenging assumptions and turning bold ideas into technologies that customers can rely on.”
Influencing the Future of Aerospace Engineering
The aerospace industry is on the verge of a period of profound transformation. Vectoflow, Stefanie says, is well positioned to shape that future.
For decades, aerodynamic measurement technologies have evolved incrementally. The Vectoflow team is demonstrating that there is another way. It combines advanced additive manufacturing, intelligent engineering, and customer-centric development to create solutions that are lighter, smarter, and more adaptable than traditional approaches.
Stefanie is particularly proud that proving innovation doesn’t depend on company size. As a relatively small and agile technology company, Vectoflow is trusted by some of the world’s leading aerospace and defense organizations.
“Our ambition is clear,” Stefanie says. “We want to help define the next generation of aerodynamic measurement technology.” If, ten years from now, the solutions they are developing today have become the new industry standard, she believes they will have made a meaningful contribution to the future of aerospace engineering.
Leadership Changed Her Perspective
Leadership made Stefanie more humble and, above all, more grateful. “Grateful for the way I was raised, for the values my family instilled in me, and for the opportunities I’ve been given throughout my career,” she says.
For her, one of the greatest privileges of leadership is meeting people with completely different life stories. She has worked with colleagues and leaders who overcame various challenges, and she has seen how adversity can shape incredible resilience, determination, and kindness. This is why she does not take success for granted.
Stefanie is aware that achievements are the result of hard work, the support of many people along the way, and a commitment to keep learning every day. “If leadership has changed me in one fundamental way, it is this: success has made me more appreciative, not more certain,” Stefanie says. “The more I achieve, the more I realize how much I still have to learn.”
Encouraging the Next Generation to Lead Authentically
Stefanie hopes to see her leadership encourage the next generation of leaders to stop trying to fit into a predefined image of what a leader is supposed to look or act like. For a long time, she was told that she was too young, too direct, too approachable, or simply not what people expected from a CEO. She also recalls that at different points in her career, she was advised to change parts of her personality in order to be taken more seriously.
“Ironically, the opposite turned out to be true,” she says. “The more I tried to fit someone else’s definition of leadership, the less authentic I became.” Everything changed when she realized that authenticity was not a weakness, but her greatest strength. People follow leaders they trust, not the perfect ones.
“If I could leave one legacy, it would be to give future leaders the confidence to lead in a way that is true to who they are,” Stefanie says. “Leadership doesn’t require you to become someone else. It requires you to become the best version of yourself.”
Advice for Young Professionals
In the field of engineering and technology, it is easy to believe that everyone else knows more than oneself. Stefanie advises young professionals not to let that feeling intimidate them. “Most things become much clearer once you have the courage to ask questions and stay curious,” she says.
Although she is not an engineer, Stefanie has spent her entire career in technology and engineering companies. She learned an important lesson from that experience: great leadership is not about having all the technical answers; it is about building a team of experts one trusts and creating an environment where that expertise can flourish. According to Stefanie, the best leaders are not necessarily the smartest people in the room. They are the ones who bring out the best in the people around them while remaining authentic to themselves.
“You will learn,” she tells young professionals stepping into a role before they feel ready. “Trust your ability to grow, and don’t try to imitate someone else’s leadership style.”
