She expertly leads the company’s activities related to business development, strategic partnerships, and investor relationships with an exceptional blend of technical and business knowledge. Diaz’s background is rooted in her MSc in Telecommunications and a Master’s in Business and Marketing from Griffith University in Australia. Leading with vision and determination, Vanesa is driving innovation in CV-QKD while establishing LuxQuanta as an industry reference.
Prior to joining LuxQuanta, Vanesa worked in the telecoms sector at Vodafone and Corning. A real trailblazer, Vanesa was drawn to LuxQuanta as a result of her passion for quantum computing. Not only has Vanesa made the jump to the quantum industry but she’s now responsible for leading a fast-growing organisation with ambitious plans to make Europe quantum secure.
HOW DID YOU LAND YOUR CURRENT ROLE? WAS IT PLANNED?
I became a telecommunication engineer almost by accident. My original idea was to become a doctor, but over time, my teachers at school convinced me to get an engineering degree instead as “I was quite good at maths”. After several applications, I managed to get into telecommunications engineering.
I worked at Corning Optical Communications for over 11 years across its market development department before joining LuxQuanta as a business development manager in December 2021 and becoming CEO of the company a year later.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR CAREER, SO FAR?
Becoming the CEO of LuxQuanta is by far my proudest career achievement to date. I never dreamed I could get a job like this, as I previously worked in large corporations where you tend to perceive the top jobs as something that is next to impossible to achieve.
Over my career, I have built solid professional foundations after decades of acquiring new skills in many diverse areas of business such as engineering, market development, marketing, product development and manufacturing. Also, I have seen how large corporations work, so I know what success looks like in a business, and the ability to learn from different leadership styles.
WHAT DOES AN AVERAGE WORKDAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
In my current role, I lead our vision, strategy, investments and most importantly, our team. The dream is to grow LuxQuanta to become a worldwide leader in the quantum communication industry. My personal goal is to do so in a way that our team is fueled every day with enthusiasm and a sense of belonging because they know how fundamental they are in our success for the incredible journey that we are on together.
WHAT ONE THING DO YOU BELIEVE HAS BEEN A MAJOR FACTOR IN YOU ACHIEVING SUCCESS?
Funnily enough, this is not something that was clear at the beginning of my professional career. It took many years, many jobs and much-appreciated feedback to realise what my managers saw very clearly before I did: my ability to learn new things, learn them fast and learn them well.
It turns out that learning makes me happy, now that I am in my 40s, I actually see learning as one of the two very purposes of life. And that has always been in my nature I guess because since I was very young I have been inevitably curious and eager to bring light to those areas that I recognise as useful or interesting and I wasn’t yet skilled enough at.
ENTERING THE WORLD OF WORK CAN BE DAUNTING. DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS OF ADVICE FOR ANYONE FEELING OVERWHELMED?
Being a good, fast and thorough learner is an incredible door-opener in any professional career, especially in the tech industry. This is because things change constantly, and they do incredibly quickly when it comes to technology. This is why embracing change and evolution in the technology sector is essential.
Technology evolves, and as it does so, people’s needs and requirements in terms of professionals and skills also evolve in tandem. So it is our very own responsibility to take leadership of our own professional development seeking support from supervisors, peers, and friends and being thorough when we embark upon the wonderful journey of learning something new.
