LuxQuanta's CEO shares her advice on SheCanCode interview

Vanesa Díaz leads LuxQuanta with her attitude and implacable commitment to bring LuxQuanta to be the reference QKD manufacturer worldwide. On an interview with SheCanCode https://shecancode.io/blog/spotlight-series-vanesa-diaz-chief-executive-officer-luxquanta/online media, the CEO talked about her journey, and the key learnings that made her achieve what has led to her position now.

KEEP MOVING DURING UNCERTAIN BEGGININGS

When questioned about her initial plans, Vanesa made it clear that life, instead of following a planned script, put her into situations that demanded a reassessment of her original ideas. Far from having everything neatly figured out, she found herself in moments in life where the unexpected presented an opportunity to choose plans vastly different from the ones she had originally envisioned. She specifies: 

"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."

To be a CEO was not in her mind neither: "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." stated Díaz "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". 

The path was being laid out in front of her as a result of her hard work at every stage of her life, and he moved following their values and desires at each moment. 

FACTORS OF SUCCESS: THISRT FOR LEARNING 

Vanesa's path although just beggining as CEo of LuxQuanta, is marked with decades of success and great achievements within the corporate world. From her perspective, a constant desire to learn and understand every situation has been critical for moving within the corporate world and excel as a professional in the field. 

"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."

Learning not only skills but also the rules that govern each game of life is critical to conquering any challenge and being able to use all of the knowledge in the best way possible. She emphasized that everyone is capable of acquiring such learning skills, but of course, some may have an instinct for knowledge that survives childhood and keeps burning throughout life: 

"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."

WHAT'S THE ROLE OF A CEO?

An StartUp CEO, or Chief Executive Officer, is leading the company in many areas. As Vanesa said, "In my current role, I lead our vision, strategy, investments and most importantly, our team.", a CEO must make the key decisions that move the company towards the right dircetion, towards its vision. This, includes leading the strategic partnerships, and work hard to secure the proper projects and investements to mantain the work of teh company and allow the optimal development of all the activities involved. 

However, most importantly, a CEO must lead the team with values, enthusiasm, and open communication. It's a realtionship, where trust and collaboration must go above all. "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".

ADVICE FOR ANYONE FEELING OVERWHELMED

Embarking on the professional journey within the tech sector can be daunting, but Vanesa beautifully shared some actionable advice for both young and not-so-young enthusiasts aiming to achieve success in the field: