After more than 50 years at the specialist for level and pressure measurement technology, Vega, Günter Kech is retiring on 31 December 2024. Kech has been a member of the management team for the last 25 years.
The Schiltach-based company celebrated his retirement at its Christmas party with around 1,100 employees and many invited guests of honour.
Even a whole evening is not enough to “do justice to the work you have done for Vega“, emphasised Elfriede Rauber and Edgar Schillinger, two of Kech’s long-time companions in the company. Be it the first devices with ultrasonic measurement technology, which Günter Kech was involved in developing in the 1970s. Or the development of the world’s first radar two-wire device, with which Vega achieved a sensation in 1997 and laid the foundation for its market leadership. The introduction of the plics platform in 2003, which standardised the operation of all measuring principles as an innovative modular system, was also revolutionary.
Vega attaches great importance to maximum simplicity
According to Vega, all of these developments were based on the aspiration that still characterises the company today and which Günter Kech played a decisive role in shaping: maximum simplicity for users. One example of this is the Vegapuls 6X, a level sensor for all applications. It has been on the market for two years and makes choosing the right sensor much easier, according to the company. What has motivated Günter Kech over the years? It must have been his enormous self-drive. “You were one of the most inquisitive people at Vega,” Managing Partner Isabel Grieshaber attested to him. Kech always wanted to know what was going on and was always striving to make what was good even better.
Getting to the bottom of things
This can also be seen in the various positions that Günter Kech has held during his career at Vega – whether as a developer, in setting up product management, as head of sales or in his passion as programmer and mastermind of the company’s own CRM system and, last but not least, as part of the management team, of which he has been a member since 1999: He always wanted to get to the bottom of things and get the best out of every situation. With this attitude, he has played a key role in the successful development of the measurement technology manufacturer. At the beginning of his apprenticeship in 1971, Vega had just 75 employees; today, the globally active company employs more than 2,400 people worldwide.
A trio becomes a duo
Throughout his career, Günter Kech has never forgotten that it is the people who make Vega what it is: “I have always seen myself as a guiding light, decision-maker and service provider for the employees,” he explained. Qualities that Isabel Grieshaber also emphasised in her very personal laudatory speech: “You were always honest, always straightforward – and you were my rock in every situation.” In Markus Kniesel, with whom Isabel Grieshaber will share the management as a duo in future, she has found a counterpart “with whom the vibes are fortunately as good as with you”, she said in the direction of Günter Kech – “even though you will be missing from our trio”.
“I’ve worked hard, invested a lot of my life in Vega and have been more than rewarded by the successes,” Günter Kech looked back, flashing his passion for the measurement technology manufacturer many times. Now, however, he is looking forward to handing over responsibility and “having more time for my family”. He concluded his speech by thanking long-time companions, people who had a special influence on him during his time at Vega and all employees: “Thank you to everyone who worked with me on Vega’s success. It wasn’t just me; it was teamwork.” In return, they expressed their appreciation with minutes of applause.
