What unites the team? A clear service mindset, pace and the ambition to give purpose to work at Vanguard: making sustainable medical technology understandable and actively shaping change in healthcare.
Jana Icke – Head of Executive Support Team (focus on Operations)
Jana Icke returned to Vanguard in June 2025 – for the third time. What has always convinced her is above all the business model. “In the end, it is the people who make the difference – and that is exactly why I have always come back.”
As team lead, she keeps an overview of everything that reaches the Management Board – from content preparation to very practical day-to-day support. She sees her team as a true service unit for the organisation: “We are all-rounders, supporting the Board on content and in practical matters for all colleagues.”
Structure is key: with an early start, a daily at 8 a.m. and a day ranging from meetings to project work, the focus is on priorities and quick clarification.
What drives her is visible results: “Completed tasks motivate me. I value it when the Board supports the decisions I make and work is taken off their desks.”
Verena Ambeau – Executive Advisor (focus on Sales, domestic and international)
Verena Ambeau has been with Vanguard since March 2012, bringing more than a decade of experience at the company. For her, the reprocessing of medical devices was initially “a completely new and exciting field”, and the fascination with its depth and uniqueness has remained.
In her role as Executive Advisor with a focus on sales, she works independently while always keeping market requirements in view. She describes the collaboration as dynamic: strong personalities, different perspectives and an exchange that drives progress.
The team benefits from her extensive experience across different areas of the Vanguard world, as well as from her strong intuition for people and interconnections. She brings perspectives together, develops topics further and often contributes beyond her formal responsibilities – with foresight and a clear understanding of the bigger picture.
For the future of the healthcare system, she advocates joint action and summarises it in one sentence: “Only with remanufacturing and sustainable medical technology can a cost-controlled and resource-efficient healthcare system be achieved in the future.”
Jennifer Schmidt – Executive Advisor (focus on Administration)
Sometimes it is not the advertised role, but a conversation about perspectives that makes the difference: Jennifer Schmidt has been with Vanguard since September 2025, after being offered a role by Ulrike Marczak during the application process that opened up new development opportunities. A turning point after years in male-dominated structures: she describes it as a lived female empowerment when women in leadership not only support other women, but actively promote them.
In her role, she supports departments such as HR and IT, coordinates projects and appointments, and ensures that key documents such as standard operating procedures and policies are created in a structured way – formally sound and transparent. What matters most to her is collaboration at eye level. She sees herself “not as a controlling authority”, but as an ally in developing solutions together.
Her personal motivation is impact, also beyond the organisation: “I want my time to contribute to something that truly makes a difference.”
When describing Vanguard externally, she starts with the core: “We remanufacture single-use medical devices so carefully that they can be safely reused up to five times.”
Magdalena Beyer – Executive Assistant
Magdalena Beyer has been with Vanguard since September 2025 and contributes her organisational strengths in what she describes as a forward-looking environment.
Her daily work forms the foundation for ensuring that “internal office operations run smoothly”: emails, calls, internal orders, the intranet – as well as everything from welcoming visitors to coordination, enabling the Management Board to focus on their priorities.
What motivates her is the variety. The tasks are broad, both challenging and rewarding. At Vanguard, she experiences every day how teamwork creates solutions.
Her perspective on sustainability is clear and vivid: “Fewer mountains of waste, more intelligent circular systems. Healthcare should heal people while protecting the planet. I believe sustainability in medicine will soon become as natural as digitalisation. We will move away from ‘new at all costs’ towards ‘used intelligently’.”
When it comes to remanufacturing, she emphasises the importance of education: many are unaware of the strict standards in place – and that prejudices only disappear when it becomes clear how rigorously quality and safety are ensured.
Thank you to the Executive Support Team
Four roles, four perspectives and one shared ambition: to provide efficient support, take responsibility and represent Vanguard as a reliable partner for sustainable medical technology, both internally and externally.
