MAYNARD — Growing up in the large city of Hamburg, Germany, Vanessa Hansch knew the United States from television shows and movies featuring places like New York City, Los Angeles or even Disneyland. And, from the age of 10, she wanted to come to the U.S.
as a foreign exchange student. She got that opportunity in 1999, and learned her destination: Maynard, Minnesota. She arrived bleary-eyed, jet-lagged and very groggy after a long flight and delays.
On the ride from the airport in Minneapolis, “I woke up a couple of times and all I could see was just fields,” Hansch said. The next thing she knew, she was driving down a gravel driveway and could not even see what would be her new home. “Just trees,” she said she saw while thinking to herself: “What did I get myself into here?” These years later, and that question answered, Hansch has brought her husband, Hanno, and their two young children for a summer vacation to show them Minnesota in person.
They stayed during the third week of August at Dickerson’s Resort on Lake Florida, enjoying all the best that Minnesota offers. Little did she expect it in 1999, but that road to Maynard led Hansch to travel more of the world, take positions with Cargill and ExxonMobil, and just over eight years ago, to launch and lead her own company, Y2B. Her company is focused on improving the workplace environment at companies large and small in her native Hamburg and locations across much of Germany.
She credits her time as a studen.