Ronja Stoffregen, director of corporate venturing at Rehau New Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
For Ronja Stoffregen, the appeal of working in corporate innovation is not abstract strategy or long-term positioning alone. It is the combination of execution, cultural change and personal conviction that the work should both matter and be enjoyable. As she puts it, the role only works if it creates impact and if it is fun.
She loves talking to founders, peers and anyone engaged with “the new world” – the future – as well as people who ask difficult questions, challenge established ways of working and are willing to shake up the way things are done.
“Ultimately, I want to have fun, because life is too short. I want to work with people that I like and get inspired, especially by people who are thinking about the future and criticising the status quo,” she says.
“Your results will pave the way, because at the beginning nobody wants you to be the change, but if you keep changing little things, at some point you become this wave that is unstoppable”
What motivates her most is knowing that her work contributes directly to Rehau’s digitalisation and automation efforts, not as slideware, but as something tangible. She wants to see ideas translated into tools that colleagues actually use and to feel confident that what she has done will have a lasting effect.
It is in this spirit that she is driving change at Rehau New Ventures, the CVC arm of Rehau, a provider of polymer-based products. She is not only bringing in venture clienting expertise, but also a clienting-first approach to innovation, which, in her view, is the most effective operational due diligence for any equity investment.
Her advice to newcomers in the industry is that change is rarely welcomed at first and early resistance is normal. What matters is persistence and delivery. Small wins compound and results gradually create the space to do more ambitious work.
“Your results will pave the way, because at the beginning nobody wants you to be the change, but if you keep changing little things, at some point you become this wave that is unstoppable,” she says.
The Emerging Leaders are mid-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Emerging Leaders here.
