Eighteen months after his appointment as CEO at Vetaphone, Michael Behrens spoke with Nick Coombes about his role and responsibility to build on the foundation laid by the Eisby family in pioneering surface treatment technology.
NC: You became CEO of Vetaphone in late 2024. What was your first impression of the role?
MB: From day one, I knew I was stepping into more than just a job title. It was clear that this role is about stewardship as much as leadership. Vetaphone is a family-owned company built on engineering excellence and a strong sense of responsibility to the industry, and that heritage sets a clear direction for how the company should be led.
NC: You are the first non-family CEO. How does that influence your leadership approach?
MB: Continuity is essential. I am the first non-family CEO, but Frank and Jan Eisby remain actively involved through the Management Board. My role is therefore not to reinvent the company, but to build on its strengths by adding structure, scale, and momentum while preserving Vetaphone’s unique DNA.
NC: What stood out to you when you joined the company?
MB: What impressed me most was the pride and professionalism across the organisation. From engineering and production to sales and support, there is a shared focus on delivering the right solution for the customer rather than simply shipping equipment. Surface treatment is evolving fast – higher running speeds, more data, more consistency and less downtime. We must be able to respond to these changes. It’s important that we continue to listen carefully to our customers so that we can provide premium products and service in what is an ever-increasingly competitive marketplace.
NC: How do you define your main responsibility as CEO?
MB: My responsibility is to ensure that Vetaphone continues to perform and grow as a truly global business. Today we serve customers in more than 75 countries, supported by around 100 employees across seven countries. Equally important is our global agent network, which plays a critical role in our success by providing strong local presence, application expertise, and long-term customer relationships, all backed by Vetaphone’s core know-how.
NC: How does Vetaphone stay ahead in such a competitive and fast-moving market?
MB: We stay ahead by delivering far more than a corona treatment unit. Our role is to provide the know-how that ensures customers get the right solution the first time, based on their specific application and production requirements. We build on more than 75 years of experience by continuously improving our technology – smarter electronics, better energy efficiency, and systems that are safer and easier to operate. Equally important is our ability to support customers locally, with service and support available 24/7/365. This enables predictive maintenance and continuous optimisation, so our customers’ production always runs reliably and efficiently.
NC: Knowledge sharing seems to be a recurring theme. Why is that important?
MB: Knowledge sharing is integral to our role as the original inventor of corona treatment technology.  Vetaphone pioneered the corona technology that is used worldwide today, and that position carries both authority and responsibility.  Over decades, we have built unmatched application and process knowledge, and we consider it our obligation to define best practice and share that expertise with our customers—so they achieve stable production, consistent quality, and long-term operational performance.
NC: How are you preparing Vetaphone for future growth?
MB: We invest continuously in tools, processes, and people to ensure we can scale in a controlled and predictable way. At the same time, ESG and sustainability remain priorities, and we use Ecovadis as a structured framework to measure and improve our performance.
NC: What does long-term success look like for Vetaphone under your leadership?
MB: For me, it’s about building a company that can scale without losing its character – that can continue to lead the way in surface treatment and build a business that is ready for the future, not just the next order. My goal is to keep Vetaphone the most reliable name in surface treatment for our customers, our partners, and those who work here. We have the heritage, the technology and the people. The future is not about changing what we are, it’s about becoming even more of what makes us special. I’m proud to lead Vetaphone into its next chapter, and even prouder of the team that makes this possible every day.
