Saskia Bakhuis
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Biography
Saskia co-founded Terravek in 2007 with Merijn Vroegh, initially to commercialise a laser-altimetry processing toolchain the two had built inside the DIAG geodesy group. She ran delivery and sales personally for the first four years — the Noordwal dyke survey of 2008 was a contract she wrote, flew and invoiced herself.
She became CEO when the company converted to a B.V. structure in 2009 and has led it through two acquisitions, two funding rounds and expansion to eight countries. Her operating focus is unglamorous and consistent: delivery reliability, gross margin per scene, and keeping the engineering-to-sales ratio above 2:1.
Saskia chairs the Terravek Green 2030 steering group and sits on the advisory council of the Zuid-Holland Innovation Board. She speaks regularly at the Terravek Summit and, less regularly, about why the company has never taken a defence contract.
Education
- MSc Geodetic Engineering, Delft Institute of Applied Geomatics (DIAG), 2001
- MBA, Rotterdam Business Academy, 2012
Certifications
- Registered Surveyor (NL), 2003
Languages
Dutch, English, German
Interests
Long-distance sailing, Dutch water history, Mentoring female founders, Baking sourdough
Direct reports
- Ilaria Bonetti — Chief Marketing Officer
- Lars Ehrenfeld — Chief Financial Officer
- Nuno Ferreira Alves — Chief Revenue Officer
- Ingrid Halvorsen — Chief Information Security Officer
- Daan Kruithof — Chief Product Officer
- Élodie Marchand — Chief Scientific Officer
- Marijke Ottevanger — Data Protection Officer
- Owen Radcliffe — General Counsel & Company Secretary
- Priya Ramanathan — Chief Operating Officer
- Merijn Vroegh — Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
- Tomasz Wieczorek — Chief Information Officer
- Katrin Wiegand — Chief People Officer