I was born in a small village, in the middle of southern Sweden. It was calm and tranquil there and mainly what I did was eat, sleep and play football. I’m crazy about football, like many Swedes. At 17, I moved away to take up my first job near Stockholm at Saab Military Aircraft, where I trained to be an electrical engineer alongside my duties. We were developing military tools, but in Sweden we only ever create for peace-keeping operations and defense systems. I stayed for a decade in that first job, before Erickson offered me another great opportunity and I moved on to gain rich experience in research and development.
All was going pretty well, and then I met the love of my life. She lived in Nykoping, and of course I took up a job locally, to be near her. Of course, I also joined the local football team. One day, one of my fellow footballers mentioned Cewe Instrument. He said I’d have a lot of fun working with this company. I started in 2003 and he was right. In 2005/6, when Secure first acquired Cewe, it was a pretty tough time of transition for everyone. It’s fascinating to bring Indian and Swedish culture together and we’ve had a fruitful experience of doing this, but it takes time to find the right balance for everyone.
At first it’s not always easy for Indian colleagues to get used to the quiet, to the winter’s darkness and cold, and our food. But experience has informed us that in the small, pretty town of Nykoping, in fact we do have a couple of Indian restaurants that can help soften the monumental shift from East to West, and some of our Indian colleagues have grown to love the style of life here. I’ve always felt confident with all cultures and diverse peoples. When we were young, my mother moved to France. She was and still is a bit of a hippie, who likes to organise rock concerts. My brother and I travelled between Sweden and France all the time as kids and have always felt happy and open with all sorts of people.
Partly I think I’m good at sales because I just can’t stand losing. It’s a bit of a joke amongst family and friends. When I’ve lost an important football match, I must admit, it’s possible I may have been spotted crying once or twice! I was born a glass-half-full kind of guy. As I feel it, there’s so much to be positive about. I’ve been lucky, because where others might see negativity, I just see opportunity. Earlier working for Cewe, we were able to create great products and solutions, but looking back now, it was a bit like making a painting only in black and white. When Secure came along, suddenly we had this vast product portfolio, it was like having a rainbow palate to choose from, and so many new avenues have opened up for us.
Our domestic markets in Scandinavia are quite tiny, but we engage with a lot of export markets too. At the moment, it’s a nice feeling to be putting our attention to helping Iraq build and maintain a reliable electrical system.