Tell me about your best project ever at Citec?
Wow, tough question! There has been a huge amount, and very different, types of projects during my 18 years at Citec. In my opinion, all projects feel great when they are finished according to customer expectations, scope of work and when the end result results in high customer satisfaction.
Not only the large projects are memorable – also small and technically demanding projects are very rewarding to work with. Even one day of consultancy work can be exciting, too, as well as being many years in the same large industrial engineering project. However, if I would pick two projects it would be the waste to energy project for Westenergy and secondly Linde’s ethylene cracker plant in Tobolsk, Siberia – Citec’s largest project to date.
Why are these the best projects you have been involved in?
In the case of the Westenergy plant, it contained many new aspects. I had the role as Construction Manager for the first time and we also had site supervision and engineering in Citec’s scope. For me it was very interesting to sit on the other side of the table, i.e. to act as the customer representative and work with the contractors. That job helped me a lot to handle tough requirements and see challenges from customer point of view when it comes to interaction with contractors, engineering partners, authorities and other stakeholders. I am very happy that our business cooperation continues after more than 10 years, and I am still involved from time to time on consultancy basis.
The second project case to highlight is the Tobolsk ethylene cracker plant project for Linde. I really had to push myself (and others!) through my engineering project management skills and methodology. Especially nice was the setup where we combined Citec’s skilled engineering teams across the world and worked very systematically and close to our customer. A huge project, where great team work was really in the DNA throughout the project. We solved challenges together.
What is your role today at Citec and why do you like to work here?
Today I am Senior Director of Projects. My days vary a lot! I divide my time usually 50-50 between customer projects and internal development work. I am driving project management tools and systems forward internally, and work as an advisor in sales projects and as well as in quality related matters.
The best thing with Citec is clearly the open atmosphere, our truly wide engineering and technical documentation competence in the company. I am driven by continuous improvement and value the opportunity to work with consultancy for different customers, sales, operative projects, as well as development of internal tools.
What do you personally try to do in customer projects? Do you have some own “signature” dimension that you like to bring forward in challenging projects?
I think that taking responsibility in practice is close to my identity. Trust from our customers by being committed to deliver what we have agreed is important for me, but also to quickly being able to adopt if and when things change. Representing Citec as a whole is something I like to remind my colleagues about.
How do think about sustainability in your project work?
For sure, material and method choices have strong links to energy efficiency and sustainability. This will play an even stronger and more visible part in the future, and of course we at Citec aim to do our part. In the case of Westenergy it was very clear. Sustainable aspects and choices are even easier to conduct in pure development projects when we start from zero.
