OUR PEOPLE | Mikael Nordstrom

The Ogle Factor – you either have it or you don’t. And one person who has it in spades is Mikael Nordstrom, who works in the Rapid Prototyping (RP) department.

Mika, as he is known, first worked at Ogle as a part-time cleaner after moving to the UK from Finland. Ten years later, Mikael has become part of Ogle’s furniture with his continued hard work.

Humble beginnings

Back to the beginning, it was General Manager Dave Orman who spotted something special in this young Finn and wanted to give him the opportunity to fulfil his potential.

Mika, who was studying construction engineering before moving to England, takes up the story.

“It wasn’t really a choice when I started cleaning here. I was with an agency and it was just another job. But I’ve chosen to stay here because of the team, and to build on my passion for the CAD (Computer Aided Design) aspect of model making. I will never grow tired of helping customer’s projects come to life!

“I’ve worked my way up from part-time agency floor sweeper to a project manager. I spent a long time in the workshop with the model makers as well as time in each department to gain a greater understanding of the business at large, and now look where I am.

“Whoever said working hard doesn’t pay off, eh?”

Mika continues to repay Ogle’s faith in him every day.

“I spend my days quoting for work and managing ongoing projects. I’ve also received additional training to be able to jump into an SLA technician role when the workshop needs an extra pair of hands.

“You need to have a strong attention to detail and be very accurate in what you do. People can always get quicker at each individual task but if you don’t have the hand skills required, you won’t get very far.”

Speaking about Mikael’s journey at Ogle, Dave said:

“When Mikael first joined the team, I spoke to him a lot and could see he had so much potential and more to offer. I wanted to give him a chance.

“He was a diligent and motivated young guy and we managed to find the right opportunity in the RP team. He’s had training on all the machines, and as someone who started their career as a pattern maker at Vauxhalls many, many decades ago, I’m delighted to say he’s everything I hoped and dreamed he’d become at Ogle.

“Great guy to work with and an exceptional talent.”

 And what gets Mika out of bed in the morning?

“My mornings are fuelled by a strong cup of tea, one sugar and a splash of milk. For that extra motivation, I’ll throw in some of my homemade banana waffles.”

If you’d like to discuss how rapid prototyping could benefit your projects in 2019, call our team today on 01462 682 661 or email [email protected].