Leak detection systems for petrol stations - ErpecNews

THE BIG INTERvIEW
‘ The Big Interview’
18
The second in our series of ‘Big Interviews’,
profiles a person who has been the driving
force behind UPP pipework provider Petro-
Technik, since it was formed in 1991. The
UPP brand, marketed by PetroTechnik and
invented by fellow Director Jan Ageheim
back in 1981, is certainly a product which
has gained international recognition for its
ground breaking work in non-corrodible
flexible pipework and containment systems.
With a list of major oil company clients as
long as your arm, including Shell, BP and
Exxon Mobil and with offices in the UK,
Australia, Brazil, France, Sweden, America,
Japan, China and soon to be India, it would
take a bigger man than me to disagree with
John that PetroTechnik are leading the market
in terms of volume and revenues achieved
across the world. The PetroTechnik Group
also incorporates international tank designer
and manufacturer Cookson & Zinn.
In the industry, John is known as being somewhat
outspoken, controversial and at times
demanding to most people he comes into
contact with, but at the same time he is one
of these people who everyone wants to talk to
and talk about when a suitable moment arises.
Like an outrageously coloured tie, the likes of
which I sometimes, where 50 percent don’t
agree with it, 50 percent love it, but everyone
notices it, John’s character and his determination
to succeed has paid huge dividends for
PetroTechnik and the people who have joined
him in his quest for worldwide polyethylene
pipe supremacy. Married to Vanessa with three
children, who have long since left home, John
John Boudry – Executive Chairman PetroTechnik Group
bases himself at PetroTechnik HQ in Ipswich
UK, which is where I went to meet him for
a chat about his career and his personal role
in PetroTechnik.
EN: How would you best describe yourself in
a professional capacity and what do you enjoy
about your work? Where do you feel your
personal qualities impact on the business in
a positive way?
JB: I am not best known for my man management
skills and I feel it is incumbent on me
to lead from the front, focused to the point
of obstinacy. I enjoy being single minded and
grasping opportunities, but my main focus has
always been in building good customer relationships.
An ability to see over the barriers, whilst
others are intent on just staring at them, is also
a side of my character which has served me well,
throughout my professional career.
EN: What is your day to day role?
JB: To interfere as little as possible with my work
colleagues jobs, but to make sure I am available
whenever I feel we may be losing focus in any
particular sector of the business.
EN: In what part of the world did you grow
up and how did your career path lead you to
PetroTechnik?
JB: The first ten years of my life were spent in
the Belgium Congo just before all the trouble
started and when it did, my Father took me and
my two brothers and sister, back to Belgium.
At school, my natural rebellious instincts were
not best suited to the strict Jesuit upbringing I
was given and this undoubtedly contributed to
lATEST NEWS, EvENTS, JoBS oNlINE – WWW.PETRolPlAzA.CoM
by Nick Needs
my lack of enjoyment and success in anything
related to education.
I learned my first lesson in business, aged only
14, whilst my Father was working as a freelance
photographer in Brussels for Shell Benelux,
believe it or not. He was extremely dedicated
to his profession and every morning he would
wake me up at 4 a.m. to carry out the very boring
task of attaching photographs to the inside of
a cylindrical drying machine, a job which was
very time consuming, for little reward, but I
risked having to do it all over again if I did not
do the job properly in the first place. My Father
would inspect every photo for any kind of defect
and true to his word, if there was anything not
quite perfect, I would have to repeat the exercise
until it was. It is true to say that he never lost
a client throughout his career.
My own career started having to endure two
very uninteresting jobs with IBM and Olivetti,
prior to going to Paris in 1975, where I married
my English wife Vanessa who turned my attentions
and my professional ambitions towards
the UK, as once we were married we set up
home here. Thirty years on, three children and
several grand children later, we have lived in
the UK ever since.
Designing and installing the first double skinned
steel tank in the UK, was the first job I was
involved in which relates to what I do now and
surprisingly enough this was fitted for Buckingham
Palace of all places, by Royal approval you
might say. At the time I was working locally
for Cookson & Zinn, with whom I had two
spells, being appointed Managing Director in
1985. I stayed at Cookson & Zinn until I met
Jan Ageheim in 1991, who convinced me that