Gert Bolten is our Implementation and Support Engineer, and as such he’s our eyes, ears, and hands in the field. You may have come across him already, but do you really know him? If not, that’s about to change.
Gert was born in Brazil from a native Brazilian father and German mother. “I’ve loved chemistry since primary school, and even got some education as a chemist, but life pushed me to be an electric engineer,” he says. “I moved to Denmark in 2008 when I got a PhD scholarship and intended to go back as soon as I finished, but I made too many friends and even got married, so I stayed.”
Dream job
In October 2019, Gert came across a job ad for an opening at HPNow. “The head hunter told me the same thing I thought: They only forgot to put my name in the requirements. From the first contact over the phone, he said, I have to ask them, but I’m sure the job is yours.”
It turned out to be a dream job, Gert says: “I never had a job related to chemistry before, and this was a dream I didn’t think possible after going so deep into electronics. But, nowadays what I like most here is the people. Sometimes I have to travel a lot, and I was aware about this from the job description, but I really like to be here with these very interesting people.”
For instance, he’s recently been learning some words in Greek from some colleagues in the R&D department – a nice bonus for a language enthusiast. “I’m very interested in languages. For example, I speak Esperanto since 1999, and I’m an active member of the Esperanto community.” His other hobbies include programming, especially in assembly, and reading sci-fi, mainly Asimov.
Around the world
Gert’s job keeps him busy enough though. “In February there was a real marathon to upgrade some systems at customers’ sites with our latest 2022 improvements so they were in top shape for the agriculture growing season, so I went first to Spain, then France, Honduras, Canada and USA and did all of it with my own hands. Soon after, there were a couple new installations to do in California and Iowa for blueberry growers and pig farms, so there I went. After this there were more installations with berry growers in Scotland.”
In the last month Gert has been spending more time at the office and visiting local customers by car. “When I arrive at the office I normally have to jump on WhatsApp or Signal messenger to reply to customers from earlier time zones. The sun never sets for all our HPGen systems simultaneously.”
Making history
Asked what he’s most excited about, Gert answers that it’s the latest developments taking place in the R&D department – we’ll have more details on that when the time is ripe. “I do feel that I’m privileged to work in a company that will make a dent in history very soon, and I came before it was a complete success,” he concludes.
