Waldmann Ljusteknik AB is a lighting company with a complete range of products for Industrial and Office lighting. This company is responsible for Waldmann and Derungs Licht AG Scandinavian sales activities. In this role my responsibility was to lead a group of salesmen and run an office in Stockholm with warehouse and administration.

Starting the LUM department. Hiring the group and in parallel being the right hand for our local CEO. Helping and backing up the sales and marketing department. When vacancies as parental leave or other alteration I have been asked to step in and control in one or more functions. In those circumstances, I go in as acting head to ensure that the group is working on, even if the manager is absent. I have been translated into several different positions over the years but always driven my own projects in the meantime.I was since 2011 a member of the local management in Sweden, where I was one of a total of 4 people.

Develop and plan for its new products. OSRAM is facing a major technology shift where the semiconductor (LED) will soon replace traditional light sources. I am responsible for a small group of employees, who manages the entire product and technology work within the company. My duties consist in conjunction with the sales and marketing departments to build assortment strategies and planning for the new products to be launched.

In spring 2000, I was hired as Country Manager and founder of Lidl Sweden. We started 4 establishing offices around the country. To these offices, we hired 5 people per unit. There began what was to become the foundation for Lidl Swedish expansion.Until 2005, we managed to record quickly open 85 newly built stores and start the 2 central warehouses. Moreover, 35 stores already in the building, and some 30 building permits were pending. I was personally involved in more or less all decisions taken in the Swedish part. An exciting and very rewarding part was to build up the purchasing department. Lidl was not always received with open arms by local supplier on the Swedish market. Among other things, this meant that the previously dairy oligopoly changed. Today, we can buy a completely different range of dairy products and in addition to better prices. The range also consisted largely of an ever-changing non-food range. 2 times per week new products were launched which will be sold and gone from the store in 2-3 weeks. The goods ordered a year before they were out in the store, this was a very challenging and difficult task.Especially pleased and proud I am of the special personnel relationship that we have had during my time at the company. The newspapers of the time, you could read about one horror story after another. But the reality was quite different. I was the boss liked by most people as a fair and helping, but in normal cases also demanding leader. I have after my exit received personal calls where employees miss my leadership style.

My main task was to sell the company's products to the manufacturing lighting industry. During this period, the electronics in lighting products where introduced. But this new technology is complicated and customers conservatives. It was therefore a great challenge for me and my two employees had when we committed to be the biggest in this sector. We increased sales faster than any other Osram Country. This was appraised by management. With the result that I had to travel to other Osram subsidiary and demonstrate how to sell the new products successfully.

My first position as leader. At the Swedish company, we were 12 employees and I led a small sales force on 5-salesmen. My duties were mainly to promote sales of our products. This meant the creation of information and publications. Advertisements and media choices. Fairs, with all that means in terms of selection, design, production and implementation. I was also part of an international marketing group and was then also tasked with introducing new products in Europe.

Headquartered Ecophon (then part of Gullfiber) located just outside Helsingborg open a branch of the company in Stockholm. I accepted the challenge to participate. The task was on project basis to sell the lighting solutions the company offered. These were specially adapted to the ceiling as the parent company made. Meanwhile, the subsidiary Ecolux was founded. We were very successful and managed in a short time to establish the company as a given part of the lighting industry. Many of the business relationships that we built up are still active today.

I was responsible for product department lamps at Sweden's biggest electrical wholesaler. This was long before the internet. Product catalogs and training was the most common way to inform customers about products. This was a very challenging and fun period. I won a lot on being well-informed and able to spread my knowledge in an attractive way. This has permeated throughout my professional career.

As a newly graduated High school engineer with a completed military service I was accepted into one of the world's best "learning by doing" schools the one at ASEA. In this program, we were able to try and show my skills at the different units and functions. Both I and the company found that I was best suited to work at HQ at the product department for lamps where I finally ended.