Benoit Florin

Technical director (production engineer)

My career path

When I was a student in “classes préparatoires”, I wanted to enter an engineering school with a strong international focus. I therefore chose the chemistry school of Montpellier for its renowned general chemistry courses and its dynamism in terms of international mobility. I did my final (fifth) year in the National University Singapore where I obtained a Master’s in Chemistry on a one-year programme which combined lectures in chemistry and laboratory research work in organic chemistry.

I was then hired by the French company SNF, world leader in flocculent polymers used in water treatment. I worked as a production engineer for two years in Saint-Etienne, France, before moving to a more senior position of production manager on the equivalent site in China. My job consisted in, among other things, ensuring the technological transfer to China, training of the personnel, and setting up of processes to improve the quality and industrial performance. After six years in this job, I then worked for the Rhodia group as the person responsible for the Polyamide site in Shanghai where I ensured the production operations, maintenance, quality, hygiene, safety and environment and the deployment of techniques and tools for Lean Manufacturing in the implementation of continuous amelioration and cost reduction.

My job

Today, I am Technical Director - Asia for the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen. My work covers the whole of the industrial operations in Asia where the principle activities are in Vietnam, Thailand, China and India and where production is completely outsourced. From my base in Hanoi, Vietnam, I manage all the Asian partners on the setting up and amelioration of the Good Manufacturing Practice of our products in terms of quality, productivity, delay, increased volume, control and cost reduction, safety and the environment, to respond to the needs and evolution of the market, and when faced with competition, react proactively. I manage certain investments directly, and advise and negotiate with our partners on others; I participate in all the projects of product and process innovation in the industrial phase, and lead an internal technical team composed of engineers from various cultural and professional horizons (Danish, Indian, Vietnamese …). It is therefore a very varied job where it is necessary to talk and cooperate with different interlocutors in different cultural and technical environments, which requires the development of certain qualities such as flexibility, open-mindedness and the ability to listen.

Vestergaard Frandsen is an innovative company for products called « disease control textiles » to help fight against tropical diseases such as malaria* by prevention. Other products help populations affected by drought to treat contaminated water to make it drinkable, and in my work, I take part in both these ventures. Today, my decision to work internationally in the industrial domain has therefore led me to work for a noble cause in a multicultural, professional and very dynamic environment where the outcome is highly motivating as the products are vital for millions of people in all corners of the world.

* In the world, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.