35 Years Young
I started working at Martek Instruments in the summer of 1986. My father, Oscar, the founder of Martek, asked that I take a six month sabbatical from my current job as an Insurance Underwriter to assist him in "squaring away" the Procurement Department. While I was not all that enthused about working at his manufacturing company, it was after all my Dad who was asking, so I said yes.
Those initial six months have turned into 35 years of amazing adventure and deep satisfaction. I never realized how challenging and even awe-inspiring manufacturing analytical tools could get until I was thoroughly immersed in it. Couple this with working with professional, dedicated people; employees, vendors, customers, even competitors, and it's been, and still remains, an incredible journey.
Today, the old challenges still remain: Obtaining quality material and maintaining our high QC standards both during the assembly process as well as testing, installation and maintenance.
We are also faced with new challenges. A whole generation of customers, vendors, even Martek employees, have retired and we're now faced with a new generation that communicates via the Internet rather than traditional face-to-face meetings. In addition, there is a lot of personnel movement within industries as younger workers are more apt to move from job-to-job rather than remain at a singular position for many years.
Regardless of these newer challenges, some things never change. The requirement for accurate, reliable instrumentation and the service to maintain it remains and will continue to do so as long as ultrapure water is required.
The first 35 years at Martek have gone by far too quickly for me. However, I hope the next 35 years are as challenging and as satisfying as the first half have been.
I want to take this moment to thank all of the Martek employees, vendors, and customers, both past and present, who have made my time at Martek such a joy and continue to do so. And yes, thanks Dad, now 87 years old and long-retired, who requested my "temporary" help back in 1986.
Happy New Year indeed.
Discussion
David, glad to see that you are still in business and hopefully doing well. I was happy to work for you for a year back in your early days. Keep up the good work.