LUDĚK MICHAL Role: Sales and Technical Representative Area: Materials, Chemical Industry Employer: BASF; formerly: SILON Mentoring language: czech, english  Mentees: students  Form: Online, Personal meet up  What can I help my mentee with? transferring experience in the industry and chemistry of compostable plastics explanation of the particle foam process time management work-life balance

Luděk knew already in primary school that he wanted to work in chemistry; therefore, he enrolled in a vocational chemical school within the state-owned company SILON. After graduating from UCT Prague with a focus on chemistry of polymers, he started working there. After two years he joined the company BASF, where he has been working for more than 25 years till today.  His first position was s sales representative for polyurethane foam sales in the Czech Republic. Gradually he was given responsibility for other sales regions and products, and is now responsible for a large part of Europe.

His main job is to find new customers and take care of existing ones, with whom he also works on developing new applications. These are mainly orders for the automotive industry. "So you could say that we are working together on the development of a new application and then working together on the production of a test prototype series."Why does Luděk want to become a mentor? "Well, I want to try something new, and I miss UCT Prague, which I graduated from."