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PAVEL KUKULA
Role: executive director Area: organic technology, catalyst production Employer: RANIDO, former: Solvias, Süd-Chemie, Clariant Mentoring language: czech, english Mentees: students, employees Form: Online, Personal meet up
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Pavel is a graduate of UCT Prague, where he worked in the field of catalysis within organic technology. After completing his PhD studies, he took up a PostDoc position at ETH Zurich, starting a career abroad for several years. From Switzerland, in addition to his scientific work at ETH, he has experience in the private sector, at Solvias. A key experience for him was the six years he spent at Süd-Chemie in Germany, where he worked his way up to the position of Head of Sales and Business-Development for Customer Catalysts. "It was a very important experience, firstly I travelled extensively for about three years and secondly I had the opportunity to go through the catalyst manufacturing process from the beginning, from various feasibility studies, technology validation, through the gradual scale-up to commercial production."
"I have gained a lot of experience abroad, I have often had to navigate difficult situations on my own. For example, it was not easy to find a job in Switzerland, I must have written 200 applications, and in Germany I was registered at the employment office for some time." After fifteen years abroad, Pavel decided to return to the Czech Republic and try his hand at business. During his time in Switzerland, he co-founded the company RANIDO. The impetus for this was finding a way to regenerate the Raney-nickel catalytic converter. However, despite successful testing, the idea could not be commercialized, so the business was abandoned. A few years later, however, the existing company became a good springboard for Paul to start a new business. He now works as Managing Director of RANIDO, a company that develops and manufactures custom catalysts.
"I think that nowadays, when we are really overwhelmed with information, it is very important to look for which ones make sense, if they are the right ones. Simply - to look for the truth. Even in the commercial sphere, where a company may look very attractive on the outside, but you have to check how it really works from an economic point of view. That can be quite complex and it's something that I'm learning myself at the moment." Pavel's motivation for getting involved in mentoring is mainly a desire to meet interesting people, to find out what it is like among students today, how they think, what they are interested in and what their ideas about life are.