JULY/AUGUST 2020 60 SECONDS
60
seconds
with...
MARTIN FREDERIKSEN
Managing Director, Recab UK
QAs a child, what did you want
to be when you grew up?
AI have always been a bit enterprising.
I started breeding Boxer dogs and, at
another time, I had seven aquariums in
the basement, breeding cichlids! But it’s
diffi cult to make a living out of this, and I
believe we spent more money on electricity
than I earned from selling the fi sh. So, in
the end, I settled for the more sensible
engineering route.
QHow did you get into the industry?
AI’ve always had a keen interest in
computers and I started off as a sales
engineer in a small family run company
called Thiim A/S in Denmark, where we
were selling mainly Taiwanese industrial
computers. I then received an off er from
INSIDE Technology, a manufacturer of
session border controllers (SBCs), network
devices that manage phone calls, which was
acquired by Kontron around 2000.
QWhat do you like most about
working in UK manufacturing?
A The UK is a much bigger place than
Denmark. I have now been living in the
UK for eight years, and it is still possible
to fi nd new and interesting companies that
I have not heard of before. At Recab UK,
which has rebranded from its previous
name, Diamond Point International, we
focus on the transportation and defence
verticals in which the UK has retained
its manufacturing. The UK is also more
dynamic and fast moving. The number
of start-ups in the robotics and artifi cial
intelligence (AI) industries is impressive,
and it seems that there is more capital to
fund new businesses.
QHow do you think manufacturing
is perceived by people outside
the industry?
AI believe a lot of Brits believe that
the industry has been outsourced to
China. This is a misconception, as there
is a lot of manufacturing still going on in
the UK. I was recently looking at the rail
market and counted at least fi ve diff erent
UK manufacturers of trains and light rail.
By contrast, in the Nordic region, there is
not one manufacturer of trains. Another
aspect that we need to appreciate is new
industries, like drones and robots. These
are really high tech companies and a lot
of the production for these new industries
will be done in the UK.
QWhat has been you biggest
accomplishment – either in
or out of work?
AI’m proud to have been among the
fi rst to bring Embedded Technology
eXtended (ETX) integrated circuit
components to the Nordic region. This
later became the computer-on-module,
COMexpress, for which Recab UK is the
go-to supplier for base port designs. We
also still supply ETX and Dimm PC by our
supplier, b-plus.
We’re also the go-to supplier for VPX
CV:
2018-present: Managing director, Recab UK
(previously Diamond Point)
2016 – 2018 Sales director, Northern Europe,
Congatec
2011-2016: Sales director, Northern Europe,
Kontron
2002-2005: Sales manager, BeNeLux, Kontron
Education: Engineering degree in Copenhagen,
Denmark in 1995
backplane designs, which are used in
avionics and rail applications. Because it
has more network switches, the backplane
design allows multiple fast-tracked lanes
of communication on the board, with
more fl exibility to route the channels. We
have the expertise to ensure that diff erent
boards like VPX and COMexpress work
together, and do so reliably.
Outside of work I’m very much a
family man and we have lived in Denmark,
Belgium, Chile and the UK. We’ve been
able to settle and enjoy living in diff erent
cultural settings.
QHow do you spend your spare time?
AI do not have a lot of spare time! I
live in Brighton, with my wife and
daughter, and there is always something
going on.
I have taken to supporting Brighton
& Hove Albion Football Club (up the
Seagulls!), and I do a lot of walking in the
South Downs.
My favourite
food:
Mussels.
I can get them
right from the sea, at the
fi shmonger in Brighton
My favourite holiday
destination: Chile.
My wife is Chilean
and we like to
visit our family
there every
other year
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Trolley: promesaartstudio/ stock.adobe.com Film poster cristianstorto / stock.adobe.com Muscles: Pixmax /stock.adobe.com Flag: daboost /stock.adobe.com Chile Landscape: Mariana Ianovska /stock.adobe.com
My favourite fi lm:
Inglourious Basterds.
Christoph Waltz’s performance
playing the SS o cer, Hans
Landa, is outstanding
My favourite
book:
Dear Irma,
Josefsen. He turned around
the Danish retail chain Irma —
which is like Waitrose
A few of my
favourite
things...
by the Danish author Alfred
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